Ms Faizah Jamal asked the Acting Minister for Manpower (a) whether the Workplace Safety and Health (WSH) Council's specific guidelines to the healthcare industry can specifically include sexual harassment and sexual abuse; and (b) whether there are plans for the WSH Council's guidelines to apply to all industries beyond only the healthcare industry which it now currently covers and when this extension will take place.

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The Senior Parliamentary Secretary to the Acting Minister for Manpower (Mr Hawazi Daipi) (for the Minister for Manpower): Sir, developing a progressive and pervasive Workplace Safety and Health (WSH) Culture in the workforce is critical to our efforts to improve WSH standards in Singapore. WSH Council's CultureSAFE programme is designed to help businesses in this endeavour. The programme measures and benchmarks an organisation's WSH culture. It also identifies gaps and develops programmes to help the organisation better manage all work-related risks, including psychosocial risks. As the programme has just been launched, WSH Council will be gathering feedback and, when appropriate, review and improve the programme.

Ms Faizah suggested specifically addressing sexual harassment and sexual abuse in the WSH Council's Guidelines for the healthcare industry. These guidelines already touch on violence and workplace harassment. They were added following industry feedback that workers in healthcare were more susceptible to psychosocial risks. These guidelines can also apply to risks associated with sexual harassment.

As for incorporating psychosocial risk recommendations into additional WSH guidelines, the Ministry of Manpower will work with the WSH Council to consult relevant stakeholders. It is important that such guidelines are meaningful to the associated industries.

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1.30 pm

Mr Speaker: Order. End of Question Time.

[Pursuant to Standing Order No. 22(3) Written Answers to Question Nos 19, 25-26, 28-31, 33-34, 41, 43-44, 46, 50, 52-54 and 56 on the Order Paper are reproduced in the Appendix (Pg 1295-1308). Question Nos 20-24, 27, 32, 35-40, 42, 45, 47-49, 51 and 55 have been postponed to the sitting of Parliament on 15 November 2012.]

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