Occupational Health and Safety Act

Providing a Safe Working Environment

The Occupational Health and Safety Act, 1993, requires the employer to bring about and maintain, as far as reasonably practicable, a work environment that is safe and without risk to the health of the workers.

This means that: the employer must ensure that the workplace is free of hazardous substances, such as benzene, chlorine and microorganisms, articles, equipment, processes, etc. that may cause injury, damage or disease. Where this is not possible, the employer must inform workers of these dangers, how they may be prevented and how to work safely and provide other protective measures for a safe workplace.

Shared Responsibility

However, it is not expected of the employer to take sole responsibility for health and safety. The Act is based on the principle that dangers in the workplace must be addressed by communication and cooperation between the workers and the employer.

The workers and the employer must share the responsibility for health and safety in the workplace. Both parties must proactively identify dangers and develop control measures to make the workplace safe. In this way, the employer and the workers are involved in a system where health and safety representatives may inspect the workplace regularly and then report to a health and safety committee, who in turn may submit recommendations to the employer.

What must the employer do to ensure that the work environment is safe and without risk to the health of his or her workers?

The employer must provide and maintain all the equipment that is necessary to do the work and all the systems according to which work must be done, in a condition that will not affect the health and safety of workers.

Before personal protective equipment may be used, the employer must first try to remove or reduce any danger to the health and safety of his workers. Only when this is not practicable, should personal protective equipment be used.

The employer must take measures to protect his or her workers’ health and safety against hazards that may result from the production, processing, use, handling, storage or transportation of articles or substances, in other words, anything that workers may come into contact with at work.

To ensure that these duties are complied with, the employer must:

• Take steps to ensure that every person under his or her control complies with the requirements of the Act.
• Enforce the necessary control measures in the interest of health and safety.
• See to it that the work being done and the equipment used is under the general supervision of a worker who has been trained to understand the hazards associated with the work.
• Such a worker must ensure that precautionary measures are implemented and maintained.
• Identify potential hazards which may be present while work is being done, something is being produced, processed, used, stored or transported and any equipment that is being used.
• Establish the precautionary measures that are necessary to protect her workers against the identified hazards and provide the means to implement these precautionary measures.
• Provide the necessary information, instructions, training and supervision while keeping the extent of workers’ competence in mind. In other words, what they may do and may not do.
• Not permit anyone to carry on with any task unless the necessary precautionary measures have been taken.

The employer must inform health and safety representatives when an inspector notifies him or her of inspections and investigations to be conducted at the premises.

The employer must, as soon as possible, inform the health and safety representatives of the occurrence of an incident in the workplace. An incident is an event that occurs at the workplace where a person is killed, injured or becomes ill. It is also the spillage of a hazardous chemical substance, for example, when a tank leaks formaldehyde (a chemical product used in industry) due to a faulty valve or where machinery runs out of control, without killing or injuring anyone.

Duty Of The Employee/Worker

It is the duty of the worker to:

• Take care of his or her own health and safety, as well as that of other persons who may be affected by his or her actions or negligence to act. This includes playing at work. Many people have been injured and even killed owing to horseplay in the workplace and that is considered a serious contravention.
• Where the act imposes a duty or requirements on the worker to cooperate with the employer.
• Give information to an inspector from the department of labour if he or she should require it.
• Carry out any lawful instruction that the employer or authorised person prescribes with regard to health and safety.
• Comply with the rules and procedures that the employer gives him/her.
• Wear the prescribed safety clothing or use the prescribed safety equipment where it is required.
• Report unsafe or unhealthy conditions to the employer or health and safety representative as soon as possible.
• If he or she is involved in an incident that may influence his or her health or cause an injury, report that incident to the employer and authorised person or the health and safety representative as soon as possible, but no later than by the end of the shift.

