A 26-year-old cleaner died in 2020 after a fall through a false ceiling at Tampines Mall.
CapitaLand Retail Management (CRM), which ran the mall, pleaded guilty to two charges of workplace safety regulations breaches.
Their lawyer, however, argued that the worker had been out of bounds during the accident.
The court slapped CRM with a S$24,000 fine over the breach of the safety regulations on Tuesday (22 Aug).
Channel NewsAsia (CNA) reported that CRM, who ran Tampines Mall, hired a team of workers from Cleaning Express to perform an annual cleaning of the 5th floor’s louvres.
The cleaning took place in a room on that floor with a catwalk and a concrete walkway. The deceased, a 26-year-old Indian national, was sweeping the concrete walkway with a broom and dustpan when tragedy struck.
At around 1.10 am on 25 Jan 2020, the deceased cleaner fell from the walkway, crashed loudly through a false ceiling, and landed on the third floor.
He died of his injuries in the hospital the same morning.
Investigations after the worker’s death found that the concrete walkway’s guardrail had an opening through which someone could fall through. Additionally, the lighting in the room was insufficient for the cleaning work.
CRM faced two charges of breaching the Workplace Safety and Health Regulations, one pertaining to lighting and another to inadequate guardrails.
The prosecutor sought a fine between S$24,000 and S$30,000 for both charges.
CRM pleaded guilty to both charges.
In their mitigation plea, CRM’s representative Mr Paul Sandosham explained that all louvres cleaning work was to be done on the catwalk, not the concrete walkway.
Hence, the worker had been out of bounds, even though he had been briefed not to enter the area.
District Judge Ronald Gwee stated that the arguments bordered on victim-blaming.
Mr Sandosham said the situation was nuanced, as CRM had done risk assessments and briefed the cleaning team.
The prosecutor rebutted by highlighting the poor lighting and low visibility in the working area.
Judge Gwee said the area was clearly unsafe due to insufficient guardrails and lighting. He added that while CRM briefed the team on not working on the walkway, they took no action to show it was out of bounds.
However, as the charges were for breaching the workplace safety and health regulations, and not the Workplace Safety and Health Act itself, the penalties were not as severe as they could be.
Thus, Judge Gwee sentenced CRM to a fine of S$24,000 for both charges.
In 2022, an engineer died after falling through a false ceiling during an inspection at CapitaSpring.
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Featured image adapted from Google Maps.
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