Improving the Health and Well-Being of Office Workers
12 May 2005
The National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) shares the concern that a significant number of office workers in Singapore suffer from pain caused by work-related musculoskeletal disorders as indicated in the latest local survey by the Singapore General Hospital to measure the incidence of neck and back pain in adults. NTUC welcomes SPRING Singapore’s plans to introduce the Singapore Code of Ergonomics.
2 The latest study by the Singapore General Hospital reinforces NTUC Quality Worklife Department’s earlier findings that workplace health problems are prevalent amongst officer workers and this continues to be a serious concern for the labour movement. If these work-related health problems are not kept in check, workers’ productivity and quality of work will be adversely affected. This will in turn have an impact on our country’s economic output.
3 Jointly with the Ministry of Manpower and Tan Tock Seng Hospital, NTUC’s Quality Worklife Department launched the Office Health Programme to help workers manage these office health-related problems in January 2001. The programme comprised of an ergonomics intervention project, an Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) project, and a basic health screening for the workers. The ergonomics intervention programme involved professional assessments of workstations on-site at the workplace and ergonomics awareness talks.
4 NTUC and the Ministry of Manpower also produced a set of ergonomics guidelines to provide guidance on good occupational health practices in offices. The Guidelines on Office Ergonomics was officially launched by NTUC President John De Payva in March 2002.
5 We urge all management of office workplaces to pay more attention to the health and well-being of workers at the workplace and adopt the guidelines on office ergonomics.
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Yeo Guat Kwang
Director (Quality Worklife Department)
NTUC