The Right To Information

The worker must have access to:

• The Occupational Health and Safety Act and regulations.
• Health and safety rules and procedures of the workplace.
• Health and safety standards that the employer must keep at the workplace.
• The worker may request the employer to inform him or her about:
  • Health and safety hazards in the workplace
  • The precautionary measures which must be taken
  • The procedures that must be followed if a worker is exposed to substances hazardous to health.
  • The worker may request that his or her private medical practitioner investigate his or her medical and exposure records.

If the worker is a health and safety representative, he or she may investigate and comment in writing on exposure assessments and monitoring reports.

The right to participate in inspections: If the worker is a health and safety representative, he or she may accompany a health and safety inspector from the Department of Labour during an inspection of the workplace and answer any questions the inspector may ask.

The right to comment on legislation and make representations: The worker may comment or make representations on any regulation or safety standard published under the Occupational Health and Safety Act.

The right not to be victimised: An employer may not dismiss a worker from his service, reduce a worker’s salary or reduce a worker’s service conditions because:

• The worker supplied information, which is required of him or her in terms of the Act, to someone who is charged with the administration of the Occupational Health and Safety Act
• The worker complied with a lawful notice, (e.g. A prohibition, contravention notice, etc.)
• The worker did something which in terms of the Act should have been done
• The worker did not do something which in terms of the Act is prohibited
• The worker has given evidence before the Industrial Court or a court of law on matters regarding health and safety.

The right to appeal: The worker may appeal against the decision of an inspector. Appeals must be referred in writing to the Chief Inspector, Occupational Health and Safety, Department of Labour, Private Bag X117, Pretoria, 0001.

Health And Safety Representatives

What are health and safety representatives? - They are full-time workers nominated or elected and designated in writing by the employer after the employer and workers consulted one another and reached an agreement about who will be health and safety representatives. Furthermore, they must at least be familiar with the circumstances and conditions at that part of the workplace for which they are designated. The agreement must also be reached on the period of office and functions of the health and safety representative and must be settled between the employer and the workers.

How many health and safety representatives must be designated? A representative must be designated for every workplace consisting of 20 or more workers. Therefore, where only 19 workers are employed, it is not necessary to designate a representative.

Health and safety representatives are entitled to do the following:

Health and safety audits: Representatives may check the effectiveness of health and safety measures by means of health and safety audits.

Identify potential dangers: Representatives may identify potential dangers in the workplace and report them to the health and safety committee or the employer.

Investigate incidents: Representatives may together with the employer investigate incidents, investigate complaints from workers regarding health and safety matters and report about them in writing.

Make representations: Representatives may make representations regarding the safety of the workplace to the employer or the health and safety committee or where the representations are unsuccessful, to an inspector.

Inspections: As far as inspections are concerned, representatives may:

• Inspect the workplace after notifying the employer of the inspection
• Participate in discussions with inspectors at the workplace and accompany inspectors on inspections
• Inspect documents
• With the consent of his/her employer be accompanied by a technical advisor during an inspection.

Purpose of Health and Safety Committees

The purpose of the Health and Safety Committee is to initiate, promote, maintain and review measures of ensuring the health and safety of workers.

When must health and safety committees be established? At least one committee must be established when two or more representatives are designated.

What do health and safety committees do? The committees only deal with health and safety matters at the workplace or sections thereof for which such committees have been established. Generally, health and safety committees have the following functions:

Make recommendations: A committee must make recommendations to the employer about the health and safety of workers. Where these recommendations do not lead to solving the matter, the committee may make recommendations to an inspector.

Discuss incidents: A committee must discuss any incident that leads to the injury, illness or death of any worker and may report it in writing to the inspector.

Recordkeeping: A committee must keep a record of every recommendation to the employer and every report to an inspector.

Click on the link below to open the resource.

Handout 4E 12300 Occupational Health and Safety Act

Click here to view an explanation of the duties of the employers and the employees with regard to the Occupational Health and Safety Act.

Click here to view a video about health and safety on the farm.