Congress 2009 (Part 2) Health and Safety Session

Congratulations to Master Builders South Africa for allocating a morning session to Occupational Health and Safety at there 104th Annual Congress which took place from 27-29 September 2009, at the Santon Convention Centre.

Presentations

Dr Bill Promfret of Safety Projects International Canada, was the main speaker on the morning of 29 September 2009 and his message which was primarily aimed at senior management, came across very clearly. Promfret could not emphasize enough the importance of involvement at management level and stated that without top management’s full commitment to safety, the OHS programme would most certainly fail. He also placed emphasis on the actual cost of accidents and illustrated by using case studies from around the world, that the hidden costs, otherwise known as un-insured costs, could be up to 50 times more that of the insured cost, if property damage is also involved.

His presentation was followed by an interesting paper delivered Professor Theo Haupt from the NNM University Port Elizabeth. Haupt conveyed the importance of integrating OHS training into formal studies, such as construction and project management. He tabled some interesting statistics that indicated that the direct cause of accidents throughout the world, is directly related to lack of training.

Panel Discussion

The presentations were followed by a panel discussion consisting of Dr Bill Promfret, Tibor Szana from department of Labour as well as Michael Kruger, an OHS Attorney. Questions and comments were taken from the floor to which the panel duly responded. Although a number of issues were raised, the following two were the most prominent:

"Our legislation is to complicated and difficult to understand and to implement"
 
"There are no standards and competency levels for Safety Practitioners and Consultants"
 
While, the panel did discuss and answer questions pertaining to these two important issues, Master Builders KwaZulu-Natal takes the opportunity to express our own viewpoint with regard to them.

As for the first issue:     

South Africa has one of the finest pieces of OHS legislation in the world, it is clear, precise and where it is not prescriptive, it allows for self regulation which makes it easy to implement, the Construction Regulations is evident of this. Members that still find the legislation intimidating use our National MBSA OHS Manual and CD as an aid which consists of explanatory notes, as well as appointment letters and registers that is needed to implement a safety management programme. Our manual assists both small and large contractors and has been used with great success over the years. Members are further assisted by their Association's Heath and Safety advisors if they they need counsel on how to properly comply with the regulations.

As for the second Issue:

There is formal training for Safety Practitioners and Consultants in South Africa including a National Diploma in Safety Management. This diploma is offered by UNISA and is accredit at an M+3 level. Both of our Association’s full time safety officials hold this qualification. There is also a Board of Registration for Safety Professionals in South Africa, accredit by SANAS, again both Master Builders KwaZulu-Natal safety officials are registered with the board at the highest level of registration, which is Safety Professional (ROSProf). This status is maintained via a PDP system.

Neels Nortjé | Health and Safety Manager