Shortcomings on the part of all parties involved in the well-being of foreign workers under their charge led to emotions boiling over in a dormitory in Jalan Tukang last month, in an incident that drew riot police to the scene.

There were weaknesses on the part of employer Sembcorp Marine, dormitory operator Westlite and the Ministry of Manpower (MOM), Senior Minister of State for Manpower Koh Poh Koon told Parliament yesterday.

Calm has since been restored to the dorm and its 3,000 residents.

MOM's Assurance, Care and Engagement (Ace) Group, which looks after migrant worker dorms here, has also tightened coordination and communication with dorm operators and employers when handling mass testing exercises and surges in Covid-19 cases.

Dr Koh said the authorities have conducted a thorough review and tightened up testing and isolation processes in dorms.

Meanwhile, investigations into failures to fulfil regulatory obligations, for example, in the safety and hygiene of food, are ongoing.

The Singapore Food Agency said last month it is investigating Catering Solutions over the meals it had provided to Sembcorp Marine workers living in the dorm.

On Oct 13, some of these workers had confronted dorm management about delays in the transfer of Covid-19 cases and poor food hygiene. The police were called in but there was no violence, The Straits Times previously reported.

Providing an account of what led to the unrest, Dr Koh said dorm operator Westlite was still adjusting to new isolation protocols that were put in place on Oct 2.

Under the new protocols, vaccinated workers who test positive for Covid-19 and are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms can recover in dedicated blocks or rooms set aside within their dorms if available, or at three centralised facilities.

Unvaccinated workers need to be taken to external facilities.

Three days before the incident, 174 positive cases were detected in the Westlite Jalan Tukang dorm, Dr Koh said. Westlite had difficulty processing this sudden surge of workers who needed to be taken to external isolation facilities.

At the time, the majority of the 1,400 Sembcorp Marine workers living in the dorm were unvaccinated or were considered unvaccinated as their vaccination statuses had not yet been verified.

Most had arrived from China in the last three to four months.

The next day, key staff in the dorm tested positive for the coronavirus and did not come in to work, so Ace officers had to step in.

On Oct 12, Sembcorp Marine and Ace carried out a mass testing exercise and picked up 278 more cases.

"While the Ace officers tried to assist the operator between Oct 11 and 12, it too did not put in sufficient resources during this time to triage, process and convey the Covid-19-positive workers before the second surge," said Dr Koh.

After the confrontation in the dorm on Oct 13, Ace doubled the number of officers deployed and by that evening, 70 per cent of the workers who needed to be taken to external facilities had completed the process. The backlog was cleared a day later.

Dr Koh thanked the Chinese business community, the Chinese Embassy and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) for the support given following the Oct 13 incident.

In response to questions from Leader of the Opposition Pritam Singh and Mr Desmond Choo (Tampines GRC) on the timeliness of the aid given to the Jalan Tukang workers, Dr Koh said external parties such as the Chinese Embassy and NGOs could step in only after the unrest and the backlog of Covid-19 cases were resolved.

"It would not (have been) appropriate to allow NGOs to be exposed to the risk of infection... And because the work then was about medical care... it is not necessarily something that the NGOs have the capability to provide," he added.

Dr Koh also said MOM takes food safety and hygiene seriously and Sembcorp Marine has reported that it has made improvements to the food and "feedback from workers has been positive".

MOM will not hesitate to take action against employers who fail to ensure workers' access to safe food, Dr Koh added.