Programme Director,
Organised Business
Organised Labour
Council for Built Environment
Construction Industry Development Board
Engineering Council of South Africa
South African Federation of Civil Engineering
Contractors
Master Builders Association of South Africa
Federated Employers Mutual Association
Representatives of Higher learning’s
Official of the Department of Labour and other
government departments
Distinguished guests
Ladies and Gentleman,
Today marks the on going campaign by the
Department of Labour’s inspectorate to
eradicate non compliance with Occupational
Health and Safety and other related Labour
legislation in the Construction Sector.
Over the past year we have worked closely with
our stakeholders to effect the change that is
needed. I have met with various parties,
provided guidance where required, responded
to many written communications, done
interviews. We have trained our inspectors and
we have generally tried to improve conditions
for them by commencing a process of providing
them with the necessary resources to do their
work.
What we have started is far from complete!
Our desire is to move closer to our partners
who to date continue to make in-roads with is
in improving the lot of the worker at the coal
face on site.
Times have gotten tighter due to the fact that
so many projects have been completed, profit
margins are probably tighter – but this itself
should create a greater focus on health and
safety as a loss in this area could impact
negatively on your profit margin.
Construction has for the last couple of years
remained on our radar as one of four high risk
sectors that deserved our concern and
attention.
We will continue to devote our attention to
construction going forward and have developed
initiatives that we will be sharing with you in
our roadshows during the course of the year
and hope an trust that you will support us in
our endeavours to make construction sites
safer and healthier.
We will continue to evaluate our progress
against what is happening in the sector and will
continue to engage you and listen to you for
advice or assistance.
Our statistics in the year 2000, indicates that
there were just about 1900 Construction sites
that were inspected at the time, and during the
financial year 2009/10 we inspected 7 493
construction sites in our country, an
overwhelming increase in terms of construction
activity.
Our inspectors were therefore spending almost
4 times more time on constructions sites trying
to get employers to comply with what was their
legislative duty! Or put another way, trying to
convince employers that saving the lives and
limbs of their workers was the right thing to do.
In the period, 2009/10, the industry only
realised a compliance rate of 58% with the
Occupational Health and Safety Act and its
regulations.
More than 400 Prohibition Notice and 1040
Contravention Notice were served during
2009/10 financial year. This therefore means
that there were 1 440 sites which a had a
potential either to injure or kill workers during
2009/10 financial year due to direct
contravention of the provisions of the
Occupational Health and Safety Act and its
regulations.
The challenge that we face as Government and
Stake Holders is therefore to reduce the
number of non compliance by clients, Agents
and Construction companies operating in our
country. This will include combating the current
situation where by at least two Construction
Workers die every week on construction sites
as a result of non compliance either by Clients,
Agents and/or Contractors.
The Occupational Health and Safety Chief
Directorate is currently busy reviewing the
current Construction Regulations in order to
achieve the following objectives:
1.
To change the culture of the construction
industry by involving all stake holders;
thus the Clients, Designers, Contractors
and Safety Officers at the initial stages of
design and Construction Work, this will
ensure that all stakeholders mentioned
above are directly involved with matters
of Health and Safety.
2.
To ensure that the construction industry
is lead by people who are competent
when it comes matters of health and
safety within their various operations,
Construction Supervisors and Managers
need to ensure that they have necessary
expertise in Health and Safety to enable
them to carry out their operations in a
healthy and a safe manner.
3.
To establish the Construction Technical
Committee –.
a.
The objectives of the Construction
Technical Committee will be the
following.
i. Develop a programme and an
implementation strategy to
reduce fatalities in the
Construction Industry at National
and Provincial Level.
A programme aimed at the
Developers, Clients. and
employers/ contactors
ii. Development of a Construction
Data Base in collaboration with
Construction Industry
Development Board and
analysing the trends in
Construction industry.
iii. Developing Information Material
and participation in National
Information Sessions (2 per
year).
iv. Participation in International Forums
and Meetings in line with
Construction Safety.
v. Monitoring/ facilitating the
operations of the Provincial
Construction Safety Forums.
vi. Effective utilisation of statutory
bodies and other organs in the
Construction Industry to achieve the
objectives of the National
Construction Safety Forum. (i.e.
