We're Hiring!

We are looking for an individual to join us permanently to manage our clients health and safety systems and procedures, as well as to look after our accreditation on the training side.

To apply, you must have the following or at least the majority of it;

• Intro to SAMTRAC (Hazards identification, Risk Assessment, Procedures).
• Safety Management/Supervisors Certificate
• Understanding of the OSHAct. (Executive Legal Liability)
• Incident Investigation Certificate.
• Auditing
• 6 months of experience.

Ideally we're looking for a person with a SAMTRAC qualification, and Incident Investigation, and 2 years of experience.

Salary will be negotiated based on the individual's set of skills and resume.

All CV's can be mailed to dalwyn@srg.co.za

Dangers Lurk in Poor Health & Safety Communication

Communication in Occupational Health and Safety is of cardinal importance.

The structure of communication must focus on communication from management downwards to the general worker but also from the general worker upwards to management.

It has become clear to me during my encounters with the Health & Safety management systems of clients, when performing legal compliance audits, that a lot of companies still see health & safety as a window dressing, or paper, exercise.

They are so Wrong

Employers believe that the odds of getting away with window-dressing are good because:

1. Something bad will never happen to them, and
2. They believe that having a document on file is sufficient in complying with legislation and safeguarding them against liability claims in the event of an incident.

Health and Safety Communication

Health and Safety communication and training, although not the same, are two of the more important aspects of Occupational Health and Safety.

It is explicitly required of an employer in industry in terms of the Occupational Health and Safety Act 85 of 1993, section 8 (2) (e) “Without derogating from the generality of an employer’s duties under subsection (1), the matters to which those duties refer include in particular- providing such information, instructions, training and supervision as may be necessary to ensure, as far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety at work of his employees” and section 13 “Without derogating from any specific duty imposed on an employer by this Act, every employer shall-

(a) as far as is reasonably practicable, cause every employee to be made conversant with the hazards to his health and safety attached to any work which he has to perform, any article or substance which he has to produce, process, use, handle, store or transport and any plant or machinery which he is required or permitted to use, as well as with the precautionary measures which should be taken and observed with respect to those hazards;

(b) inform the health and safety representatives concerned beforehand of inspections, investigations or formal inquiries of which he has been notified by an inspector, and of any application for exemption made by him in terms of section 40; and

(c) inform a health and safety representative as soon as reasonably practicable of the occurrence of an incident in the workplace or section of the workplace for which such representative has been designated”.

The equivalent under the Mine Health & Safety Act 29 of 1996 is section 10 (1)“As far as reasonably practicable, every employer must-

(a) provide employees with any information, instruction, training or supervision that is necessary to enable them to perform their work safely and without risk to health; and

(b) ensure that every employee becomes familiar with work-related hazards and risks and the measures that must be taken to eliminate, control and minimise those hazards and risks”.

The Wikipedia definition for communication is “Communication (from Latin commūnicāre, meaning “to share” ) is the activity of conveying information through the exchange of ideas, feelings, intentions, attitudes, expectations, perceptions or commands, as by speech, gestures, writings, behaviour and possibly by other means such as electromagnetic, chemical or physical phenomena. It is the meaningful exchange of information between two or more participants (machines, organisms or their parts)”.

Communication requires a sender, a message, a medium and a recipient. The communication process is complete once the receiver understands the sender’s message.

Proving that the Communication was Understood.

It is very evident from the above-mentioned definition and brief explanation of communication that communication is only successful if the receivers understand the information conveyed to them.

To bring Health and Safety into the discussion I would like to refer to simple things such as having a Prescribed Medicine Policy as required in terms ofGeneral Safety Regulation 2A (3) as well as PPE and the requirements relating to it in terms of regulation 2 of the regulation mentioned above.

Having a policy to protect employees in the place of work due to the detrimental effect of fatigue is not sufficient if that policy is not communicated to staff.

It is also important to be able to prove that information was communicated. Here one has to distinguish between lower and higher level employees.

With higher level employees an informative session followed by the signing of an attendance register is sufficient.

With lower level employees more effort should be put in. These employees must be trained on the policy, its contents and their duties in terms thereof, followed by a test. We have eleven official languages in our country which means that a person that is informed in a language which is neither first nor second can use/abuse that against an employer. With these employees an attendance register would merely show that the individual was present, but not necessarily an understanding of the information conveyed/communicated.

