South Africa, Durban: An employer has an obligation to ensure that the work environment is safe, but the employees have the responsibility to ensure that they take precautionary measures and that the workplace environment is compliant.
The Department of Employment and Labour’s Chief Director, Statutory and Advocacy Services, Advocate Fikiswa Bede, said if you go to Section Eight of the Occupational Health and Safety it talks about general duties of the employer to their employees.
Advocate was speaking today (09 November 2023), the last day of the OHS Conference, which took place at the Coastlands Hotel, Musgrave, in Durban.
The three-day conference started on Tuesday (07 November 2023) this week under the theme: “Collaboration and Strategic Approach to Enhance Decent Work in an evolving World of Work”.
“Section Eight of the OHS, which speaks to the general duties of employers to their employees, states that every employer shall provide and maintain, as far as is reasonably practicable, a working environment that is safe and without risk to the health of his or her employees,” said Advocate Bede.
The conference’s rationale was to achieve sustained, continuous improvements in OHS, as a long-term approach through collaboration and strategic partnerships is needed.
The conference’s objectives were to share good practices and experiences amongst stakeholders to implement preventative measures and explore areas for OHS technical cooperation (across boundaries) among the different stakeholders, including the informal economy.
The conference was attended by the Employment and Labour Deputy Minister, Boitumelo Moloi, International Labour Organization, representatives of the African Union, development agencies, and representatives of labour (including the General Secretary of COSATU).
Other attendees were the senior officials and inspectors of the Department, representatives of business, guests from the informal economy sector, experts, academics and practitioners in OHS.
The Department’s Inspector General, Aggy Moiloa, in the conference’s closing remarks, told the attendees and stakeholders: “Workers should be their own gate- keepers and first line of defence. You are not going to find a situation where there will be an inspector in every workplace, but there is a worker in every workplace. So, you need to take care of yourself. Prepare and prevent or repair and repent.