Employment and Labour in the process to finalise the OHS Act and harsher penalties to follow the non-compliant employers – Deputy Minister Moloi

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimates that 2.3 million people die annually due to work related accidents or diseases and in an attempt to adverse the scourge in South Africa, the Department of Employment and Labour is in the process of strengthening the Occupational Health and Safety Act to protect the vulnerable workers in the country.

This includes the changing of the tide against employers who have been ducking and diving to avoid penalties should they be found guilty of non-compliance.

The Department of Employment and Labour Deputy Minister was today (17 August 2023) addressing the august sitting of the 2023 National OHS Conference under the theme: “Prevention of Injuries and Diseases in Iron and Steel Sector”, at the Emerald Resort and Casino at Vanderbijlpark, in Gauteng.

The Deputy Minister, during her keynote address, told the business stakeholders that the occupational diseases and accidents usually result in significant costs to the employers, employees and economies.

“It is estimated that the annual direct and indirect costs resulting from occupational diseases and accidents, is approximately 4 percent of the global gross domestic product. As poor occupational health and safety practices affect the economy, our country needs to ensure that decent work principles, as prescribed by the International Labour Organization, are adhered to,” said the Deputy Minister.

South Africa is a signatory to a number of ILO Conventions; including Convention 155, which centres around Occupational Health and Safety. During the International Labour Conference of 2022; Occupational Health and Safety was adopted as a Fundamental Right. The attainment of workplaces that are free of occupational health and safety hazards; is one of the critical elements of Decent Work.

“The purpose of this call – for safe and healthy environment - is further clarified in the Occupational Health and Safety Act. At this juncture, I need to point out that we are at an advanced stage of finalising the incorporation of public comments into the OHS Amendment Bill - an integral part of the process of reforming the Act.

“Once the process is completed, we will have an OHS Act that is enabled to mete out minimum requirements for a viable Health and Safety system, as well as to impose heavier penalties on recalcitrant and non-compliant workplaces,” said Deputy Minister Moloi.

The Deputy Minister said there should not be any undermining of the value of stakeholder dialogue, and she added that all hands need to be on deck if we want to move towards vision zero accidents.

“One cannot overemphasise the need to ensure that all workers deserve a safe and healthy working environment and have a right to return home from work, safe and healthy,” she said.

Ms Moloi said the iron and steel sector has been identified as one of the high-risk sectors in South Africa and this is as a result of the high number of incidents recorded by the Compensation Fund.

She said iron and steel contributed about 22 percent of injuries in the previous financial year, however, incidents have been reduced over the past few years, and the trend in the iron and steel sector has more or less remained constant.

The quest is now for every role player to embark on reducing incidents in the sector and the Department has conducted blitz inspections prior to this conference, as one of the interventions to create awareness and to improve compliance.

“As a matter of fact, my department has just concluded the investigation of a workplace, near this very venue, wherein most of those complaints were found to be true. Needless to say that the workplace was decisively dealt with. We continue to work with the Department of Home Affairs, as well as the South African Police Service, to address the issue of companies employing foreign undocumented workers. Arrests have been made in the Meyerton area.

“It is through campaigns (‘O kae molao’ and ‘Vulindlela’) of this nature that we ensure that compliance is improved. In keeping with the developments within our legal framework, we have promulgated a number of regulations such as: Ergonomic Regulations, Commercial Diving Regulations, Hazardous Chemical Substances Regulations, Asbestos Abatement Regulations and Major Hazardous Installations Regulations,” said Deputy Minister Moloi.

The Conference is going for the last day tomorrow Friday (18 August 2023) and media is invited to attend.

For more information, contact:

Teboho Thejane

Departmental Spokesperson

Cell: 082 697 0694

E-mail: Teboho.Thejane@labour.gov.za

Source: Government of South Africa