by Rajen Naidoo , Yogan Gounden and Thabang Molefi
In this Numsa Bulletin, we revive our health and safety column. This article signals the first of a number of articles written by the Centre for Occupational and Environmental Health/ Industrial Health Unit, based at the University of Natal . These articles will take you through the legislation and provide you with tips on how to deal with work-related injuries and diseases. If you have any issues or questions that you would like covered in future articles around health and safety, write to Numsa Bulletin, P.O. Box 260483 , Excom 2023.
About two million people are killed by their work every year (International Labour Organisation, 2002).”…………and that’s just a small part of the carnage at work. If terrorism took such a toll, just imagine what would be said and done”, says Jukka Takala, Director of ILO’s SafeWork programme (quoted in Hazards Magazine, January – March 2003).
But what are the laws that can protect you against workplace accidents, and what can you and your shopstewards’ committees do to enforce your legal rights?
In this country, several health and safety laws – some of the best in the world – protect workers’ health and safety at work. However, good legislation is only effective when it is applied or enforced. In this Bulletin we’ll look at the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA). In the next Bulletin we’ll tackle the Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act (COIDA).
The OHSA provides the broadest framework to protect workers from becoming ill or injured at work. Management is legally bound to provide a healthy and safe workplace (see box on management responsibilities), while workers are allowed to have structures which ensure management does meet these requirements (see box on OH&S representatives and committees). Management have to inform and train workers about ALL the hazards likely to occur with ANY work that they may ask workers to undertake.
As a OH&S Representative, workers have the right to many important aspects of OH&S (see box 3 on representative rights). But only by ensuring democratically elected representatives and accountable committees can workers’ rights be protected on the shopfloor. Workers have to make sure that their OH&S representatives are active and work continuously in their interests.
If you are battling against an intransigent management and are worried about health and safety, there are ways you can ask government to intervene. One way is to call in the Factory Inspectorate of the Department of Labour.
Special regulations for dangerous activities
While the OHSA is a broad Act, the state recognises that there are many activities which are more dangerous than normal work. So the Act also carries Regulations to control these activities. Some of these dangerous activities are:
working with lead or asbestos,
exposure to hazardous chemicals,
exposure to noise.
These regulations state how often an employer is expected to assess the specified exposure, how it must be controlled, how often workers must receive medical assessments, and what should be done should workers be found to have a work related problem due to that exposure.
If you work in such a workplace, make sure you have a copy of these regulations to check whether your employer is following these procedures.
However, often the ideal system envisaged by OHSA breaks down and illness or injuries occur (well over 160 million workers worldwide have some workplace related injury or disease). When this happens, the Compensation system, established by the Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act (COIDA) is intended to assist workers. More in the next Numsa Bulletin on this.
Box 1 . Duties of Employers
Box 2 . Health and Safety Representatives and Committees
Box 3 Functions of Representatives and Committees
This is what the OHSA says about the duties of employers – they have to:
provide and maintain work, plant and machinery that are safe and not likely to cause illness;
reduce potential or known hazards by other steps before trying to control hazards by only providing protective equipment;
establish what hazards to the health or safety of persons are attached to any work;
provide information, instructions, training and supervision necessary to ensure the health and safety of the employees;
not permit any employee to work unless the precautionary measures have been taken;
take necessary measures to ensure that the requirement of this Act are complied with by every employee on premises;
enforce such measures in the interest of health and safety;
ensure that work is performed under the supervision of a person trained to understand the hazards associated and precautionary measures are implemented;
ensure that all employees know the contents of and their responsibilities under OHSA.
At which companies, and how many?
Every company with more than 20 workers MUST have HEALTH AND SAFETY reps within 4 months of commencing operations. There must be one rep for every 100 employees in shops and offices, and 1 for every 50 in other workplaces
How must they be appointed?
Employers and worker representatives must consult in good faith on procedures of nomination an election of health and safety representatives. If such consultation does not occur, arbitrators can be obtained, but it cannot be declared a dispute under the LRA.
Who can become a health and safety Rep?
Only full time employees who are acquainted with the activities at workplace and the conditions associated with the work.
On whose time?
All health and safety activities conducted by such reps including their training must be done during normal working hours.
If things go wrong, can a representative be sued or taken to court?
NO! No civil liabilities are attached to their responsibilities.
What about committees?
If there are two or more reps, then the employer is obliged to set up one or more health and safety Committee/s. The employer must consult with the committee on all items related to health and safety. The employer may nominate additional members to the committee, but this cannot exceed the number of elected representatives.
Functions of the Representatives
review the effectiveness of health and safety measures;
identify potential hazards and potential major incidents at the workplace;
in collaboration with his employer, examine the causes of incidents at the workplace;
investigate complaints by any employee relating to that employee’s health or safety at work;
make representations to the employer or a health and safety committee on matters arising from the above or where such representations are unsuccessful, to an inspector;
make representations to the employer on general matters affecting the health or safety of the employees at the workplace;
inspect the workplace, equipment and activities, at intervals agreed and in consultation with the employer;
participate in consultations with inspectors at the workplace and accompany inspectors on inspections of the workplace;
receive information from inspectors and
attend meetings of the health and safety committee.
visit the site of an incident and attend any inspection in loco;
attend any investigation or formal inquiry held in terms of this Act;
inspect any document necessary for performing his functions which the employer is required to keep;
with the approval of the employer (which approval shall not be unreasonably withheld), be accompanied by a technical adviser, on any inspection; and
participate in any internal health or safety audit.
Functions of the Committee
may make recommendations to the employer or, where the recommendations fail to resolve the matter, to an inspector regarding any matter affecting the health or safety of persons at the workplace
shall discuss any incident at the workplace in which any person was injured, became ill or died, and may in writing report on the incident to an inspector;