INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENTS, 1975-77

Mr Hwang Soo Jin asked the Minister for Labour if he will state (a) the number of industrial accidents in 1977 resulting in (i) death; (ii) total permanent disablement; (iii) partial permanent disablement; and (iv) temporary disablement; (b) the total number of man-hours lost; and (c) the total amount of compensation paid under the Workmen's Compensation Act; and if he will give the comparative figures for 1976 and 1975.

Mr Ong Pang Boon: In 1977 there were a total of 4,575 industrial accidents consisting of 53 fatal cases claiming a total of 57 lives, 135 permanent disablement cases and 4,387 temporary disablement cases. A breakdown of the industrial accidents and the number of man days lost due to these accidents for 1975, 1976 and 1977 are given in the table below. Tempo- Perma-rary nent Total disable- disable- No. of Annual ment ment Fatal acci- Man-days change Year cases cases cases dents lost (%) 1975 3,678 86 63 (67) 3,827 478,752 - 1976 4,053 141 58 (62) 4,252 457,152 -4.5 1977 4,387 135 53 (57) 4,575 434,628 -4.9 Figures in bracket denote fatalities, i.e. number of deaths. The Honourable Member will notice that there is a consistent fall in fatal and permanent disablement cases in the last 2 years.

As for the amount of compensation paid under the Workmen's Compensation Act in respect of all work accidents, industrials or otherwise, a total sum of $13,883,289,07 was paid as compensation in 1977. The corresponding figures of actual payments for 1976 and 1975 were $11,290,743.47 and $4,874,247.23 respectively. It should be pointed out that these figures are payments of workmen's compensation actually made. They do not reflect all the cases for that year. The increases in 1976 and 1977 were the result largely of the upward revision of the quantum of compensation paid. The Honourable Member will recall that on 1 Oct 75 the new Workmen's Compensation Act came into operation which raised the maximum quantum from $21,600 to $35,000 for fatal cases and from $28,800 to $45,000 for total permanent incapacity cases. Separate statistics are not available on the amount of workmen's compensation paid out for industrial accidents. In future, such statistics will be available.