"The government has so far resisted calls to order a general halt to all outdoor work activities even though smoke from forest fires in Indonesia has pushed Singapore’s air quality into “very unhealthy” and “hazardous” levels for long stretches this week. Officials said they may issue so-called “stop work” orders if conditions worsen, but stressed that any measures would be gradual and targeted, and would complement existing guidelines requiring employers to look after their staff. On Friday, as smog conditions intensified to a new record, some citizens took to the Internet to criticize their leaders for perceived inaction. Many posted photographs of construction sites across the island nation that purportedly show many laborers still working outdoors—some without masks—despite the hazardous air quality. “Why are construction workers still on site? This is ridiculous,” Choo Zheng Xi, a lawyer and social activist, wrote on his Facebook FB +2.64% page. “I’m working from home in air-conditioning, and I have ash in my nostrils … can we please stop putting profits before people for once.” Others noted that Singapore’s military has already reduced, and in some cases halted, outdoor training and questioned why the Ministry of Manpower, or MOM, wasn’t doing the same for the city’s hundreds of thousands of manual laborers, many of whom are foreigners who work in jobs such as construction."
Posted on: Sat, 22 Jun 2013 02:21:48 +0000
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