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SINGAPORE: The Association of Singapore Marine Industries (ASMI) has urged shipyards to take a voluntary time-out to review their safety procedures.
The call comes in the wake of two fatal accidents within less than two weeks - one on June 8 and the other on June 17 - which left three dead and sent 19 to hospital.
Singapore has 89 shipyards, which range from the big boys to the smaller players.
With a boom in the marine industry, there has been a staffing crunch in recent years.
Given a mounting workload, safety measures may not be followed as closely as they should be.
This is the concern of the newly-established Workplace Safety and Health Council.
It plans to share more safety information at an upcoming forum for all shipyards, but will zoom in on small to medium-sized shipyards.
Lee Tzu Yang, chairman of Workplace Safety and Health Council, said: "We believe they are the ones most under pressure in this current business environment. They are the ones who have most difficulty in retaining skilled workers, in filling their safety officer positions."
There is one concern, though. Given that many of the workers are foreign nationals, safety messages may be lost in translation.
Mr Lee said: "I think that's a challenge, not only in shipyards but also in construction, in any industry which uses foreign nationals who work in Singapore. I think that simply increases the challenge - it is not an excuse."
Acting Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong said he is saddened by the loss of three lives in the accidents this month.
He urged the industry to learn from the incidents and take immediate steps to prevent them from happening again.
Mr Gan added that his ministry will step up enforcement on all shipyards to ensure that regulations are implemented on the ground to protect workers' lives.
Channel NewsAsia understands that this means that all shipyards will be checked, instead of random inspections.
In the immediate term, shipyards - both small and big - are starting to heed the call for downtime.
This, ASMI says, will allow them to do two things. One, have the management of shipyards ensure that processes and systems are in place, and two, ensure that the workers are fully aware of the need to follow safety procedures.
But how soon these will be carried out will be left to the shipyards. - CNA/ir
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