Requirements for Safe Management Measures

Requirements for Safe Management Measures at the workplace

(issued 9 May 2020, updated as of 14 May 2021)

 This consists of the following:

7 Basic Principles

4 Key Areas

23 Requirement Statements

 7 Basic Principles:

1. Appoint Safe Management Officer SMO(s) to assist in the implementation of Safe Management Measures (SMM)
2. Employees who can work from home (WFH) must continue to do so
3. Reduce physical interaction and ensure safe distancing
4. Support contact tracing
5. Wear masks and observe good personal hygiene
6. Keep workplaces clean
7. Implement health checks and protocols to manage potential COVID-19 cases

4 Key Areas:

A. Take care of your workers

B. Take care of your workplaces

C. Take care of those who may become unwell at your workplaces

D. Implement a system of Safe Management Measures

A. Take care of your workers

Note: From 16 May 2021 to 13 June 2021, employers must exercise heightened vigilance at the workplace.

Employers must ensure that all employees who are able to work from home do so to limit the number of employees exposed at the workplace at any point in time, and reduce crowding in common areas. Having more employees work from home will also help sustain business operations should a case emerge at the workplace.

Companies should continue to conduct virtual meetings as far as possible.

For employees at the workplace, employers must ensure the following precautions are in place:

• Stagger start times, lunch and other breaks to allow flexible workplace hours.
• Meal breaks at the workplace must be taken individually. Masks removed when eating will have to be worn immediately after the activity is completed.
• Systemic arrangements to reduce congregation of employees at common spaces
• No cross-deployment across worksites
• Employers should avoid organising work-related events unless critical (e.g. training session) with the number of persons per event capped at 50 persons. Food and drinks are not allowed at work-related events
• Social gatherings at the workplace are disallowed
• Wear masks at the workplace at all times
• Employers should ensure that they have sufficient masks for all employees, including any need to replace masks more frequently due to workplace conditions
• Employers should encourage their employees to observe good personal hygiene, e.g. wash their hands regularly and refrain from touching their face.

B. Take care of the workplace

Workplace Access:
Control access at the workplace to only essential employees and authorised visitors. Employers must use the SafeEntry visitor management system to record the entry of all personnel entering the workplace.

Employers must ensure that employees and visitors must declare that they:

• Are currently not under a Quarantine Order, Stay-Home Notice;
• Have not had close contact with a confirmed COVID-19 case in the past 14 days; and
• Do not have any fever or flu-like symptoms.

Employers should ensure that their employees adhere to MOH’s prevailing travel advisory.

Social Distancing

Where physical interaction cannot be avoided, precautions should be taken to ensure clear physical spacing of at least 1 metre through physical means and demarcation of safe physical distances using visual indicators, where possible, in the following situations:

• Between all persons at meeting rooms, work areas, and workstations; and
• At all times during work-related events held at the workplace.

Employers who are service buyers should also require their suppliers / contractors to implement similar safe distancing measures:

• Schedule delivery times by different suppliers in a staggered manner; and
• Minimise the durations of physical transactions to be kept as short as possible

Shared Resources

Minimise need for physical touchpoints

• Reduce the occurrences of, or need for common physical touchpoints in the workplace by deploying contactless access controls where possible;
• Frequent disinfection of touchpoints

Step up cleaning of workplace premises through the following:

• Regular cleaning of common spaces, particularly areas with high human contact.
• Clean and disinfect tables, shared machinery and shared equipment after each use in accordance to the sanitation and hygiene advisories disseminated by the National Environmental Agency (NEA).

Provide cleaning and disinfecting agents at the following areas:

• Cleaning agents must be available at all toilets and hand-wash stations.
• Disinfecting agents must be installed at all human traffic stoppage points within the workplace, such as entrances, reception areas, security booths and lift lobbies.
• Disinfecting agents must be provided at meeting rooms and other common spaces such as pantries or canteens.

C. Take care of workers who become unwell at the workplace

Ensure regular checks for temperature and respiratory symptoms for all onsite employees and visitors, twice daily or where relevant.

Record proximity data on phones via TraceTogether app.

Actively monitor unwell employees and guard against incipient outbreaks.

Manage unwell cases via an evacuation plan.

Track and record cases where employee feels unwell or shows symptoms of illness (COVID-19 related) as part of Safe Management Measures.

Manage confirmed cases via a follow-up plan. Upon being notified of a confirmed case, employers must adopt the following precautionary measures:

• Immediately vacate and cordon-off the immediate section of the workplace premises where the confirmed case worked;
• Carry out a thorough cleaning and disinfecting all relevant on-site areas and assets that were exposed to confirmed cases, in accordance to NEA guidelines.
• For worksites with confirmed cases, businesses could be suspended if there are public health grounds.

D. Implement a system of Safe Management Measures

Employers must establish a system to implement the above Safe Management Measures to provide a safe working environment and minimise risks of COVID-19 outbreaks. These measures must be implemented in a sustainable manner for as long as necessary:

• Implement a detailed monitoring plan to ensure compliance with Safe Management Measures and timely resolution of outstanding issues.

Appoint trained Safe Management Officer(s) (“SMO”) to assist in the implementation, coordination and monitoring of the system of Safe Management Measures at the workplace. The duties of the Officer(s) include:

• To coordinate implementation of Safe Management Measures, including identifying relevant risks, recommending and assisting in implementing measures to mitigate the risks, and communicating the measures to all personnel working in the workplace;
• To conduct inspections and checks, to ensure compliance at all times. Any non-compliance found during the inspections should be reported and documented;
• To remedy non-compliance found during the inspections and checks through immediate action; and
• To keep records of inspections, checks and correction actions, to be made available upon request by a Government Inspector.

Employers must ensure that the measures above are in place, communicated and explained to employees prior to resuming work. Signs should also be put up to remind employees and visitors to observe all measures in place.

Please note that these requirements are meant for general workplace settings. Specific workplaces like construction worksites and shipyards may have to fulfil additional requirements and should refer to sector-specific requirements.

Information source:

https://www.mom.gov.sg/covid-19/requirements-for-safe-management-measures

https://www.gobusiness.gov.sg/safemanagement/sector/

Disclaimer: This webpage is created by extracting salient points for our clients’ easy reference. Please refer to the source URL regularly for a complete and timely update. Please contact the relevant authority directly for any further information regarding the content of the article.

Related Pages:

Safe Management Measures Checklist
Requirements for Safe Management Measures at the workplace after Circuit Breaker period
Safe Management Measures for the Manufacturing Sector
Safe Management Measures for Customer-Facing Operations
Safe Management Measures for Transportation

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