Search the Community

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnuWr300kcc

http://www.tremeritus.com/2014/03/08/mp-png-discrimination-against-hiring-of-sg-crane-operators/ MP Png: Discrimination against hiring of SG crane operators March 8th, 2014 | Author: Editorial Hougang MP Png Eng Huat Last year, the National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan made a call to recruit more local crane operators in the construction sector. It was reported that only half of the 3,600 crane operators here are Singaporeans. Mr Khaw then said that as a crane operator, one can earn good salary of between $4,000 to $7,000 a month with overtime pay and allowance. Yesterday (7 Mar) in Parliament, WP MP for Hougang, Mr Png Eng Huat, told the House a very different story with regard to the employment situation for Singaporean crane operators. Mr Png revealed that a Singaporean tower crane operator came to see him recently at his MPS. The crane operator said that many companies in the construction sector are still hiring “more foreign crane operators not less”. “These foreign workers are cheaper and can work longer hours. As a result, salaries came down and many of his operator friends are unable to secure full time work. Some of his friends work only 2 times a week. He handed me a letter with the names of 46 tower crane operators pleading for help,” Mr Png said. “Last night, I met a fellow diner at the hawker centre near my house and I found out he is also a crane operator. He added that foreign construction companies tend to hire their own people to operate cranes. He also felt that the number of foreign crane operators has not come down despite the move to train more local crane operators.” Singaporeans being discriminated by foreign companies or foreign hiring managers is not new. According to a survey conducted by recruitment firm eFinancialCareers in October last year, large number of companies in the finance industry are actually discriminating against Singaporean hires. According to the survey, a majority or 52% of the respondents said their companies had favoured foreigners for some job openings (‘Survey confirms rampant job discrimination against SGs‘). In fact, the situation was so bad that 2 Cabinet Ministers had to have a “friendly talk” with senior members of the financial industry on this matter. Acting Manpower Minister Tan Chuan-Jin told Parliament in March last year that he and Finance Minister Tharman had met senior members of the financial industry to urge them to develop a local talent pipeline. Mr Tan said, without going into specifics, that there had been complaints of foreign managers preferring to hire their own countrymen and his ministry was investigating the matter. And from Mr Png’s accounts, it looks like such discriminatory practices have spread to crane operators as well. Mr Png also revealed that the reason for the increase in hiring of foreign crane operators is due to the government’s relaxation of foreign quota. He said, “The reliance on foreign crane operators will never come down despite the call to train and hire more Singaporeans. This is because BCA has launched a temporary initiative to relax the recruitment of foreign crane operators at the same time when it launched an initiative to attract more Singaporeans to join the trade.” Under the relaxed ruling, Mr Png revealed that for every 1 new local crane operator hired and trained, a company can now recruit up to 4 new foreign crane operators. “This will probably explain why people are seeing more foreign crane operators and not less,” he said. Mr Png added, “Putting the 2 initiatives side by side, the percentage of Singaporean crane operators in the construction sector will come down significantly over time. So the call to reduce reliance on foreign crane operators will not happen any time soon.” “I would like to ask the Minister when we can see an improvement in this sector,” he asked Minister Khaw. Mr Png also mentioned that LTA and HDB often require tower crane operators to have at least 5 years of experience to improve safety. “So, the idea of hiring and training new local crane operators is not going to make sense for companies bidding for major public projects,” he said. “Some have called for the 5-year experience requirement to be reviewed and replaced with the number of hours an operator clocked at work as a better gauge of safety regulation. This idea is worth exploring because an experience pilot is known for the number of flying hours he clocked and not by how long he had his licence,” Mr Png proposed. Mr Png urged the government to look into the matter so that more local tower crane operators can qualify to work on major projects sooner rather than later. He also urged Minister Khaw to look into helping local crane operators find their footing in the industry and if necessary, set in place rules to protect them so that they can have job security. “It does not make sense for the Government to encourage more locals to become crane operators but there are few jobs for them at the end of the day,” Mr Png concluded in his Parliamentary speech.

He was driving behind a lorry crane when he noticed that its boom (the lifting arm of a crane) was extended. Then he heard a loud bang. The boom had smashed into an overhead bridge, dislodging two large pieces. But Mr Tonny Neo, 37, did not see them. Before he could react, one piece plunged towards his car and pierced the windscreen on the front passenger side. The 3m-long metal rod brushed against the left side of his body and - to his horror - continued towards his wife and baby in the rear. Miraculously, the rod went between mother and son and stopped a mere 2cm from the six-month-old baby in a car seat. The baby's left knee was bruised while Mr Neo suffered fractures to his ribs and has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. The family's close shave happened around 10.30am on Oct 29, 2011, after the exit at Paya Lebar Road on the Pan Island Expressway (PIE) in the direction of Tuas. Mr Neo, who is self-employed, was driving back to his office at Bukit Batok. While driving along the PIE, he saw the lorry crane with the extended boom in front of his silver Toyota Allion. "Suddenly, I heard a loud bang. My instinct told me something might fall. I tried to avoid it but it happened too fast," Mr Neo said. A part of the boom that had been dislodged landed beside his car, while the other piece came hurtling towards him and smashed into the windscreen. "I thought I was going to die. I never expected it to hit me. I thought I could avoid it, but it came right into my car." Source: http://ride.asiaone.com/news/general/story/crane-hit-bridge-pierced-car-boom

