LTA says engineer caught on video hitting, shouting at foreign worker has apologised

SINGAPORE: After one of its engineers was caught on camera treating some foreign workers in an inappropriate manner, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) issued a statement on its Facebook account, saying that the man has since apologised.

On Monday (Aug 25), the LTA wrote, “We are aware of an incident involving one of our engineers and the contractor’s staff. While the engineer was addressing safety lapses at the worksite, the manner in which he did so was inappropriate. We do not condone such behaviour.”

The authority said that the man has expressed regret for his actions and apologised to the workers involved in the incident, underlining that it has taken the incident seriously. It added that it will keep on reinforcing “the need for respectful and professional behaviour when upholding safety standards”.

It also said that the engineer has received counselling and has been reminded about the standards of conduct that are expected of LTA staff.

According to news reports, the incident occurred at the worksite at the Changi East Depot at 601A Tanah Merah Coast Road, and a video of what transpired between the engineer and two foreign workers was uploaded on the Complaint Singapore and Singapore Road Vigilante Facebook pages on Sunday (Aug 24).

It shows the engineer yelling at the workers, to the point of asking one in a loud voice if it was his first day on the job. He then proceeded to ask for the man’s driver’s licence.

The video, which is a little less than a minute, then shows the engineer asking the foreign worker when and where he obtained his licence before hitting the worker on the helmet with it and then throwing it to the ground.

Thousands of people have since viewed the video, and many have called the engineer out for his behaviour towards the worker.

“If a driver makes a mistake or fails to follow traffic rules, the appropriate action is to issue a warning letter or take disciplinary action against him. Alternatively, the LTA officer can advise the driver to adhere to in-house rules.

Scolding the driver is unacceptable, as it could lead to depression, especially when scolding in front of co-workers. If local drivers made similar mistakes, could the LTA officer scold them in this manner? Why should the officer assert dominance over a migrant worker/driver?” a Facebook user wrote, adding if “the LTA officer made a similar mistake, would his higher officer be able to scold him like this????” /TISG

Read also: ‘He looked frightened and confused’ — Singaporean shocked after foreign worker ‘jumped up and offered’ his seat to her on MRT