Opening Address At The 9th National Conference On Workplace Health

Opening address: Together, we will bring down Workplace Ill-Health 
by Mr Lucas Chow, Chairman, Health Promotion Board, Co-Chair, National Tripartite Committee on Workplace Health at the 9th National Conference on Workplace Health
Mr Khaw Boon Wan, Minister for Health
Distinguished Guests

Ladies and Gentlemen

Introduction
It gives me great pleasure to be here this morning at the 9th National Conference on Workplace Health Promotion. It is wonderful to see familiar faces gathered here to discuss the health challenges of today s workforce. To the newcomers, I would like to extend a warm welcome and encourage you to participate actively in our journey to promote workplace health.

Workplace Health Promotion is Important
2 The emphasis on Workplace Health is a timely one. Singapore is currently faced with the challenge of an aging population and an increasing burden of chronic diseases. Ill health is not only a serious threat to individuals; it also adversely affects our businesses and economic viability.

3 Sixty percent of our population over 15 years old is in the workforce. The workplace provides an excellent setting for disease prevention, early detection and timely follow-up intervention. No employer wants his employees to be sick. No employee wants to fall sick. No colleague likes to be burdened whenever his co-workers report sick. And insurers hope that nobody falls sick. Ultimately, minimization of workplace ill-health will reduce cost, enhance employability of our workers and benefit all stakeholders.

Formation of National Tripartite Committee on Workplace Health
4 In December last year, Minister for Health, set up the National Tripartite Committee on Workplace Health, and tasked Mr Yeo Guat Kwang and myself to lead the Committee. We mobilised representatives from government agencies, the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC), the Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF) and private sector companies to review current efforts and suggest new recommendations to address the challenges on workplace health promotion. Ten months on, the Committee has proposed several recommendations and I am pleased to share some of these with you today.

TriCom s Recommendations
a) Aligning Workplace Health Promotion with Business Excellence and Workplace Safety and Health Movements
5 A healthy workforce and a vibrant health culture in the workplace cannot be achieved through simply having our employees attend a talk or workshop. As senior leaders, we must champion this vision. Our managers can take the lead to create a conducive physical and social environment to empower employees to take greater ownership of their health. Workplace health cannot happen as a silo initiative. We have to integrate it into our company s business strategy, safety, and productivity cultures.

6 My Committee has suggested some areas where integration can happen at the national level and operationalised at the corporate level. One of them is SPRING Singapore s business excellence framework, which helps organisations enhance their management capabilities and competitiveness. While employee health is already featured within the People Management part of the framework, we are taking it a step further by linking People Management to the Results part of the framework. This will help drive the effectiveness and success of health and wellness initiatives implemented by companies.

7 As responsible employers, the safety and health of our workers and members of the public is imperative. In Singapore, we have statutory medical examinations and immunization requirements for selected occupational groups. When our workers visit their doctors for these statutory examinations, there is an excellent platform to promote essential health screening for their benefit. My Committee is currently working with the Ministry of Manpower (MOM), Land Transport Authority (LTA) and National Environment Agency (NEA) to reach out to about half a million industrial workers, vocational licence holders and food handlers to promote essential health screening.

8 Some of you may have heard about our Japanese neighbour s rather innovative approach to workplace health. Under Japan s Industrial Safety and Health Law, employers are required to provide regular workers with periodic medical assessments. This includes height, weight, blood pressure, blood lipid and sugar measurements. Since April last year, Japan has also made it mandatory for companies to have workers aged between 40 to 74 years old take their waist measurements at health checkups.