Office of the Director of Public
Prosecution. etc}
It must be noted that we have had a very good
response last year in May 2010 when we sent
out the Proposed Construction Regulations for
public comment, a huge number of comments
from all stake holders were received and as
such, another task team comprised of Business,
Organized Labour, Experts in the Construction
Industry and Government was formed to look
into all proposals that were sent.
The said committee is expected to report to the
Minister’s advisory council on Occupational
Health and Safety in June 2011 with another
proposed document.
Let me also take this opportunity to
congratulate Construction Companies that have
taken it upon themselves to adhere to Health
and Safety regulations without being “policed”
by the Department of Labour Inspectorate.
These are companies that put human lives in
the forefront of their business endeavors
thereby creating a conducive environment for
work and also saving the economy substantial
amount of funds, taking into consideration that
the Compensation Fund during the previous
financial year paid out the Sum for R 196,261,
971, 61 in the Construction Industry only.
This excludes payments made by the FEMA.
Structures such as the Master Builders South
Africa, SAFCEC, CIDB, CBE, PWD, SACPCMP,
ECSA, SAWIC, BUSA, ACHASM, Organised
Labour, Representatives of Higher Education
and many others like them, have played
significant roles in the past and can play an
even more important role in the future in
shifting the mindset of the current culture in
the construction industry, for example, by
ensuring that all Bills of Quantities that drafted
by Contractors include at least between 1.5%
to 2.5% of the total cost of project to health
and safety and also encourage their members
and affiliates to adhere to Health and Safety
standards as per the Occupational Health and
Safety Act and its regulations.
It has also been proven that construction sites
that adhere to healthy and safer methods of
conducting their work – not only do they save
peoples lives, but, also benefit in terms of cost
savings from projects that are finished earlier
than planned. Healthier and safer workers are
able to optimize their skills and potential to
produce better quality work or products.
Employers need to step out and be bold in their
decisions in relation to health and safety.
Employers need to lead the culture in their
respective organizations.
As we move into a new phase when the
Construction Regulations is published this year,
clients, will find that their responsibility has
increased and that their actions will be
measured by the culture that exists on
construction sites.
When our Regulation is published it will also be
accompanied by Guidenotes – these guidenotes
will assist you in complying with what we
believe is important for a safe and healthy
construction site.
We cannot afford to rest or sit back!
We are looking at using research to our
advantage moving forward and to that end we
have already engaged various service providers
to assist.
The health and safety and management
structure in the Regulations were designed with
impact in mind and nothing therein must be
construed as a nice to have. These partners
will be required to rise and meet the challenges
on construction sites head on, and a weakness
on the part of any of these links will mean
failure costing life or limb.
What is the role that each one of us needs to
play in the bigger scheme of things that will
lead to the war being won – for it is by fighting
our battles one by one or on a joint front that
we are likely to succeed.
In closing, I would like to give you an update
on the last Construction Summit that took
place:
FEEDBACK ON THE CONSTRUCTION SUMMIT
Occupational Health and Safety Construction Summit
11 November 2008
A Construction Summit was held on the 11th November 2008 at which approximately 560
people were in attendance on the day which was held at Birchwood Conference Centre,
Boksburg.
The purpose of the Summit was to obtain inputs from stakeholders on the direction forward
and to obtain renewed commitment from key stakeholders in the industry to reduce the
number of incidents taking place.
Commission 1:
Enforcement and compliance
The identified strategic actions include:
1.
Improving on relationships with There is greater interaction with the
the NPA in order to ensure NPA at Provincial level than there
effective prosecutions of cases was in the past.
submitted by inspectors.
2.
This includes consideration of Being considered in
spot fines.
currently under review.
3.
Consideration to be given to the A document has been developed
OHS
Bill
promotion of self regulation by which addresses this and will be
employers and organized labour. introduced during June/July 2011 .
4.
To ensure the success of this key Co-regulation as opposed to self
issue it is vital that certain things regulation is the way forward.
are first put in place in order to
facilitate this point which include:
4.1. the
development
of Will be drafted shortly – when the
guidelines on the legislation; regulations are promulgated.
5.
6.
