EUROBUILDER CONSTRUCTION FIRM: WORKER SAFETY & WELFARE IS OUR TOP PRIORITY

Dear ASS Editorial Team,

Yes, we would greatly appreciate if you could post our side of the story. But rather than just publish the story of this disgruntled ex-employee, it would "take" some tarnish of our company reputation if you could let the public knows that our company really values Safety as First Priority and we really don't treat our foreign workers as animals. As a matter of fact, we treat them quite well. You may have to interview our workers to attest that.

With regards to Safety, it is really unfortunate that 2 of our workers were photographed to be not wearing safety harness last week, which was very dangerous indeed. Our management is determined to never let this kind of safety lapse ever happen again. For a start, below will be the additional measures and precautions that we will introduce with immediate effect:

- More safety officer will be employed to conduct daily check and daily safety meeting instead of twice weekly previously for all our sites;
- Will introduce Stricter Rules to punish those who didn't follow Safety Rules and reward those that obediently follow Safety Rules;
- Management will conduct weekly Site Safety check instead of fortnightly;
- All employees will be issued personal Safety Harness instead of sharing previously;
- More experience workers will send to Supervisor Safety Course to double as Site Safety Assistant when officer is not around, these performing workers will be rewarded with salary increment;
- Arrangement will be make for all other workers to attend relevant courses;
- Safe Work Procedures will be enhanced to integrate Management Inspection;
- More Site CCTV will be introduced to enhance Safety;
- Working at Height Permit will be issued stringently after thorough checking by Foreman, Safety Officer, and Project Manager;
- Simpler Checklist will be Introduce to workers, so those with poorer command of English will also understand;
- Introduction of Reward System for worker that assist to Identify Hazards;

What I can assure is that we will continue to strive to achieve better overall safety standard.

With regards to why we allowed few workers (not more than a handful) to stay on site even though we have our own ancillary dormitory below our office, there are 2 primary reasons. First is site security and thief prevention. Years ago before we allowed workers to stay on sites, our sites were being broken into as regular as once every fortnightly. There was also an incident whereby all new wirings and aircon copper pipings were dismantled and stolen in the middle of the night in one of our site. Simply unbelievable. It was so rampant that we were at our "wit end" and the police couldn't do much but advised us to installed CCTV and have some workers to guard our tools and equipment. We even had an incident after our workers stayed in, that a burglar was caught at our job site while stealing our steel scaffolding by our workers and handed over to the police.

Second, the permanent core workers prefer to stay at job site. The reasons that they told us was that even after changing to cleaner clothing, other MRT and bus commuters don't really like them. It is even more worse, if they happened to forget to bring clean clothing to change. They will encounter commuters who would cover their nose to signal that the workers were smelly, others give them a disgusting look and some even chilled them not to take public transport. Moreover, the workers prefer the time spent on transportation to better rest. Additionally, to reward the workers who volunteer to stay at site, our company give them additional monthly meal allowance and "staying at site" allowance.

Even though your team may have pictures that show quite a lot of wooden plywood being nailed to create platforms, it is only fair that we allowed the workers to do that as they need a place to rest during lunch and tea breaks.

Other additional benefits and assistances that our company provided the workers include:

- regular assessment and increment (there is no one worker that has worked more than 6 months and haven't received any increment);
- free training and upgrading courses;
- annual home leave for obedient workers including all paid two ways tickets;
- free Kentucky or buffet meals during festival such as Deepavali and Hari Raya;
- free Internet Wifi for dormitory and site workers;
- emergency loan without interest (case by case basis);
- yearly Ang Pow for all workers;
- yearly lucky draws with many prizes;

But all these benefits and assistance will not end here. As long as the company can perform better every year, we will introduce more and more benefits. We would greatly appreciate if your team could assist to highlight some of the above.....so at the very least we won't be labelled as the "Black Sheep". Thank you.

Warmest regards,
Anthony Ang
Director
Euro Builder and Electrical Pte Ltd