SINGAPORE - Two companies were fined on Friday over safety lapses that led to a security officer’s fatal fall at 1-Altitude rooftop bar on June 9, 2019.

Property developer OUB Centre (OUBC) was fined $260,000 after it was convicted of an offence under the Workplace Safety and Health Act.

Meanwhile, restaurant and bar operator Synergyinthesky was fined $160,000 over an offence under the same Act.

The case involving a third firm – housekeeping, conservancy and cleaning contractor A&P Maintenance Services – is pending.

Synergyinthesky had employed Mr Shaun Tung Mun Hon, 26, as a part-time security officer. He was deployed to work at 1-Altitude.

He died of a head injury after he fell into a pit that was nearly 4m deep at the bar, which was then located at One Raffles Place, a 63-storey building.

On Friday, District Judge Marvin Bay said OUBC was the occupier of the building and that it had admitted liability in failing to ensure that every opening, into which a person could fall more than 2m, was covered or guarded by items such as effective guard rails.

The judge added that OUBC had also admitted it failed to ensure that the floor opening at a gondola pit area was covered or guarded.

He said: “(OUBC) had, despite knowledge of the floor opening, only provided yellow retractable barricades to cordon off access to parts of the rooftop which were then installed by the workers carrying out facade cleaning.

“These yellow retractable barricades were not deemed by MOM (Ministry of Manpower) to be effective guard barriers... as (they) were easily displaced and (were) also placed far away from the actual floor opening itself.”

In mitigation, OUBC’s legal team from Drew & Napier submitted that it had over-relied on its cleaning contractor’s expertise to manage the risks posed by the uncovered gondola pit.

OUBC has since taken voluntary measures to safeguard the premises and make workplace safety a key priority.

Meanwhile, MOM prosecutor Mohd Riasudeen said Synergyinthesky, which owned and operated 1-Altitude, was a tenant of OUBC at One Raffles Place. He told the court that Synergyinthesky had failed to consider the hazards created by the floor opening and implement the relevant risk control measures.

It had also failed to establish and implement safe work procedures for its employees performing security work, to control the risks posed by the floor opening.

Three men, who had been accused of offences under the Workplace Safety and Health Act linked to the tragedy, were each given a discharge amounting to an acquittal earlier. This means they cannot be charged again with the same offences.

They are Mr Teo Eng Hua, 62, a senior operations manager at A&P Maintenance Services, and Mr Ong Han Peng and Mr Rodney Yeo Kuang Hsing, both 51. At the time of the tragedy, Mr Yeo was a director at OUB Centre while Mr Ong was the chief executive and managing director of Synergyinthesky.

The cases involving another two men are pending.

On March 28, Philip Lim Keng Liang, 42, and Suresh Kumar Shanmugam, 60, were each handed one charge under the Workplace Safety and Health Act.

Suresh was then a freelance facade cleaning worker at One Raffles Place. He is accused of failing to reinstate some floor slabs, which he and other workers had allegedly removed on the 63rd storey of the building to access a gondola pit, leaving behind the opening in the floor.

Lim was an operations manager at A&P Maintenance Services at the time. He allegedly failed to take adequate steps to address the risk of people falling into the opening of the gondola pit at the bar at One Raffles Place.

During a coroner’s inquiry in 2020, the court heard that the opening where Mr Tung fell through had been uncovered by workers tasked with cleaning the building’s facade.

He was shown the pit and briefed about it before he started his shift at the alfresco bar on the day of the fall.

Barricades and warning signs had been erected on the second floor of the nightspot, where the pit opening was located, to prevent guests from entering the area.

Then State Coroner Kamala Ponnampalam, however, noted that the barricades could be pushed aside and the area around the pit was not illuminated.

At around 1.30am on the day of the fall, Mr Tung spotted two men, who were not identified, entering the cordoned-off area. He ran towards them while shining his torch to warn them, but failed to spot the pit himself and fell into it.

Paramedics pronounced Mr Tung dead at the scene.

Then State Coroner Kamala said in August 2020 that the accident could have been avoided if safety standards had been observed.