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Seminar 2 - Voice Legislative Framework

The document summarizes key aspects of occupational health and safety legislation in South Africa, including the Construction Regulations of 2003 and 2014. It outlines the hierarchical framework of laws, with the Constitution at the top level followed by Acts of Parliament like the Occupational Health and Safety Act and Construction Regulations. It also describes the objectives and main provisions of the OHSA, including duties of employers to maintain a safe working environment and duties of employees to work safely. Performance-based legislation is trending to replace prescriptive approaches.

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Francine Naicker
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43 views

Seminar 2 - Voice Legislative Framework

The document summarizes key aspects of occupational health and safety legislation in South Africa, including the Construction Regulations of 2003 and 2014. It outlines the hierarchical framework of laws, with the Constitution at the top level followed by Acts of Parliament like the Occupational Health and Safety Act and Construction Regulations. It also describes the objectives and main provisions of the OHSA, including duties of employers to maintain a safe working environment and duties of employees to work safely. Performance-based legislation is trending to replace prescriptive approaches.

Uploaded by

Francine Naicker
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Occupational Health and

Safety Legislative Framework


Seminar 2
Elena Friedrich
South African Legislation and the
Construction Sector
• Main objective is the prevention of accidents and their consequences
like injuries, disablement and fatalities.
• 2 types of legislation
• Prescriptive legislation – describes the means and methods of complying with
the regulations to the contractor
• Performance legislation – prescribes what has to be achieved to comply with
the regulations and leaved the means and methods of complying to the
contractor
• The trend is to move from “command-and-control” approaches to a
performance –based approach
The framework has 5
hierarchical levels:

1. National Constitution
2. Acts of Parliament
such as the OH&S Act
and the COID Act,
3. Construction
Regulations (2003 and
2014)
4. Codes of practice and
5. Standards such as
those of the South
African National
Standards (SANS).
South African Constitution
• In terms of the South African Constitution and Bill of Rights, every South African citizen
has, but not limited to, the right to life (Constitution of the Republic of South Africa No.
108 of 19961, clause 11), the right to fair labour practices (Constitution of the Republic
of South Africa No. 108 of 1996, clause 23), and the right to an environment that is not
harmful to their health or well-being (Constitution of the Republic of South Africa No.
108 of 1996, clause 24).

• These rights are entrenched and enforced by means of various enabling Acts of
Parliament.
Acts - Occupational Health and Safety Act
(OHSA)
Act No. 85 of 1993 (OH&S Act) as amended and the complementary
Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act No. 130 of 1993
(COID Act)

• “to provide for the health and safety of persons at work and for the health and
safety of persons in connection with the use of plant and machinery; the
protection of persons other than persons at work against hazards to health and
safety arising out of or in connection with the activities of persons at work; to
establish an advisory council for occupational health and safety; and to provide for
matters connected therewith”
• shared responsibility for H&S and in practice a partnership between employer and
employee – the employer providing a working environment that is safe and does
not present threats to the health of the employee and employees taking
responsibility for their own H&S at work
• 21 sets of regulations were developed under this act
Regulations under the OHSA Act
• Asbestos • General Administrative
• Certificate of Competency • General Machinery
• Construction • General Safety
• Diving • Hazardous Biological Agents
• Driven Machinery • Hazardous Chemical Substances
• Electrical Installations • Lead
• Electrical Machinery • Lifts, Escalators Passenger Conveyor
• Environmental reg. for workplaces • Major Hazard Installations
• Explosives • Noise Induced Hearing Loss
• Facilities • Vessels Under Pressure
The OH&S Act (85 of 1993) Main Provisions
Please have a look at this act in Moodle just below this PPP .
The remainder of this presentation is targeted at reviewing and summarising
some of the most important content of the above act. It should be looked at
together with compulsory material from the following YouTube videos:

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhS94yjunK0 Part 1: Contents of OHS Act


2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdGSlopS46Y Part 2: Who is Management?
3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6nrnv17A4o Part 3: Safety Rep and Safety
Meetings
4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djDYObcKfKE Part 4: Duties of Employer
5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1y1Q6VXIgA Part 5: Duties of the Employees
6. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHuetbBj9Fo Part 6: Safety Culture
7. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D82Ga0Oj2Rw Part 7: Risk Assessment
Preamble
• Protection of:
• Persons at work
• Members of the
public, communities
and others who may
be affected by the
activities of those at
work
OH&S Act Contains Stipulations for:
• Health and Safety Policy
• General Duties and Functions (employers, manufacturers, employees,
CEO, chief inspector (DoEL), normal inspectors (DoEL)
• Health and safety representative and associated functions
• Required from employers with more than 20 employees at any workplace
• Health and safety committees and associated functions
• Disclosure of information
• Exemptions
The Employer (1)
• Section 8
• Provide and maintain a healthy (disease – free) and safe (accident free)
working environment
• Section 16
• CEO responsible
• May assign duties to persons under his direction and control
• Cannot delegate away accountability and responsibility
The Employer (2) – General Duties
Including:
• Systems of Work, Plant and Machinery
• Eliminate hazards or potential hazards before using PPE
• Ensure the absence of risk to health
• Establish what hazards exist (risk assessment) and precautionary measures to
be taken (hierarchy of control measures)
• Provide information, training, instruction and supervision to employees
• Stop work unless precautionary measures are in place
• Ensure the OHSA Act is being complied with
• Enforce OHS control measures
• Ensure all work is properly supervised
• Inform all employees of their scope of authority (job description)
Duties of Employees (Section 14)
• Take care of their own health and safety
• Co-operate with the employer with regards to health and safety
• Obey lawful orders, safety rules, procedures safety signs, etc.
• Report any unsafe or unhealthy situation
• Report an injury on duty immediately (no later than the end of the
shift)
Abuse / Misuse Prohibited
Section 15
• No person may interfere with, abuse or misuse anything
provided for health and safety
• Tampering with machine guards
• Using fire hoses to wash vehicles
• Hard hats used as buckets
• Obstructing emergency exits
• Unauthorized removal safety signs
Liability
• Section 37
• Employer presumed guilty unless proven that:
• Acting without employers connivance or permission
• Outside their scope of authority
• Employer took all reasonable steps to prevent incident /
accident
• Liable to be convicted and sentenced
• Negligent employers and supervisors have been charged and
sentenced
Offences, Penalties, Liability – Section 38
• Criminal charges may be filed
• Employer can be fined (up to R 100 000, max 2 years prison sentence)
• Employees can be fined (up to R 50 000, max 1 year prison sentence)
• These fines and prison terms have been regulated in 1993 (many
years ago) and never changed since
• Operation can be shut down
• Inspectors (DoL)
• Contravention notice (60 days)
• Prohibition notice (work stopped)
Functions of Inspectors (DoEL) – Section 29

• Inspectors perform:
• Health and safety inspections
• Building and construction inspection
• Lift & escalator inspections
• Boiler & Pressure Vessel inspections
• Haz. Chem. Substance inspections
• Complaint investigations
• Incident investigations as per Section 30 & 31 of the OHS Act
• Provide technical advice to all stakeholders on the application of the OHS Act.
Some Final Critical Remarks…
• Small enterprises are exempted from some provisions
• Penalties are outdated
• Many companies and employers have H&S files, procedures and
systems just for show and do not use these properly
• Some companies do not have H&S policies
• Documentation lacking
• Some do minimum just to get certificate
• It is not enough to have legislation on paper it has to be enforced for all
construction sites
• Monitoring and inspections are vital for enforcement

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