2 November 2006
The Department of Labour's Director-General, Vanguard Mkosana, has called on
social partners to help reduce the high rate of accidents and diseases in the
workplace.
He was speaking at the end of the two-day conference on Occupational Health
and Safety (OHS) held in Boksburg this week.
The conference, attended by about 500 delegates from business, organised
labour, civil society and government, was held under the theme "Working
Together Towards Improving Occupational Health and Safety in High-risk Areas of
Economy."
Workplace accidents and injuries are a huge cost to the economy. It is high
time that OHS inspectors are accorded their respect and recognition. More work
should be done in terms of training and capacitating them so that they can be
in a better position to give diligent advice to their superiors.
Mkosana urged social partners to report workplace incidents and develop a
comprehensive and reliable database. He said employers who were failing to
safeguard their employees were doing so at their own peril, as this would
directly or indirectly impact on their budgets.
"The existence of our partnership should be vindicated at the workplace," he
said.
Speaking at the same conference, outgoing Compensation Fund acting
commissioner, Phineas Mothiba, said that over 1,2 million claims were lodged
with the fund between the years 2000 and 2005.
Of these, 164 614 were compensation awards in respect to temporary total
disablement, 27 210 in respect of permanent disablement, while 3 665 pension
awards were related to permanent disablement and fatal claims.
"The claims expenditure for the financial years 2004/05 and 2005/06 amounted
to R3,8 billion," he said.
Enquiries:
Mokgadi Pela
Cell: 082 808 2168
Issued by: Department of Labour
2 November 2006
