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Dear Folks
I’m back in the saddle after a rough
ride the past few weeks. Another office burglary over the December holidays
is all I can boast about. And another appeal to everyone to help get my
Newsletter Distribution List back on track. Obviously if you aren’t
receiving this Newsletter you are not on the List but I can appeal to you to
forward it to all interested parties who, in turn, can contact me by
clicking here. I did backups but once again my Outlook Express backups
failed me.
Most importantly I wish you all a safe,
healthy and prosperous New Year and, from an OHS perspective, it may yet
turn out to be a very interesting year. In fact we may finally start jogging
after a few very pedestrian years. Naturally I’m not holding my breath too
long as I realise the machinery of the State grinds agonisingly slowly,
particularly as regards OHS matters. Many of you may have seen the National
Occupational Health & Safety Integration Bill which I have posted on my
homepage at
www.klasslooch.com Although it dates back to 2003, I have only recently
managed to access it electronically. (It does not appear as a Bill on the
Government Website). It potentially heralds the long awaited merger of the
OHS and MHS Acts and policing authorities by creating one National
Occupational Health & Safety Authority. Its purpose is to establish an
integrated occupational health and safety policy for South Africa, an
National Occupational Health and Safety Authority to implement and
administer an integrated national health and safety system established by
the national policy.
Its preamble reads :
WHEREAS everyone has a right to a
healthy and safe working environment;
WHEREAS the provision of occupational
health and safety in the public sector is the responsibility of a number of
different national and provincial departments and this has resulted in a
fragmented system of occupational health and safety developing;
AND WHEREAS government is committed
to developing and implementing an integrated occupational health and safety
system and considers that the most effective way of doing this is by
establishing an autonomous occupational health and safety authority;
NOW THEREFORE in order to develop an
integrated occupational health and safety system and establish an authority
to implement that system.....
Click here for the National
Occupational Health & Safety Authority Integration (NOHSI) Bill.
Once promulgated into law, this NOHSI
Act will establish an integrated health and safety policy, and, based on
that policy, an Authority which will implement and administer an integrated
national occupational health and safety system established by the national
policy. The Minister of Labour is going to be laboured with the
responsibility of getting it all going and I’m immediately tempted to temper
my enthusiasm since, after all, his department has been a dismal performer
as regards OHS matters. I was hoping that this ‘autonomous’ (?) authority
would have it’s umbilical cord severed once and for all from the lethargic
Labour Ministry and given perhaps to the more energetic Department of
Mineral & Energy (DME). Are we merely rearranging the deck chairs on the
Titanic in order to comply with an International Labour Organisation
Convention (ILO) that we signed? Or are we finally reaching the promised
merged OHS land?
Click here for the International Labour Organisation's Occupational
Health and Safety Convention 155 of 1981 which requires each member State
to, in consultation with the most representative organisations of employers
and workers, formulate, implement and periodically review a coherent
national policy on occupational safety, occupational health and the working
environment. It further requires the enforcement of laws and regulations
concerning occupational safety and health and the working environment to be
secured by an adequate and appropriate system of inspection and the
enforcement system to provide for adequate penalties for violations of the
laws and regulations.
By acceding to this Convention, we have
been compelled to abandon the failed and controversial process whereby OHS
expertise was removed from inspectors resulting in the creation of
generalised ‘Labour law’ Inspectors. The name of the OHS Inspectorate
changed accordingly to the broad based “Inspection & Enforcement Service’.
The sad irony of this entire exercise is that we have come full circle back
to where we supposed to be. In the interim, DoL has hemorrhaged all its
experienced OHS personnel and now must find new experienced OHS inspectors
to live up to its obligations in terms of an international treaty! I, and
many others told them so, but there are none so blind……….
Click here for the Executive
Summary of the National Occupational Health & safety Policy. I quote from
the Executive Summary….’Prior to 1994, the regulation of occupational
health and safety was marked by government indifference, employer neglect
and a widespread disregard for the fundamental rights of workers and their
communities. There was minimal investment in the government agencies charged
with regulating OHS. They lacked the personnel, other resources and the
skills to implement effective prevention strategies. The absence of an
integrated policy and framework has had the consequence that the very
considerable developments that have been introduced since 1994, have also
had the result of exacerbating inconsistencies in the regulation of OHS
in different sectors’.
