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Writer's picturePierre Venter

Hefty fines for non-compliance with South Africa’s new OHS law changes

Lawyers in South Africa have warned businesses that amendments to the country's health and safety legislation could leave some companies facing onerous fines for non-compliance. 



Law firm CDH said in a recent webinar that one of the most significant amendments due to take place to South Africa's Occupational Health and Safety Act was the introduction of administrative fines for non-compliance.


Before the update businesses in South Africa could be given a prohibition notice, which orders them to correct infringements, but there were no real consequences for not doing so, unless an incident should occur. 


However, the amended bill will introduce the power for inspectors to issue on-the-spot administrative fines for certain offences of up to 50,000 Rand ($2800). 


CDH associate Biron Masida said in the webinar that it appeared that inspectors could issue separate fines for multiple instances of non-compliance – adding significantly to the potential costs for businesses. 



“It is clear that these administrative funds for non-complying employers could pose a serious problem. So it is important under those circumstances to ensure that at all times you are complying with the provisions of the act,” he said. 


One of the major changes under the amendment is the requirement for businesses to introduce a health and safety “system”, said Fiona Leppan, director of employment law at the firm.


She said while the major amendments to the OHS Act had been made public, the government was continuing to make changes to the act before its final publication. 


It’s an extremely important development where we're moving away concept of a health and safety policy to that of the health and safety management system.


“It's not just a question of having a system and then leaving that system to play out on its own. There's a lot of hard work that has to happen in order to ensure that system is operative and that it's doing its job in ensuring safety and health at the workplace,” she said. 


Kgodisho Phashe, senior associate, said that the chief inspector of health and safety was expected to issue guidance around the definition of systems and what would be required of businesses. 


And he added that many of the changes were likely to be modelled on international standards like ISO 45001. 


“To develop and continuously update such a system, you will definitely need the support of the health and safety committees,” he said.


Phashe said that ISO 45,000 requires the management team to continuously assess the issues that affect occupational health and safety aspects of organisations and to target specific problem areas. 


This might mean adopting a risk-based thinking approach or walk-through audits.


“This is an opportunity to engage with workers and to actually find out exactly what are some of the risks,” he said. 


In a July update to its OHS Act South Africa introduced requirements for employees to submit more detailed incident reports and maintain comprehensive records of workplace injuries and illnesses. 


By doing so, the government hopes to improve transparency and monitoring of workplace safety practices and trends.



Source by Andrew Allen 19 August 2024

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