9 We will study the Japanese experience. But I think there are many issues to be addressed before health promotion at the workplace can be legislated. In the meantime, HPB will partner MOM to develop a Code of Practice on Workplace Health Promotion to provide practical guidance to employers on the implementation of health screening and programmes at the workplace. These guidelines will also help companies to better manage health issues pertaining to older workers at the workplace. This will be especially useful when the Tripartite Implementation Workgroup for the Re-employment of Older Workers rolls out its guidelines by March 2010.

b) Increasing Uptake of Workplace Health Programmes among SMEs
10 Traditionally, our SME counterparts face more challenges in starting and sustaining WHP programmes, as compared to larger companies. Common obstacles include limited resources and the lack of critical mass to organise health programmes efficiently and effectively. To address these challenges, HPB is working towards developing a health eco-system at geographical clusters of SMEs to make health screening and health programmes more accessible. In September 2008, HPB pioneered the WHP@SMEs Doorsteps Programme, collaborating with commercial and industrial building owners and trade associations, to bring health programmes to the doorsteps of their SME tenants. Ascendas was among the first building owners to participate in this initiative and since then, we have secured the support of CapitaLand Commercial, JTC Corporation and Mapletree Investments.

11 You may have read in the media last month about one of the Committee s initiatives, the Health Screening on Wheels programme. The programme sees a bus, retrofitted to do mass health screening effectively, deployed to industrial properties housing many small corporate tenants. Employees thus have the opportunity to undergo essential health screening at their doorsteps.

12 To support SMEs with funding to run their health programmes, the WHP Grant subsidy has been enhanced in April this year. SMEs can now enjoy up to 90% funding of the cost incurred for their WHP project, capped at $10,000. Funding guidelines have also been made more flexible, to include both on site and off-site health programmes.

c) Increasing Uptake of Workplace Health Programmes among Specific Industries
13 Each industry sector probably faces different set of challenges. We plan to have regular dialogues with employers, unions and trade associations to help us develop more tailored programmes to better address the health needs of different industry sectors. For a start, we will take a tailored approach for industries which have a lower uptake of Workplace Health Promotion programmes. These include the Hospitality, Wholesale and Retail, Finance, Transport and Logistic, and one that is close to my heart, the IT and Communication sectors.

d) Promoting WHP via Unionized Agreements
15 Employee unions also play a significant catalytic role in workplace health promotion. The National Transport Workers Union (NTWU) is a sterling example of a union which has taken steps to make a difference! Apart from organising health screenings for their members, the Union has made provisions for all 34 canteens located at bus interchanges islandwide to serve healthier food. Vendors at food kiosks were taught how to make simple modifications to the dishes served, such as the removal of skin on meat. Bus drivers can also now enjoy a selection of reduced sugar drinks carrying the Healthier Choice Symbol at these food kiosks.

16 It is evident that our unions are committed to take on a larger role in promoting workplace health to their members. My Committee has thus recommended adding Workplace Health Promotion clauses in unions Collective Agreements or Memorandums of Understanding with employers. These clauses would advise on the provision of essential health screening services and health programmes for our workers. I strongly urge both union leaders and employers present here today to review and where possible, incorporate such clauses in your Collective Agreements.

Promoting Individual Ownership for Health
17 While I have touched mainly on the role of employers, the vision of a vibrant workplace health culture cannot be realized unless individuals truly appreciate the value of health and assume ownership of their own wellbeing.

18 At MediaCorp, my health committee organises regular health screening for our staff. I am certain some of you will be able to relate when I say we face an uphill task convincing our employees to go for the screening. I know of employees who are reluctant to undergo health screening for fear of knowing the results. Others worry over the possibility of management having access to these results. We know that screening results are kept strictly confidential, so employees need not worry about their medical conditions being revealed to their employers. We also know that diseases such as diabetes and high blood pressure detected early during health screening are treatable, and managing them well reduces the risk of developing more serious medical problems such as heart attacks, stroke and kidney failure.

19 In this regard, we will step up educational efforts to address some of these misconceptions and barriers to health screening. The Committee is also exploring the feasibility of introducing incentive measures to encourage employees to take greater ownership for their health.

Conclusion
20 While we continue to explore new strategies to improve workplace health, I would like to urge you to act now to help operationalise the recommendations which I have just outlined. Let us join hands to help bring down ill health in the workplaces.

21 I wish all delegates a lively discussion ahead for the rest of this Conference.

Thank you.