I am saddened to read that, despite
recent reluctant admissions by DoL to the effect that it was partially
responsible for its own OHS demise, blame has been conveniently apportioned
to the previous regime. Most of us, who have been around for sometime, know
that the downward spiral of OHS policing was single-handedly done post 1994.
While it is true that broad based worker and community rights, inter
alia, have improved, it is too convenient to play the blame game as
regards OHS matters. Sad, because if one doesn’t acknowledge where the fault
lies, why one cannot adequately turn the situation around. What was the
Turnaround Strategy 2001 to 2004 all about in the first place? And why
did it take seven years to initiate the Strategy if the previous regime was
at fault? Prior to 1994, the OHS Inspectorate as it was then known, wasn’t
perfect, It functioned well, however, until the ill-advised transformation
process within DoL. I was an OHS Specialised prosecutor at that time and the
OHS Courts functioned well. In the former Transvaal at least (the only
province with specialised OHS courts), workers OHS rights, irrespective of
race, gender or creed, were better protected and employers and users
routinely prosecuted and convicted. The OHS court received preferential
treatment by the Department of Justice and its team of experienced
specialised OHS prosecutors roamed the province with a no-nonsense attitude
of Chuck Norris! (Despite an increase in specialised courts since 1994, the
OHS Specialist courts have not been expanded to other provinces and the
numbers of remaining OHS Prosecutors have been reduced).
Since the Powers-That-Be are obviously
suffering from amnesia, I would encourage you to
click here to remind yourselves of what happened then. Also to prove
that I’m not a lonely frustrated ranting blogger! I don’t think that the
previous regime, although hopelessly totalitarian, was all that
‘indifferent’ to OHS matters. At least the courts weren’t. The number of
candid OHS Commissions of Enquiry established over the years seem also to
contradict an ‘indifferent’ stance.
Click here for more.
Other news. The SASOL Formal Inquiry
into the gas leak of last September has concluded and DoL has now to prepare
its report containing its recommendations to the Directorate of Public
Prosecutions.
Click here for more.
Is some Marquee Erector out to get our
beloved President? I think this is the third attempt………News24 reports on 1
February 2006 that ‘Parly VIP marquee collapses. A massive marquee being
erected to house VIPs including President Thabo Mbeki at a lunch after
Friday's opening of parliament collapsed on Tuesday evening. No one was
injured. The marquee was set up on a lawn in front of the South African
National Gallery, alongside Mbeki's Tuynhuys office building. A security
guard on site and a spokesman for Esithebeni Caterers, the company
contracted for the lunch, said the collapse occurred in strong wind. Most of
the roof, which was supported by metal struts, fell in, though the sides,
anchored to iron pegs and large concrete blocks, remained standing.
Parliament's spokesperson Luphumzo Kebeni said the erection of the marquee
had not been complete by Tuesday evening, and a safety certificate had not
yet been issued. "The structure would not necessarily have been used as it
was then for Friday's event," he said. "They were still in the process of
completing it." Asked whether it would be ready for Friday's lunch, he said:
"I think that can be best answered by the company. It is really up to them."
A spokesperson for Esithebeni, who declined to give his name, confirmed that
the erection had not been complete and that a safety certificate had not yet
been issued. Asked whether the marquee would be ready by Friday, he said: "I
have no comment on that. We're busy discussing with parliament. I can't
[say] anything."
Click here to recall what happened previously with the erection of
marquee! Remember what the Devil’s Advocate had to say about it all?
Click here for that newsletter.
Forgive me again if you receive this
newsletter more than once. My Distribution List is a mess but I needed to
get this Newsletter out. Subscribers will soon receive their more in-depth
Newsletter. I’ll be taking Subscribers by the hand through all new OHS
legislation.
My fees will be increased in line with
inflation from 1 March 2006 but, if you book for an In-House Workshop now,
you will still enjoy the 2005 Fee Structure.
Click here for more.
Click here MS Word document.
Click here for more.
Click here for MS Word document.
As always
Your Devil’s Advocate. 
Ever wonder why Noah didn't swat those
two mosquitoes?
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