Over the years the Department of Labour (DoL) has picked up a disturbing trend of a growing disregard for occupational health and safety (OHS) in the public service. Workers in the public services should also enjoy the basic core rights enshrined in the labour laws that DoL administers including the OHS Act. The OHS Act also binds the state, a seminar was told on Friday, 26 September 2014.
DoL Deputy Director-General of Inspection and Enforcement Services (IES), Thobile Lamati told a Hazardous Biological Agents (HBA) seminar held at the Forever Resort in Bela Bela, Limpopo that, “I say this with heavy heart because I work in the public service. 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.
“Every time, there is a school, an army barrack or an office closed by the inspectors, service delivery is affected. As a department we are often accused of focusing only in the private sector when we enforce the laws. Our responsibility is to protect every work including workers in the public service. Given the poor level of compliance with the Hazard Biological Agents Regulations, in the next coming few months, I will be issuing out an instruction to the public service in terms of Section 7 of the OHS Act – instructing the medical facilities to develop an occupational health and safety policy,” Lamati said.
The theme of the department’s seminar was: “Improving OHS in the Health Sector”. 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 22 percent 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.
We believe that a health facility is a safe work place,” he said in Limpopo Province 24 health facilities were visited and none complied.
“That is a serious cause for concern. The North West is the only Province that is trying its best as there is a 50 percent compliance from employers. We also cannot celebrate with this picture. 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 percent 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.
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.
Lamati said the inspection of public health facilities has uncovered prominent areas of non-compliance ranging from: no risk assessment being conducted, employees not inducted and trained on sources of exposure, health effects and control of HBA; evaluation of hazards to exposure and control measures not carried out; medical surveillance not conducted and carried out in accordance to HBA regulations; to non-provision of personal protective equipment to employees.
He concluded that the compliance status of the public sector was poor, “to say this - is an understatement. Employers are not discharging their responsibility. 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,” Lamati said.
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.
Enquiries:
Johannes Mokou, Limpopo Provincial Spokesman
Cell: 082 908 1833
Email: johannes.mokou@labour.gov.za
