Improving Health and Safety Regulatory Framework for the
1. Improving Health and Safety
Regulatory Framework for the
South African Mining
Mbedzi Adam 11602169
MEG 4544: Mine Health and Safety
Literature Review Based Project
Dr. F. Amphonsah-Dacosta
2. Introduction
Health and safety (H&S) in South African mining industry continues to
improve, but much remains to be done.
An important starting point in improving H&S regulatory framework in mining
is the rejection of the notion that it is inherently dangerous and work-related
diseases and a certain number of mine accidents are therefore inevitable.
But the success of any improvements in the H&S regulatory framework will
require several questions to be answered throughout the mining industry,
including by governments, employers and workers’ organizations.
3. Questions for improvement
What can be done?
Who should do it?
What is being done elsewhere that might be relevant?
What changes to legislation might be necessary?
What will be the role of the regulator as the regulations and the mining
industry change?
How will any changes affect the duty and liability of the employer and of
workers?
What emphasis should there be on human rather than technical factors?
Other questions may be asked on: occupational health and surveillance, On
risk assessment, On social dialogue, On training, etc.
4. Legislation
Act Provisions Enforcement Agency
Occupational Health & Safety Act (OHSA), 1993. Ensures a healthy and safe environment in factories and
offices
Dept. of Labour
Compensation for Occupational Injuries & Diseases Act
(COIDA), 1993
Provides for medical cover and compensation of
occupational injuries or diseases in all work-places
Dept. of Labour
Mine Health & Safety Act (MHSA),in mines/quarries
1996
Ensures a healthy and safe environment in mines Dept. of Mineral Resources
Occupational Diseases in Mines & Works Act (ODMWA),
1973
Provides for compensation of occupational lung diseases
in mines and quarries
Dept. of Health
Medicines and Related Substances Act, 1965 Provides for an authorization permit to be issued to a
nurse dispense schedule 1-4 substances at workplace
health services
Dept. of Health
5. Challenges
Health has often received less attention than safety.
Major health problems in mining include:
Tuberculosis
Silicosis
Noise induced hearing loss (NIHL)
HIV and AIDS
6. Cont.
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
TB Pneumoconiosis Obstructive Airways
Disease
Obstructive Airways
Disease and
Pneumoconiosis
Platinum salt sensitivity Progressive Systemic
Sclerosis
Percentage
Name of Respiratory Disease
Respiratory diseases in mining reports
1992 1996-7
10. Cont.
Training
The primary goal of training in mine health and safety is to promote action.
National laws, labour codes and regulations
Health and safety legislation should lay down minimum standards which are
compulsory and applicable to everyone.
This approach is important because technology is developing at an increasingly
rapid pace, and it often proves difficult for the legislation to keep up with the
conditions of progress.
11. Cont.
Role and obligations of the competent authority
Formulation of a national health and safety policy .
identify the major problems and draw up a realistic policy
13. Conclusion
Establishing safety as a workforce lifestyle and key priority creates a major
and exciting challenge to the mining industry.
The traditional strategies and methods for prevention and control need
radical updating to respond effectively to the fast and continuous changes in
the work place.
The ultimate goal is that the application of principles to protect health and
safety by prevention and control of hazards becomes an integral part of
working culture and indeed of all social and economic processes .
Focusing on Mine Health and Safety Act 29 of 1996 as the main legislation governing health and safety in mines, the base premise of the act is:
To ensure owner responsibility for health and safety through creation of codes of practice, training, identifying potentially hazardous factors, investigating said factors, employing hygienists for the industry, and founding methods of medical attention and recording for the site.
To safeguard the rights of employees to refuse or move away from areas which are unsafe or potentially unsafe.
To create the Inspectorate of Mining Health and Safety.
To establish the three-party Mine Health and Safety Council.
Following amendments in 1997, the original 1996 act now also includes:
Provision of a monetary fining system in support of tripartite institution regulation and to provide health and safety-appointed employees in the case of any inquiry.
The constitution of the Mine Health and Safety Council concerning matters of procedure within said council.
Amendment concerning the election and appointment of health and safety employees, and establishing the authority of health and safety inspectors.
The Mine Health and Safety Inspectorate of South Africa are very clear about the ways in which they aim to push legislation and national mining standards to reduce mining deaths and occupational injuries. They also emphasize the importance of support and training in this. Their goals are:
Providing policy inputs for the establishment and application of mine safety standards at mining operations, and promote their application;
Providing policy inputs for the establishment and application of mine equipment safety standards at mining operations, and promote their application;
Providing policy inputs for the establishment and application of mine health standards at mining operations, and promote their application; and
Ensuring an effective support and inspection service.
News reports and other sources prove occupational diseases in South African mines to be a major problem. Instead of decreasing, occupational disease rate in mines continues to increase with leading diseases as tuberculosis, silicosis and HIV/AIDS. Comments from different departments have sidelined with behavior related, and education and training related issues as major problems in some mine workers. Any improvement strategy to be employed should obligate the responsibilities to educate, train and add means of behavioral control within mines in South Africa .
The greatest requirement for improvement in South African health and safety for mining industry should be skewed to health rather than safety, because since the establishment of the Mine Health and Safety Act in 1996 a lot of safety issues has gained improvements and still under continual improvement. But on the other hand a less effort has been made to improve the health related issues in mining .
For example, the September one pager safety performance report shows that: there were 96 fatalities in total up to the end of September 2010. This was said to compare favorably with the corresponding months in 2009 where there were 130 fatalities and this equates to a 26% improvement. In addition, the reported fatalities that were on mining safety website also show some appreciable improvements .
Behavior-based safety is the use of applied behavior analysis methods to achieve improvement in safety performance.
