Contractors – have you safeguarded your construction site?

Principal contractors (i.e. main contractors)[i] doing construction works[ii] at a work place (i.e. a construction site)[iii] have to ensure that there aren’t any foreign workers without valid work passes at such work place.[iv]

At a minimum, [v] this includes all of the following measures:[vi]

Contractors have to erect and maintain a fence or wall at least 2 m tall

Contractors have to:

“erect, along the entire perimeter of the construction site, a fence, a wall or a combination thereof, of not less than 2 metres in height from the ground to the top, to prevent the access of unauthorised persons to the construction site…”[vii]

If a combination of a fence and a wall are erected along the perimeter of the construction site, there cannot be a gap between the wall and the fence.[viii]

The fence and/or wall have to be maintained in good condition and repair.[ix]

The only exceptions are:[x]

any opening required for authorised persons to enter or leave or for materials to be moved into or out of the construction site; and

any part of the perimeter of the construction site where it is not reasonably practicable for such fence, wall or combination thereof to be erected.

Identification passes

The contractor has to issue a serially numbered identification pass to every worker employed to carry out work at the construction site and to every visitor to the construction site.[xi]

The workers’ identification pass has to be of a different colour to the visitors’ identification pass.

Each workers’ identification pass has to be at least 10 cm in length and by 6 cm in breadth (about the size of a wallet), and has to be waterproof.[xii]

All workers and visitors are not Singapore citizens also have to have in their possession their entry permit or work pass throughout the duration of their employment or visitation respectively. [xiii]

Identification passes also have to be worn prominently at all times.[xiv]

Construction site security

Reasonable measures have to be taken to ensure that only persons who have been issued with identification passes are allowed entry into the construction site.

This includes the deployment of one or more security guards at each of the entrances and exits of the construction site at all times.[xv]

The register requirement

The main contractor has to maintain at all times an up to date register at the construction site, containing the following details (in English): [xvi]

For each worker:

his name;
the time and date of issue and serial number of the identification pass issued to him;
his identity card number, work pass number or entry permit number; and
his employer’s name.

For each visitor:

his name;
the time, date and purpose of his visit to the construction site;
the time and date of issue and serial number of the identification pass issued to him; and
his identity card number, pass number, permit number or work pass number.

The register also has to maintain the name and address in English of every contractor and sub-contractor carrying out work at the construction site.[xvii]

All identification passes for visits or employment have to be returned once the visit or employment has ended, and the time and date of return of these passes have be recorded in the register.[xviii]

This register has to be available for immediate inspection by an employment inspector upon request.[xix]

That’s not all folks

The above requirements are onerous and potentially expensive. But they are not all.

The law says that contractors have to take all reasonable measures to prevent any foreigner without a valid work pass from entering or remaining at the construction site.[xx] The above requirements are a bare minimum. As a result, if contractors might have to do even more to prevent illegal foreign workers from working on their construction site if need be.

The law doesn’t appear to make any distinction with regards to the size of the construction site either. The construction sites affected include “any place or premises where works are being carried out and includes any premises within the vicinity of the work place to which the [main contractor] has control of access.”[xxi]

[i] Section 6A(7), Employment of Foreign Manpower Act (Cap 91A)

[ii] Section 2, Employment of Foreign Manpower Act (Cap 91A)

[iii] Section 6A(7), Employment of Foreign Manpower Act (Cap 91A)

[iv] Section 6A(1), Employment of Foreign Manpower Act (Cap 91A)

[v] Ibid.

[vi] Section 6A(5), Employment of Foreign Manpower Act (Cap 91A), Employment of Foreign Manpower (Security Measures for Work Place) Notification

[vii] Paragraph 3(a), Employment of Foreign Manpower (Security Measures for Work Place) Notification

[viii] Paragraph 3(b), Employment of Foreign Manpower (Security Measures for Work Place) Notification

[ix] Paragraph 3(c), Employment of Foreign Manpower (Security Measures for Work Place) Notification

[x] Paragraph 3(a)(i),(ii), Employment of Foreign Manpower (Security Measures for Work Place) Notification

[xi] Paragraph 3(d), Employment of Foreign Manpower (Security Measures for Work Place) Notification

[xii] Paragraph 3(d), Employment of Foreign Manpower (Security Measures for Work Place) Notification