A workplace safety trainer was sentenced to 10 months in prison for forging course certificates and safety passes for construction workers.
Ramanathan Thamilselvan, a trainer at Work Safe Consultants, had sold building construction supervisor safety certificates and safety passes to the workers without conducting training and assessment.
The fraudulent practices happened between January and March 2017.
A similar violation involving two directors of safety training providers was decided in August.
Sellachamy Somasundaran of Maha Safety Training Centre and Md Abu Zahin Mostafizur of Pioneer Skill Training Centre were found to have forged course certificates and safety passes to workers between August and December 2015.
Section 53 of the Act provides that offenders may be fined up to $5,000 or jailed up to six months, or both.
The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) said it takes a very serious view of breaches to the Workplace Safety and Health Act because it “directly affects workers' lives, safety and health”.
MOM has cancelled all the fraudulent certificates issued by the three training providers, and has revoked all three providers’ training accreditation.
The workers who bought the certificates are barred from carrying out supervisory roles. Upon the expiration of their work passes, they will not be able to renew and they will be banned from working in Singapore.
MOM conducts regular audits on training providers to ensure full compliance and competency of the training providers.
It encourages anyone aware of malpractice by a training provider to report immediately to MOM.
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