Health and Safety Legislation
In the early years from about the First World War, it was recognised by the South African Government that too many serious injuries and fatalities were occurring in the workplace. The war effort had caused high production and desperate measures to turn out armaments according to the demand. In an effort to control this, the Factories Act, 1918 (Act no, 28 of 1918) was promulgated, which set a standard for South Africa’s industry. During the Second World War, the Factories Act was improved on and replaced by the Factories, Machinery and Building Work Act, 1941 (Act no. 22 of 1941). This Act placed duties and responsibilities on users of machinery, occupiers of factories as well as builders.
Some 40 years later we saw the introduction of the Machinery and Occupational Safety Act, 1983 (Act no. 6 of 1983) followed 10 years later by the Occupational Health and Safety Act, 1993 (Act no. 85 of 1993). What was notable of this Act was the introduction of Occupational Health. There is currently a Draft Occupational Health and Safety Bill that, according to the Department of Labour, will be published shortly for public comment.
Other related Occupational Health and Safety legislation in South Africa are the Mine Health and Safety Act, 1996 (Act no. 29 of 1996), the South African Maritime Safety Authority Act, 1998 (Act no 5 of 1998), the National Railway Safety Regulator Act, 2002 (Act no. 16 of 2001), the Civil Aviation Act, 2009 (Act 13 of 2009) and the National Road Traffic Act and Regulations, 1996 (Act no. 93 of 1996). It is interesting to note that all these Acts are post democracy baring the Occupational Health and Safety Act, 1993 (Act no. 85 of 1993).
Health and Safety Management Systems
The National Occupational Safety Association (NOSA) was established in 1952, it was funded by the then Workmen’s Compensation Commissioner (WCC). NOSA’s purpose was to advise management on accident prevention and loss control. In doing so NOSA developed a 72 Element Management by Objective (MBO) Five-Star 5 system.
The Introduction of the NOSA Rating System came about because the Sugar Millers Association, which held an annual safety competition, was displeased by a directive issued by the NOSA board in 1966. The directive prevented competition marks from being divulged or published (coded individual marks). The Millers Association management was adamant that they needed to know how well, or otherwise, each mill had fared. Wyn Burgers, the Natal NOSA Regional Safety Organizer at the time, needed to somehow satisfy them while remaining within the parameters of the new NOSA Directive. The solution he came up with was the NOSA Rating system, which was approved by then GM of NOSA, Godfrey Terry, in December 1967.
The system was introduced and explained at a NOSA Natal Region Group meeting held in Durban in February 1968 and was received with enthusiasm by both the Sugar Milling Industry as well as the rest of Natal NOSA Membership. In order to avoid a clash with the star rating system used by the Hotel Industry, initially alphabetical grading symbols were used.
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