4.2. the direct involvement of the
supply chain sections in
companies in order to
ensure
that
companies
tendering to provide a
service are in fact in a
position to do so;
4.3. that OHS specialists are
drawn
in
to
provide
professional services of a
certain quality and standard
to ensure that the employer
and his team complies,
4.4. that the Department in
partnership with other role
players fund, develop and
train SMMEs willing to be
put into a special program to
improve on OHS and
4.5. that a Call Centre/Help Desk
be established to provide
immediate responses to
burning
questions
of
employers and workers.
Addressed by reviewed legislation.
The starting point for any
sustainable solution of course is
the foundation which in this case
includes the early introduction of
OHS into school curricula to
ensure that the culture of OHS is
cultivated early.
Not dealt with as a comprehensive
strategy currently – but is dealt with
as the needs arises due to resource
constraints. Othe.
Currently being considered
Currently being considered – but
dependent on budget availability
There is a Call Centre that the
Department of Labour has where
queries can be addressed.
Queries are dealt with on a daily
basis as employers forward their
queries either directly or through the
web master. General response time
is quite good on this.
Initiatives are under way by the
Departments of Education in relation
to Health and Safety
The development of construction Not dealt with currently. Support
specific
learnerships
and given to the MBSA cadet OHS
apprenticeships.
program by the DoL.
7.
The development of competent Only dealt with through one on one
persons with key stakeholders in meetings, letters received and
the industry.
telephonic enquiries on a daily basis.
Various offers have been considered
in this regard and the Department is
currently looking at restarting its
Learnership
program
with
Construction as one of its electives
as one of its options in the new
financial year.
8.
The use of IT based
applications
to
allow
interactive solutions.
9.
The
employment
and Inspectors
currently
under
development of quality inspectors development on various aspects of
to the level of professionals.
the legislation both internally and
externally.
web Web of DoL is being overhauled.
for
New initiatives will be considered.
Currently under consideration and
various educational institutions are
being approached in this regard.
10.
The DoL to look into partnering
with other Govt Departments at all
levels to ensure that all inspector
resources are fully utilized when
visiting
the
premises
of
employers.
Isolated pockets of work has
commenced and will be developed
further in the new year.
Interaction has taken place with the
following bodies amongst many
others:






11.
The Department is to partner with The Department is doing this on a
specialists in the sector in order to continuous basis.
capitalize on the vast levels of
experience.
Commission 2:
empowerment
2.1
CIDB
CBE
ECSA
SAPS
NIOH
SANAS
Enhancing stakeholder and general public awareness and
DOL to actively raise the level of
awareness in the construction
sector with a special emphasis
on SMMEs, especially emerging
contractors
through
various
Articles have been published as a
result of interviews and conferences
attended
and
presentations
conducted to various industry
sectors.
media.
Several of these articles
specifically aimed at SMMEs.
2.2
At least four (4) more seminars are
planned for this coming year with
different themes.
Visibility and accessibility of DOL This continues to receive the
Inspectors to be increased on attention by the Department.
construction sites.
Uniforms have also been purchased.
Commission 3:
3.1
3.2
3.3
were
Capacity for monitoring and evaluation
The Department needs to
develop capacity to provide
reliable information to industry in
order to allow industry to
benchmark itself and to follow
trends within the sector.
Identify existing mandates within
government outside of the
Department of Labour which
register construction projects and
construction contracts to gather
data and information on health
and safety such as the NHBRC,
Local Authorities (building plan
approvals); CIDB, etc.
Establish a Health and Safety
Agency within the construction
sector to deal with:
3.3.1 the identification an
dissemination of best
practice;
3.3.2 the setting of standards;
3.3.3 encouraging and
focussing research
IES Case management system
currently under development and is
scheduled for go live during 2011.
Very limited work has been done in
this regard.
A health and safety forum for the
construction
sector
will
be
formalised
once
the
amended
regulation has been formalised.
The rest of the issues raised will be
dealt with in due course.
Let me also take this opportunity to thank each
and every one of you for having heeded the call
to attend this seminar, feel free to participate
for the betterment of all people’s lives involved
in the construction sector.
Make a difference and be counted amongst
the few who have stood for change!
Ladies and Gentleman
I thank you.