The Department of Labour says it has picked up a disturbing trend of a growing disregard for occupational health and safety (OHS) in the public service.

Department of Labour Deputy Director-General of Inspection and Enforcement Services Thobile Lamati told a Hazardous Biological Agents (HBA) seminar, “Judging from the inspection reports nationally, the health and safety of workers in the public sector is seemingly not a primary issue, it is a secondary matter. As a department we have been closing down non-complying offices, schools — and in doing so we do not derive joy. We have closed them because it is our job.”

“As a department we are often accused of focusing only in the private sector when we enforce the laws,” he said. “Our responsibility is to protect every worker, including workers in the public service.”

 

Poor Compliance in public sector

Lamati concluded that to call the compliance status of the public sector poor is an understatement.

“We need to go back to do a feed-back session with individual employers. We want to talk to heads of these institutions. The chief executives have a responsibility to ensure compliance. We will be having feedback sessions with these workplaces and thereafter follow the latter of the law.”

Over the next few months Lamati said the department will increase visibility and enforcement. He said priority will fall on particular hotspots and the training of shop stewards in health sector, including scaling up public awareness programmes.

He added that, given the poor level of compliance with the Hazard Biological Agents Regulations, he will be issuing an instruction to the public service in terms of Section 7 of the OHS Act instructing medical facilities to develop an occupational health and safety policy.

 

HBA 2014/15 inspection report

Lamati also presented a HBA inspection report for 2014/15 in which the Department of Labour visited 407 workplaces nationally. He said there was a dismal of 22% in the level of compliance. “The sad thing is that these are medical facilities. The mere fact that these are health facilities presupposes that the health and welfare of workers will be a priority.

“That is a serious cause for concern. The North West is the only Province that is trying its best as there is a 50% compliance from employers.”

“We believe every worker exposed to hazardous environment creates a problem for the state as they these workers will later be a burden to the overstretched social security and primary health care system. The question is will we ever get a 100% compliance rate? We need to double our efforts to make inroads in the public service. In terms of the OHS Act, we are also bound to use legal instruments in case there is failure to comply with the law,” he said.

 

47 improvement notices issued

According to the Chief Inspector, there were 47 improvement notices issued in the period under review, and 22 prohibition notices. He cautioned that the prohibition notices could only be revoked once issues raised by inspectors are addressed.

“People have tendency to take short cuts; instead of addressing the matters raised by inspectors, they phone the Chief Inspector. The law provides for appeal on decision of the inspectors, but proper procedures should be followed in this regard,” he said.