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:
- Something bad will never happen to them, and
- 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
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