OHS Chat

Your Devil’s Advocate here after a short break on the beautiful islands of the Seychelles. And what a glorious archipelago. And to kick back and not to think of traffic, crime and grime. It’s definitely more my scene.

Naturally I took advantage of all the holidays and notice that not too much has happened while I was away. Oh yes. There was election and lets me honest the outcome was pretty predicable. Even the Seychelles is going to have one after having been a One Party State since the coup in 1977. I guess we come close to a One Party State but then again we are a Constitution Democratic State with all the lovely trimmings that accompany it. We can even hold our state ministries accountable and sometimes they even respond to our letters.

Other news is that our tenacious DoL Media Liaison Officer, Dr Snuki Sikhalala has been promoted to CEO of the SABC. I never realised what a controversial person he is and his appointment has gone not gone down well in many quarters. I, for one, got a little irritated by his overt bi-partisan political remarks and his routine flouting of the (Employer) presumption-of-innocence rule every time an incident occurred at the workplace. To his credit, he did stick to DoL’s undertaking to advocate OHS Matters.

Since we last chatted we have had fairly high profile OHS trial or should I say OHS plea bargain. Plea bargaining is gaining momentum in this country and is ideally suited to OHS criminal trials since it does not prejudice any party involved. It is also an ideal way to whittle down backlogs. More about it at my forthcoming workshops. The case in question involved the employee who gave birth to stillborn twins at her place of employment after being locked in the factory during a night shift. The employer was convicted of failing to report the incident in terms of section 24 of the OHS Act and contravening section 8 but culpable homicide charges were withdrawn.

Spoornet has landed up with Prohibition Notices relating to noise contraventions but has promised to address the situation. A full bench of the High Court ruled in a reserved judgment that the KwaZulu-Natal Performing Arts Company must bear the "lion's share" of the blame for an incident in which Durban journalist Monica Laganparsad suffered a "gruesome injury" to her left arm on May 26 1996. Laganparsad sued the company after the incident in which her arm was caught in a motorised security gate situated in the Playhouse Theatre complex. The door to an alternative entrance was jammed, forcing her to use a dangerous method of opening the gate to gain access to premises rented by her mother by inserting her arm through the links of the gate, inserting a key and turning it. The court heard evidence that soon after Laganparsad was injured, a "dead man's button", or safety mechanism, was incorporated into the gate system, on the recommendation of the manpower inspector who investigated the accident'. Remember the 1998 Gaynor Young case? She fell down an unguarded shaft at the former PACT (State Theatre in Pretoria). More news at http://www.klasslooch.com/news0000001.htm

The Minister of Labour has also welcomed the KwaZulu-Natal Directorate of Prosecution's decision to prosecute a Durban property owner following an incident in which a lift cable snapped and plunged 15 stories to the ground - killing one person and seriously injuring three. Lungile Mthebula (18) died in Edington Hospital shortly after the incident, and the three others Zinhle Mathebula (18) Mondli Mthethwa (18) and Thembi Chule were seriously injured. The incident took place at John Ross House at Victoria Embankment in Durban on 5 February 2004. The decision to prosecute follows a series of consultation meetings between the Department of Labour Inspection Team and justice officials. The office of the Durban Magistrate Court Senior Public Prosecutor announced today that they were convinced that the facts surrounding the incident are clear and that the matter should go to court for prosecution. The date for the court hearing will be announced in due course. Minister Mdladlana had earlier ordered a speedy investigation into the incident to determine whether property owners had in any way violated Occupational Health and Safety Regulations. "This decision vindicates all the efforts we took to investigate this case and make sure that the property owner faces the law" It is time now that the law should take its cause and this should serve as a warning to other property owners who deliberately disregard the safety laws of this country - putting people's lives in jeopardy"

Those of you who live and die in KwaZulu Natal are warned to stay clear of certain mortuaries! The Minister of DoL has just served a Prohibition Notice on some of them because of OHS violations. You don’t want your body to be touched without sterile gloves do you? You may become more dead! They also didn’t have enough Health & Safety Representatives. Does one include the bodies in the count?

No too much news with all the holidays. Our workshops, with the exception of Cape Town and East London are filling up nicely. My thanks to all those who have registered. Some Subscribers have earned as much as 50% discount per delegate already. Our Early Bird Bookings for the June Workshops expire at the end of the month! Subscribers, I hope you enjoyed my article on the pitfalls of Contravention and Prohibition Notices. DoL isn’t very shy when it comes to dishing them out!

For a more detailed Agenda and further useful hyperlinks go to http://www.klasslooch.com/june_sem_info_2004.htm . You can still book On-Line at http://www.klasslooch.com/2004_june_sem_booking.htm . That earns you a cool 20% discount per delegate before the end of April.

As always

Yours Devil’s Advocate

PS. Isn't having a smoking section in a restaurant like having a peeing
section in a swimming pool?

more