Nactu lashes labour inspectors for not understanding Sasol safety issues

'The National Council of Trade Unions (Nactu), which signed a safety charter with Sasol yesterday, has strongly criticised the labour inspectorate of the department of labour for being ill-equipped to fulfil its mandate. As the war of words between Sasol and trade unions over a string of workplace fatalities wound down, Nactu president Joseph Maqhekeni said: "What we have been finding in recent accidents at Sasol is indeed they [inspectors] do come but their capacity to look and come up with a finding [is limited]. We find they are very new and don't understand some of these issues." Maqhekeni was also concerned that the inspectorate was not proactive in monitoring compliance with the law. He had raised the issue directly with labour minister Membathisi Mdladlana, who confirmed turnover problems at the inspectorate and said the government was considering integrating the labour department's inspectorate and the department of minerals and energy's mines inspectorate. The mines inspectorate is widely considered to be more capable than its labour department counterpart. Nedlac is understood to be debating the issue of merging the inspectorates set up by the Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act and the Mine Health and Safety Act. Maqhekeni said lack of capacity in safety inspectorates had been discussed at last week's 93rd session of the International Labour Organisation in Geneva. "I do not think it would be harmful if government were to request technical assistance from, for example, Ireland," he said. His comments come as Sasol and its three labour unions - the SA Chemical Workers' Union, of which Maqhekeni is also president; Solidarity; and the Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood and Allied Workers' Union - signed a charter to improve safety following the deaths of 16 people in several incidents at the petrochemicals group in the past year. Sasol said yesterday that an important element of the charter was that contractors would be selected and managed according to the spirit and letter of the charter. "We believe there is no higher priority than safety at Sasol, that all safety-related incidents are preventable," said Sasol's outgoing chief executive, Pieter Cox. 'During the hearing into the causes of the September blast, Solidarity accused Sasol of failing to comply with standards set by the ILO. However, Sasol pointed out that South Africa had not ratified ILO's Prevention of Major Industrial Accidents Convention, which meant it was not bound by it'. - Solidarity. More