Ensure that your Health and Safety policies and procedures are communicated and employees informed of them.

This article: by Gerrit Augustyn via SheqAfrica.com

SHEQ Managers are not Human Resource Practitioners

Confronting the question of the organisational position of SHEQ managers.

Are we part and parcel of human resources (HR), or separate? In my experience we are separate from HR, and are more technical and operational.

SHEQ Managers and the CEO

SHEQ Managers internationally should report to the CEO or MD. This is common practice in most of the companies I have worked.

In my last role, as HSSE Commissioning Manager for a petrochemical refinery, it would have been impossible to ‘report to HR’. So perhaps we should first look at the industrial sector.

In retail and non-technical industries, SHEQ people may report to HR, but in technical operations Sheq managers must report to the CEO or MD, on par with the other departments with their line management silos.

I would hate to report to HR personally, as they too are internal organisational service providers. HR should report to Health and Safety, or HSE or SHEQ.

In the modern behavioural approach to psycho-social issues in the UK, the HSE chaps deal with it, and a survey indicated that HR and psychologists were only supporting these psychosocial workplace issues. -Shane Lishman, in response to a report by Rudy Maritz (see his report on workplace SHEQ culture in the UAE, in another post on Sheqafrica.com).

Where do SHEQ Managers and Courses fit in?

Unisa apparently sees OHS as part of management, judging by its current change of the Safety Management degree to a BCom degree with safety modules.

In the earlier post, Rudy Maritz wrote that most SHEQ managers worldwide agree that we are a profession, but some see us as a sub-field of human resources management. The South African occupational framework, OFO, sees OHS or SHEQ managers as working in the human resources (HR) discipline.

The DoL adopted the use of the OFO (which extended ANZCO by incorporating additional occupations and occupational categories identified through research and consultation) as a tool for identifying, reporting and monitoring scarce and critical skills, and maintained it through an annual updating process.

This process and responsibility was taken over by the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) five years ago.

Health and Safety and the OFO

According to the 2013 Organising Framework for Occupations (OFO), occupations are classified in eight main groups.

In the OFO, Health and Safety Managers (SHEQ managers) fall in the main group of managers, and the sub-group of Human Resources. From a skills level point the HS or SHE Manager is on par with the HR manager, Recruitment Manager, Training Manager, Compensation and Benefits Manager, and Employee Wellness Manager.

The OFO Occupational Code for SHE Managers (121206) notes that this person manages, reviews and evaluates work environments, and oversees the design of programs and procedures to control, eliminate, and prevent disease or injury caused by chemical, physical, and biological agents or ergonomic factors.

Clearly, the DHET sees Health and Safety Management as a Human Resources function, and not a health (medical) or safety (engineering) function.

Contrary to Health and Safety or SHE Managers, practitioners fall under the Professional sub-group 226302. This person develops, implements and evaluates risk management policies and programs, trains employees in occupational health and safety procedures, monitors and audits the workplace, and records and investigates incidents to ensure safe and healthy working conditions.

Environmental Managers are described under 226301, with various other options. From a construction perspective, Construction Managers include Construction Project Managers, and various terms in the Engineering field. There is no classification for a Construction (SHE) Agent, Manager or Officer in the OFO.

Safety falls in various occupational unit-groups, and safety officers fall in some specialist groups, like mine safety officer, marine safety officer, fire safety officer, food safety officer, road safety officer, or safety and security officer.

The ultimate responsibility of SHEQ practitioners (SHEQ managers) is in planning, leading, co-ordinating, controlling and resourcing of those functions that achieve organisational compliance in best practices, wrote Martiz.

SHEQ Cannot Operate in Isolation

SHEQ practice does not operate in isolation, but is an overarching or horizontal function, integrating into every line function (vertical) within an organisation.

The ideal organisational structure should have a SHEQ co-ordinator in each department, reporting to a SHEQ manager and a SHEQ champion at board level.

OHS has a very unique place in the business world. One of the key subjects recommended by Prof Phoon to the ILO, is the organisational functions within the OHS professions. SHEQ managers serve administrative and organisational compliance, and are thus management functionaries.

This article by Shane Lishman via SheqAfrica.com