Humans Aren't Cargo

The following letter was published in the Straits Times on 30 May 2002. Are lives of those in lorries worth less? By ALISON COUSLAND. 30 May 2002 Straits Times I READ Singapore Contractors Association executive director Simon Lee's letter, 'No compromise on workers' safety' (ST, May 25), and would like to ask how this sits with the recent enforcement of the seat-belt law. On Sunday, I saw a family travelling in the back of an open lorry. Are their lives less important than those of families travelling in a car, where seat belts must be worn? Is there a different value put on the lives of the people travelling in private cars and people travelling in open trucks? This is certainly how it appears to me, in the light of the seat-belt law. I wonder if the Land Transport Authority could clarify the legal position with regard to people in cars and people in open lorries. (c) 2002 Singapore Press Holdings Limited

The following letter was published in the Straits Times on 25 May 2002. No compromise on workers' safety 25 May 2002 Straits Times [by] SIMON LEE, Executive Director. Singapore Contractors Association Ltd I REFER to the letters, 'Stop transporting workers like animals' by Mr John Barker (ST, May 16); 'Back of pick-up safer than back seat' by Mr Ooi Jian Yuan (ST, May 16) and 'Spare thought for foreign workers' by Mr Seah Yam Meng (ST, May 18). In the three letters, references were made to transporting workers in pick-up trucks, transportingworkers like animals and feeling sorry for the way theseworkers are being treated. The Singapore Contractors Association (Scal) reiterates that these workers have always been treated fairly. There is always a harmonious working environment, based on racial equality and meritocracy, within the construction industry. On the subject of transportation, workers and employers accept the practicality of such mode of transp