Upbeat music, enthusiastic crowds queuing at game booths, panels with colourful posters and a boisterous atmosphere of laughter and fun – not an uncommon sight at a foreign workers outreach event.
Working Together
There are about 475,000 non-domestic foreign workers in Singapore. 70% of them stay in purpose-built dormitories. Since August 2006, MOM’s Foreign Manpower Management Department (FMMD) and the Workplace Safety and Health Advisory Committee (WSHAC) have been jointly promoting the foreign workers outreach programme. The threefold aim of this programme is to promote cooperation and harmony between foreign workers of different nationalities, educate foreign workers on workplace safety and health, and increase their awareness of employment issues.
Foreign Workers Roadshows
Most of the outreach efforts come in the form of roadshows at the foreign workers’ dormitories. Complete with game booths, a comedy skit, stage games, attractive prizes and the most recent addition, a talent competition, these road shows provide MOM with an opportunity to get our safety and wellbeing messages across to the workers in a fun and educational manner.
Besides individual games in which workers are subtly reminded of the importance of racial harmony, there is also a team competition where workers have to form teams made up of different nationalities. Each team needs to display teamwork, good communication and cooperation as they play various games.
The skit is the main platform of each roadshow. Various community engagement, foreign employment as well as workplace safety and health messages are cleverly brought across in a collection of light hearted re-enactments of possible scenarios foreign workers might face in the course of their work here and the skit encourages workers to respect each others’ culture and religion.
Key Messages for Foreign Workers
Other than providing great entertainment, these roadshows also convey key messages related to community engagement, illegal employment as well as workplace safety and health. In particular, the CEP message for workers to “Respect Each Other. Work and Live in Harmony” was well-received.“We conduct a survey at the end of each roadshow, and the results so far have been very encouraging,” shared Mr Albert Foo, an FMMD officer who has been actively involved in the outreach programme. “The survey indicates that through our roadshows, workers get to enjoy themselves, and at the same time, understand the importance of living harmoniously with their fellow workers from different nationalities.”
And judging from the workers interviewed, it is evident that the efforts put in have been well worth it. Mr Rajan, who has worked in Singapore for two years, had this to say of the road show at his dormitory, “I had fun seeing people working everywhere come together and getting to know each other better. I now know how important it is to respect the culture and religion of other workers, and to get along with my fellow workers.”
Moving Forward
Besides holding roadshows in dormitories, FMMD and WSHAC have also worked with external organisations like NTUC and the Thai Embassy to bring the foreign workers outreach activities to venues such as the Jurong Bird Park and the Kallang Riverside Park.
FMMD and WSHAC are also keen to work with companies and factories to extend the outreach to more workers, including Malaysians and local workers who usually do not stay in dormitories.
Fun and interactive activities are definitely a great way to send community engagement, and workplace safety and health messages, to the workers. Judging from the increasing number of foreign workers coming to Singapore, the upcoming months promise to be even busier, with more roadshows and activities to further engage the foreign worker community.
Foreign Workers Outreach Activities
2006
14 Outreach Activities
46,467 Foreign Workers Reached
2007
22 Outreach Activities Planned
78,800 Foreign Workers Targeted
Adapted from "Safety Where You Live" article published in SHINE, September 2007.
SHINE is a quarterly newsletter published by the Workplace Safety and Health Advisory Committee (WSHAC).
The WSHAC was formed in September 2005 to raise workplace safety and health standards in Singapore. The WSHAC comprises of leaders from the major industry sectors, including oil and gas, construction, manufacturing, academia and associations to drive industry participation and ownership. It has four sector specific sub-committees in the areas of construction, metalworking, shipbuilding & ship-repairing and healthcare as well as two functional sub-committees on competency, education and training as well as engagement and publicity.
To subscribe to SHINE newsletter or for more information about the WSHAC, please log onto www.wsh.sg