In yet another worksite accident, a 600-tonne crane slid off a trailer on Wednesday afternoon at Kallang, where the new National Stadium is being built. The Straits Times understands that the mishap took place at about 5pm, after the crane had been dismantled and was being transported on a trailer. Some of the sub-contractors at the site witnessed the event and sent back photos to their employer, who posted them on citizen journalism website Stomp. The employer, who only wanted to be known as Ray, said that the crane was one of three which had been installing a roof structure at the site. The 42-year-old believes that the crane could have slid off because its swing table was not locked, allowing the crane body to swing off balance when it was being moved. A spokesman for the Manpower Ministry (MOM) said that the ministry has been "informed of the incident" and is "looking into it". The Straits Times understands that no one was injured. Source: http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking-news/singapore/story/crane-slides-trailer-while-being-transported-out-stadium-worksite-2014

[extract] For those of you familiar with the song from the 80's with that very same title, well, apart from being the aural accompaniment on the following video, makes for a pretty apt one as well. If you

WTF man... http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/S...ory_554315.html A BUS commuter died and three other passengers were injured when a lorry carrying a crane hit a double-decker bus along Bedok North Road on Friday afternoon. The collision happened at about 3.30 pm. The three injured commuters were taken to hospital while the body of the dead person was still in the upper deck of the bus Service No. 87, which had left from the Bedok Bus Interchange. It is not known how the accident happened. The truck was travelling on the extreme left lane while the bus was in the middle lane. Only the right lane was passable to cars, causing a traffic snarl. Residents in the area said they heard a loud crash, followed by shattering of glass. The left-side windows on the second deck of the bus and several seats were smashed. Both the bus and lorry drivers were unhurt.

Was driving under the Changi Flyover this evening, and a trailer, carrying a crane boom, was too high and hit the Flyover as it passed underneath it. The crane boom was dragged off the trailer bed as a result, and debris, chains were flung onto the ECP. A pickup was hit by the falling debris. I could not avoid the debris and ruptured my front left tyre. My 16" rim was also scratched, and the car steering was mis-aligned. I stopped by the shoulder, put up the warning lights and changed the tyre. Spoke to the driver, and he was already prepared to go to jail. The EMAS team arrived later to put up road cones, and remove the debris. Going to make a claim with the transport company.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2 Workers Killed In Miami Crane Collapse MIAMI, March 25, 2008 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (AP) A 20-foot-long chunk of construction crane plummeted 30 floors at the site of a high-rise condominium Tuesday, killing two workers and smashing into a home that the contractor used for storage, police said. Five other workers were injured, one critically, at the site of the 40-plus-story luxury condo tower on Biscayne Bay. The part that fell was a section workers had been raising to extend the equipment's reach, Miami fire spokesman Ignatius Carroll said. The crane's main vertical section was intact. The section smashed through the Spanish-tiled roof of the two-story home, which police spokesman Delrish Moss said had been used in the 1998 comedy film "There's Something About Mary." Emergency workers and dogs found no evidence of trapped victims, but fire officials said rescue efforts were hampered because the crane section remained unstable. Rescue workers were trying to secure a severely damaged wall before re-entering the house to check for anyone inside. David Martinez, 31, a pipe fitter, was on the fourth floor of the condo tower eating lunch when the crash occurred. "It was like a small earthquake," he said. "We looked outside, and we couldn't even see." It took several minutes for the dust to clear, Martinez said. One of those killed died in the house, and the other died at a hospital, Moss said. Mary Costello, a senior vice president for Bovis Lend Lease Holdings Inc., which was managing the construction, said the accident occurred when a subcontractor tried to raise the crane section and it came loose. The company is cooperating with investigators, she said. "Our hearts are heavy at this moment for the two deceased individuals, including one of our own employees and the additional injured workers," she said in a statement. The subcontractor, Morrow Equipment Co., and the tower developer, Royal Palms Communities, did not return phone messages seeking comment. The U.S. Office of Safety and Health Administration had two investigators at the site. Darlene Fossum, an area director for the agency, said Bovis Lend Lease had partnered with OSHA in the past and was considered a company that went "above and beyond" in terms of safety and health. Fossum added that OSHA issued five violations against Morrow in a December 1999 incident in Florida, but those mostly involved problems with digging and not cranes. The Salem, Ore.-based company has faced 15 inspections nationwide. The state of Florida does not license or regulate tower cranes or crane operators, but bills moving through both houses of the Legislature would change that. In 2006, a fatal crane accident in Miami-Dade County prompted local officials to work with industry leaders on an ordinance that would beef up inspections and safety measures for lifting cranes. The law is to go into effect Friday. Tuesday's accident came 10 days after a 20-story crane toppled at a New York construction site, killing seven people. The crane demolished a four-story town house and damaged several other buildings. New York City officials said Tuesday they have told contractors they can't raise or lower large cranes at construction sites unless a buildings inspector is there.

I heard from Class 95 that a Lorry with mounted crane dragged down the whole damn ERP gantry yesterday! Anyone has a full report on that?