A construction worker collapsed and died in April last year,
only two days after he arrived here from China to work.
Mr Tian Wei, of Liaoning in north-eastern China where the average
temperature is between 6° and 11°C, succumbed to heatstroke after
working in the sun for five hours in a yard in Kranji Loop.
Mr Tian's employer, Cheang Heong Lan, the sole proprietor of Chin
Kong Trading Construction, was yesterday fined $20,000 for her
failure as an employer to ensure workplace safety and health
measures that contributed to Mr Tian's death on April 25 last year.
The average temperature that day was 32.9°C.
The Ministry of Manpower said in a statement that Cheang is the
first employer to be fined under the Workplace Safety and Health
Act for such an offence. She could have been fined up to $200,000
or jailed up to two years or both.
Mr Tian had not undergone any acclimatisation before commencing
work, the court heard. Ms Cheang's company did not have an
acclimatisation programme, which would require, among other
measures, new workers to be acclimatised over at least one week by
gradually increasing the workload and time spent in the hot
environment.
Mr Ho Siong Hin, MOM's commissioner for workplace safety and
health, said the employer "should have been aware and more mindful
of the effects of heat exhaustion on workers, especially a worker
who had come from a much colder climate than ours".