Technician seen working at height without safety harness

Facebook users have expressed concern after seeing photos of a technician servicing an air-conditioning compressor on the highest floor of a Housing Board block without using a safety harness.

The photos, posted on Facebook group Singapore Home DIY on Tuesday, show the worker sitting atop an external air compressor resting on its brackets on the 11th or 12th storey of the block.

Comments on the post called it an unsettling sight, with one user saying "his life would be gone forever" if things were to go awry.

Several users said air-con servicing contractors they engaged also had workers doing their job without a safety harness.

The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) declined to comment when contacted by The Straits Times yesterday, but provided statistics on workplace injuries and deaths caused by falls from height.

Falling from height was one of the top two causes of workplace fatalities - the top cause was vehicular incidents - and among the top three causes of major workplace injuries in the first half of last year, according to MOM's Workplace Safety and Health Report for January to June 2021.

There were 35 reported falls from height in that period, a rise from 32 in the second half of 2020.

On Sunday, a 28-year-old Bangladeshi worker was taken to hospital after he fell from the fourth storey of Chinatown Point and landed on the second storey while doing waterproofing works.

Mr Han Wenqi, a registered workplace safety and health officer, said employers are responsible for putting in place measures for their workers' safety if they are working at a height.

He said a risk assessment must be done before starting maintenance work on air-con compressor units on suspended brackets in older blocks without an air-con ledge. The bracket's load-bearing capacity - to hold both the technician and the compressor unit - must also be considered, and a fall prevention plan must be made known to all workers on site.

He said that in places without anchorage points, deploying a temporary anchor device like a door jamb anchor is an alternative.

A door jamb anchor is placed against the door or window frame and adjusts to the vertical sides to provide a temporary but secure anchor point.

A self-retracting lifeline would allow the worker to move around and stop falls.

Dr Goh Yang Miang of The Institution of Engineers, Singapore, said more needs to be done about safety by air-con maintenance contractors. "This is a perennial problem to which there are solutions like (using a) temporary door or window opening anchor, but not all contractors adopt them due to lack of awareness and cost considerations," he said.

"Home and building owners can help to improve the situation by selecting contractors that have suitable fall protection solutions."