6 workers still in hospital post Jurong Shipyard mishap

Majority of the 89 injured have been discharged.

According to a release by the MoM, Acting Minister for Manpower Mr Tan Chuan-Jin said the majority of the 89 workers who were sent to hospital for treatment after Monday's Jurong Shipyard accident have been discharged. Six remain warded with minor injuries, and they are expected to be discharged soon.

He went down to the accident site on Tuesday, where he was given an update on the situation by MOM's Occupational Safety & Health Inspectorate and Jurong Shipyard officials.

Speaking to reporters on-site after the visit, Mr Tan said, "The next step is to investigate the cause of the incident and to see what lessons we can learn from that, whether there were effective procedures in place, why the mechanism did not work the way it was supposed to. What are some of the issues – and importantly from a procedures standpoint, were the procedures in place? What were the procedures in place? Was it followed? Was it effective? Those are lessons that we will have to find out in the course of our investigations."

Mr Tan also received full assurance from the company that all injured workers are well looked after, and that their medical bills will be taken care of.

MOM's Occupational Safety & Health Inspectorate commenced investigations on Monday, and officers were at the shipyard to interview workers involved in the accident as well as eye-witnesses.

On Monday, MOM instructed all work to stop at the affected rig. Minister Tan also stated that the stop-work order would remain until the Ministry is assured that the site is safe for workers to go back to work.

Mr Tan said, "It remains for now, and I think it will take some time. The company is still assessing what should be the next steps in terms of rectifying the situation, so we’ll work closely with the company. For now, the stop-work order remains until we’re assured we can lift it."