Emerging Contractors’ Challenges with the Compliance of Occupational Health and Safety Standards in South Africa

2022 ◽  
pp. 140-154
Author(s):  
C. Amoah ◽  
L. Mlenzana
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Occupational Health ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Occupational Health And Safety ◽  
Safety Standards

Drawing the Line between Dismissal for Alcoholism (Incapacity) and Dismissal for Drunkenness (Misconduct). Are the Boni Mores Compromised?

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
pp. 57-63
Author(s):  
Thandekile Phulu
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Occupational Health ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Occupational Health And Safety ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Labour Relations ◽  
Labour Practice ◽  
The Republic

In South Africa employees are protected by various pieces of legislation. Section 23 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa 1996 provides for a right to fair labour practice. In its preamble the Labour Relations Act 66 of 1995 (hereafter referred to as the LRA) states that the purpose of the Act is to advance economic development, social justice, labour peace and democratisation of the workplace. The LRA also states that one of its objectives is to give effect to and regulate the fundamental rights conferred by section 27 of the Constitution. The Occupational Health and Safety Act as amended by the Occupational Health and Safety Amendment Act 181 of 1993 provides for the health and safety of persons at work and for the health and safety of persons in connection with the use of plant and machinery. The LRA provides for dismissal for incapacity and dismissals for misconduct. It also differentiates between the two. The LRA provides for both substantive and procedural fairness when dismissing an employee for incapacity and misconduct. This paper will examine the rationale behind differentiating between dismissal for drunkenness and dismissal for alcoholism.

scholarly journals Occupational Health and Safety Standards of Foreign Seasonal Farm Workers: Evaluation of Personal Protection Measures, Policies and Practices

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Swarna Weerasinghe
Keyword(s):  
Occupational Health ◽  
Agricultural Sector ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Occupational Health And Safety ◽  
Farm Workers ◽  
Agricultural Workers ◽  
Protection Measures ◽  
Safety Standards ◽  
Seasonal Farm Workers ◽  
Policies And Practices

Health and safety standards are paramount to all agricultural workers and more so to the foreign seasonal farm workers. European, North American and Oceanic agricultural sector heavily depends on the foreign workers migrating temporarily to carryout seasonal agricultural work that are not attractive to local citizens. The aim of this chapter is to critically analyze existing workplace health and safety measures, policies and practices of Foreign agricultural workers with a secondary focus on Canadian public health standards that applies to COVID-19 pandemic control and beyond. During the pandemic, many countries opened international labour migration as a measure of economic recovery. Recent news media reported two Caribbean workers in the Canadian Agricultural sector, had died of COVID-19 complications. The basis of this chapter is the research based evidence that the author carried out on occupational health and safety standards of the population of foreign seasonal farm workers using a multi-method data collection: a scoping review of existing standards, policies and practices and personal interviews with seasonal agricultural workers and their employers. This chapter provides a critical analysis of data from multiple sources and from multiple jurisdictions to uncover gaps and malpractices of existing occupational health and safety practice standards for illness and injury prevention of foreign seasonal farm workers.

scholarly journals Reimagining Sex Work Venues: Occupational Health, Safety, and Rights in Indoor Workplaces

2021 ◽  
pp. 207-230
Author(s):  
Brooke S. West ◽  
◽  
Anne M. Montgomery ◽  
Allison R. Ebben
Keyword(s):  
Occupational Health ◽  
Health Outcomes ◽  
Sex Work ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Occupational Health And Safety ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Critical Element ◽  
Sex Worker ◽  
Safety Standards

AbstractThe setting in which sex workers live and work is a critical element shaping health outcomes, in so far that different venues afford different sets of risk and protective factors. Understanding how contextual factors differ across venue types and influence health outcomes is thus essential to developing and supporting programmes promoting the rights and safety of people in sex work. In this chapter, we focus primarily on indoor workplaces, with the goals of: (1) elucidating unique social, economic, physical, and policy factors that influence the well-being of sex workers in indoor workplaces; (2) highlighting sex worker-led efforts in the Thai context through a case study of the organisation Empower Thailand; (3) describing best practices for indoor settings; and (4) developing a framework of key factors that must be addressed to improve the rights and safety of sex workers in indoor workplaces, and to support their efforts to organise. The chapter draws attention to convergences and divergences in key challenges that sex workers encounter in indoor venues in different global contexts, as well as opportunities to advance comprehensive occupational health and safety programmes. Indoor venues pose important potential for establishing and implementing occupational health and safety standards in sex work and also may provide substantial opportunity for collective organising given the close proximity of people working together. However, any efforts to improve the health and safety of sex workers must explicitly address the structural conditions that lead to power imbalances and which undermine sex worker agency and equality.

Nudging for Prevention in Occupational Health and Safety in South Africa Using Fiscal Policies

2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 176-188
Author(s):  
Pieter de Jager ◽  
David Rees ◽  
Sophia Kisting ◽  
Spo Kgalamono ◽  
Mpume Ndaba ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Primary Prevention ◽  
Occupational Health ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Occupational Exposures ◽  
Occupational Health And Safety ◽  
Face Validity ◽  
Fiscal Policies ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Policy Interventions

Currently, in some countries occupational health and safety policy and practice have a bias toward secondary prevention and workers’ compensation rather than primary prevention. Particularly, in emerging economies, research has not adequately contributed to effective interventions and improvements in workers’ health. This article, using South Africa as a case study, describes a methodology for identifying candidate fiscal policy interventions and describes the policy interventions selected for occupational health and safety. It is argued that fiscal policies are well placed to deal with complex intersectoral health problems and to focus efforts on primary prevention. A major challenge is the lack of empirical evidence to support the effectiveness of fiscal policies in improving workers’ health. A second challenge is the underprioritization of occupational health and safety partly due to the relatively small burden of disease attributed to occupational exposures. Both challenges can and should be overcome by (i) conducting policy-relevant research to fill the empirical gaps and (ii) reconceptualizing, both for policy and research purposes, the role of work as a determinant of population health. Fiscal policies to prevent exposure to hazards at work have face validity and are thus appealing, not as a replacement for other efforts to improve health, but as part of a comprehensive effort toward prevention.

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