Singapore – Migrant workers should be ferried to and from work more safely, says Workers’ Party MP He Ting Ru following three recent accidents involving lorries. Dozens were injured and two workers died in the accidents.
Ms He, one of the four MPs representing Sengkang GRC, highlighted in Parliament on Tuesday (May 11) that more should be done to ensure the safety of migrant workers, such as transporting them on buses or minibuses instead of lorries.
“The Road Traffic (Amendment) Bill tabled in Parliament earlier aims to improve road safety,” wrote Ms He on Facebook. “But the safety of our migrant workers was not mentioned.”
Ms He called for regulations to protect the safety of migrant workers better, noting the issue of transport safety dates back to 2009, “and little progress has been made since.”
“Cost argument reveals a fundamental problem with our addiction to cheap labour, often at the expense of productivity,” said Ms He.
“We had legislated safety measures before even if it led to increased costs,” she said, referring to the S$35 million set aside to implement seatbelts on all school buses after an eight-year-old boy died in an accident in 2008.
“Increased costs cannot be justification enough, and we need to have a proper study to have a more meaningful conversation on the actual cost impact,” she added.
Senior Minister of State for Transport Amy Khor responded to questions submitted by MPs on Monday (May 10), noting there are “very significant practical and operational issues” as well as cost considerations to carrying any passengers on the rear deck of lorries despite it not being “ideal”.
“While some members have identified countries that disallow the practice, there are also countries such as Canada, Thailand and the USA that allow workers to be ferried in the rear decks of lorries, albeit with safety precautions and some restrictions. This is an important point to note, and it shows that this practice is not uncommon,” said Ms Khor.
In response, Ms He said, “Why do we not instead compare ourselves to countries which better respect the safety of such workers by holding ourselves to the same high safety standards of those countries?”
“Why can we not learn from them how these countries address the very same concerns that we have while at the same time mandating that workers are transported in a safer manner?”
Ms He also asked if there have been studies conducted on the costs mentioned.
“Every time we bring this topic up, we hear the counter-argument saying [that] there will be increased costs. So we need to actually understand how much costs will be increased by, before we can actually have a meaningful conversation about whether or not there need to be further safety measures put in place,” said Ms He.
She suggested that buses idled or under-utilised because of the drop in tourism amid the pandemic be repurposed to transport migrant workers./TISG
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