The reason to focus on behavior is that when an incident occurs, behavior plays the crucial final pathway that brings other factors together in an adverse outcome.
Krause further claims the basic tool of applied behaviour analysis is known as ABC.
A - is an event that triggers an observable behaviour.
B –
C - is any event that follows from that behaviour.
Although the antecedent is important, applied behaviour analysis demonstrates that consequences are more powerful determinants of behaviour than antecedents.
On its own, the antecedent does not directly determine the behaviour. Instead antecedents elicit certain behaviours because they signal or predict consequences.
It is the goal of ABC analysis to discover which antecedents and consequences are influencing a particular behaviour.
Once these factors are known, they can be changed; and when the antecedents and consequences change, behaviour changes.
Employers and plant managers have to fulfil these stipulations by adopting necessary techniques, and as the quality of safety measures ultimately rests on their application by workers, it is only necessary and reasonable that representative organizations of employers and workers be consulted at the various stages in the preparation of laws and regulations .
It has been noted, in other countries with better health and safety records, that it is more effective to specify the duties of those with primary responsibility for health and safety measures in general terms, rather than to attempt to regulate a multitude of hazards in minute detail.
New legislation should therefore avoid setting out detailed requirements, but rather should have defined general objectives in broad .
Formulation of a national health and safety policy should reflect the respective functions and responsibilities of public authorities, employers, workers and others, and should acknowledge the complementary character of those responsibilities.
In this case, the responsibility of the national designated competent authority should be to identify the major problems and draw up a realistic policy, taking into account the sources and means available .
In doing so, the competent authority should make priorities on the basis of urgency and importance of problems to be overcame.
In order to boost the effect of the health and safety policy, and taking into account the available technical means of action, the competent authority will need to:
Review the time to time of the health and safety legislation and any provisions issued or approved such as regulations and codes of practice, in line with experience and advances in science and technology;
issue or approve regulations, codes of practice or other suitable provisions on health and safety, taking into account the links existing between health and safety on one hand, and hours of work and rest breaks, on the other;
undertake or promote studies and research to identify hazards and find means of overcoming them;
identify work processes, substances and agents which are to be prohibited, limited or made subject to authorization or control, taking into consideration the possibility of simultaneous exposure to several substances or agents;
Introduce or extend systems to examine chemical, physical and biological agents, and ergonomics and psycho-social factors, with a view to assessing the risk to the health of workers, in so far as is practicable in current national conditions.
Effective health and safety policies set a clear direction for the organisation to follow. They contribute to all aspects of business performance as part of a demonstrable commitment to continuous improvement. Responsibilities to people and the environment are met in ways which fulfil the spirit and letter of the law. Stakeholders’ expectations in the activity (whether they are shareholders, employees, or their representatives, customers or society at large) are satisfied. There are cost-effective approaches to preserving and developing physical and human resources, which reduce financial losses and liabilities.
An effective management structure and arrangements are in place for delivering the policy. All staff are motivated and empowered to work safely and to protect their long-term health, not simply to avoid accidents. The arrangements are:
underpinned by effective staff involvement and participation; and
sustained by effective communication and the promotion of competence which allows all employees and their representatives to make a responsible and informed contribution to the health and safety effort.
There is a shared common understanding of the organisation’s vision, values and beliefs. A positive health and safety culture is fostered by the visible and active leadership of senior managers.
There is a planned and systematic approach to implementing the health and safety policy through an effective health and safety management system. The aim is to minimise risks. Risk assessment methods are used to decide on priorities and to set objectives for eliminating hazards and reducing risks. Wherever possible, risks are eliminated through selection and design of facilities, equipment and processes. If risks cannot be eliminated, they are minimised by the use of physical controls or, as a last resort, through systems of work and personal protective equipment. Performance standards are established and used for measuring achievement. Specific actions to promote a positive health and safety culture are identified.
Performance is measured against agreed standards to reveal when and where improvement is needed. Active self-monitoring reveals how effectively the health and safety management system is functioning. This looks at both hardware (premises, plant and substances) and software (people, procedures and systems) including individual behaviour and performance. If controls fail, reactive monitoring discovers why by investigating accidents, ill health or incidents which could cause harm or loss. The objectives of active and reactive monitoring are:
to determine the immediate causes of sub-standard performance; and
to identify the underlying causes and the implications for the design and operation of the health and safety management system.
Longer-term objectives are also monitored.
The organisation learns from all relevant experience and applies the lessons. There is a systematic review of performance based on data from monitoring and from independent audits of the whole health and safety management system.
Performance is also often recorded in annual reports.
Establishing safety as a workforce lifestyle and key priority creates a major and exciting challenge to the mining industry. Although effective legal and technical tools and measures to prevent occupational accidents and diseases exist, national efforts to tackle health and safety problems are often fragmented and as a result have less impact. Such efforts are also hampered by the inevitable time lag between changes in the world of work or detection of new hazards and risks, and the development and implementation of appropriate responses .
The traditional strategies and methods for prevention and control need radical updating to respond effectively to the fast and continuous changes in the work place. In addition, there is a perpetual need to train new generations of workers as they replace retiring ones. Mechanisms and strategies must therefore be developed to keep occupational Safety and health continuously at the forefront of national and enterprise priorities. This is a fundamental requirement for achieving and sustaining decent working conditions and a decent working environment .
This can be done by raising the general awareness of the importance of health and safety in social and economic contexts, and integrating it as priority element in national and business plans. It is also important to engage all social partners and stakeholders in initiative and sustainable mechanisms for continual improvement of national health and safety systems. The ultimate goal is that the application of principles to protect health and safety by prevention and control of hazards becomes an integral part of working culture and indeed of all social and economic processes .
