OHS Chat

My work is done. My job is redundant. Well that is if you believe the recent ‘advertisement’ which DoL actually decided was worthy of airtime. I heard it over the airwaves in Gauteng and assumed it was aired nationwide. It went something like this……’Gone are the days of unsafe working practices, gone are the days of unsafe working places, gone are the days of this and that…’ Naturally we have DoL to thank for the disappearance of unsafe working places and I recommend all SHE personnel immediately look for new jobs! Apparently you had nothing to do with helping to provide safe working places. Should we allow them to get away with this propaganda? I’m not going to waste my time since it was in any case a dreadful ‘advertisement’ and, naturally, us poor taxpayers footed the bill.

Of real importance is the decision in the High Court endorsing an agreement between the Compensation Commissioner (WCC) and the Legal Resources Centre. (You will recall that the Legal Resources took the Compensation Commissioner to court because of their lethargy in processing claims). In terms of this agreement the focus of the WCC finally moved from the employer to those employees killed or injured in the course of work. ‘It also noted that the WCC agreed to deal with all outstanding claims. This agreement, and the court ruling that gives effect to it, eases a log jam of a decade and more created by bureaucratic bungling, maladministration and sheer inertia. Whether it will finally provide relief to the pent-up flood of human misery represented by the dusty files in the WCC is moot. But it has finally exposed one of the great travesties of the local labour market. Workers, by government edict, gave up their right to sue employers for occupational injury, illness or death, once the WCC was put in place. Workers injured as a result of their work or the families of workers killed as a result of their occupation, were to be automatically compensated. In the event, how compensation for various injuries is calculated is often farcical, but the intention to adequately compensate exists. Yet compensation commissioners have, over the years, decreed that only employers could file claims to be acted on; without an employer report, a claim could not be processed. This week, the high court in Pretoria endorsed the rejection of that concept. After a long and often frustrating battle by the LRC, it was at last agreed that an employer report should not be a prerequisite for action. This amounts to a potentially major breakthrough’. Click here for the full text of the article by Terry Bell. Another development in the compensation arena is that the COID Act is going to be extended to include domestic employees.

Other news is that Mrs Stott finally received a settlement after her court battle with the Johannesburg Country club after her husband was killed by lightning. The case revolved around indemnities and the Supreme Court of Appeal indicated that it was displeased with various types of indemnities particularly those which deprive persons of suing when others were negligent. Watch this space. Subscribers can down load the case by clicking here. I predict many more challenges to indemnities and that eventually the Constitutional Court will make a ruling. I will cover the Stott case in detail at my forthcoming workshops. Click here for articles on the Stott case.

Gold Reef City has been given a rough time by Carteblanche about the safety of their equipment. I recall years ago that one of their top managers was actually arrested and handcuffed for an OHS contravention. Those were the days when specialist prosecutors took no prisoners and DoL actually functioned! Or should I say that was before DoL waived its magic wand and unsafe working place disappeared. Click here for Carteblanche’s transcript of the events.

As many of you know our offices were burgled and we lost some computer equipment. Yes I did do backups but you know what it’s like. Most distressing is the fact that I lost most of my Newsletter Distribution List as well as my Fax Data Base. Bottom line is that many of you will not be receiving this Newsletter until we get back on track and others will receive numerous irritating fax reminders about workshops. Please bear with me. If you know of persons who are not receiving this Newsletter (and naturally want to) please forward it to them and they can click here to be placed back on the List.

My thanks to ESKOM and Trans Africa Projects for keeping my mind off murderous thoughts and welcome to MEGCHEM as a Subscriber. Also to VOLKSWAGEN for helping to fill seats at my Workshops. PE rules! Or is that Uitenhage!

There is still ample room at my upcoming workshops and all you need do is to click one last time on http://www.klasslooch.com/june_booking.htm and you’ll still earn 10% discount per delegate. Remember no-one is immune to prosecution in terms of the OHS Act, yet it is mostly employers and users of plant and machinery who are exposed to criminal prosecution. The reason for this is to be found in the extensive duties which the OHS Act imposes upon them, thereby creating a host of legal rights for employees (sections 8 and 13), persons in general (section 9), recipients of articles and substances utilised at a workplace, clients for whom articles (structures) are designed, erected or installed. (Section 10 and read with the Construction Regulations). Criminal liability emanates from the infringement of these statutory rights by employers or users. Juristic persons or corporate bodies along with natural persons such as the CEO and his or her team of section 16(2) “Assigned Persons’ are regarded as employers and users for prosecution purposes. (Thought I’d scare you a little)!

You can download a Registration in MS Word by clicking here. (Sorry that was another click).

As always

Your Devil’s Advocate.

PS. A cigarette shortens your life by 2 minutes

A beer shortens your life by 4 minutes.

A working day shortens your life by 9 hours!!!!

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