10 Common Workplace Safety Mistakes
Workplace safety is essential for protecting employees, reducing risks, and maintaining legal compliance. However, many South African businesses…
For many businesses, the thought of a Department of Employment and Labour Occupational Health and Safety inspection creates immediate concern.
Where is the safety file?
Are the risk assessments current?
Are the appointments signed?
Have the fire extinguishers been inspected?
Are employee training certificates valid?
Is the company registered with the Compensation Fund?
The problem is that these questions should not only be asked when an inspector arrives.
The Occupational Health and Safety Act 85 of 1993 requires employers to provide and maintain, as far as reasonably practicable, a working environment that is safe and without risk to employees’ health.
An inspection is therefore not simply about whether you have a file.
It is about whether your health and safety system actually works.
Occupational Health and Safety Inspectors monitor compliance with the OHS Act, its regulations and applicable incorporated standards.
Departmental descriptions of OHS inspector responsibilities include conducting inspections, investigating reported incidents and complaints, monitoring compliance and taking enforcement action where necessary.
Inspections may therefore focus on much more than paperwork.
An inspector may want to understand:
Businesses should operate as though an inspection could occur rather than relying on advance warning.
Inspection activity can arise in various circumstances, including proactive compliance inspections, workplace complaints and incident investigations.
A serious workplace incident can also bring an organisation’s safety systems under far greater scrutiny.
The best preparation is therefore continuous compliance.
The scope will depend on your industry and workplace risks, but there are several areas businesses should be prepared to demonstrate.
One of the most important questions is:
Have you identified the hazards created by your operations?
An inspector may consider whether your business understands risks relating to:
The OHS Act places duties on employers to address hazards and make employees aware of workplace risks and the necessary precautions.
If your risk assessment does not reflect what employees are actually doing, that can indicate a significant weakness in your system.
Depending on the size and activities of your organisation, inspectors may check whether the appropriate persons have been designated or appointed.
Examples may include:
Appointments should not simply be signed documents.
The people appointed need to understand what they are responsible for.
Training records are another important area.
An inspector may want to determine whether employees have been provided with sufficient information and instruction to work safely.
Depending on your business, records could include:
Section 13 of the OHS Act requires employers, as far as reasonably practicable, to ensure employees are made aware of hazards associated with their work and precautions they should take.
An inspector may look at:
The General Safety Regulations include specific requirements where more than 10 employees are employed at a workplace, including arrangements for persons holding valid first aid competency certificates.
Your emergency plan should work in practice.
Questions businesses should ask include:
Conducting emergency drills and recording the results can also help organisations identify weaknesses before an actual emergency occurs.
For businesses operating machinery, tools or specialised equipment, inspectors may examine whether equipment is being operated safely and appropriately maintained.
Depending on the equipment and applicable regulations, this can involve:
The physical workplace must support what the documentation claims.
A perfectly organised file will not compensate for visibly unsafe machinery.
PPE should be based on the hazards employees face.
Inspectors may consider whether suitable PPE is:
Employers should also remember that PPE is normally one component of risk control rather than the entire safety solution.
Incident reporting is an area businesses cannot afford to neglect.
Inspectors may examine:
Employers also have responsibilities regarding the reporting of workplace accidents and occupational diseases to the Compensation Fund under COIDA.
Good incident investigations should focus on preventing recurrence rather than merely identifying who made a mistake.
This is one of the most important points.
Compliance is not a file.
An organisation could have excellent documents while the actual workplace remains unsafe.
An inspection could reveal issues such as:
Your documentation and actual workplace practices need to support each other.
The Department’s published OHS inspector duties also reference confirming employer registration under applicable labour legislation, including COIDA.
The Compensation Fund states that employers have registration obligations where they employ workers covered by the legislation.
Companies should therefore ensure that their Compensation Fund affairs are kept up to date rather than addressing them only when a Letter of Good Standing is urgently required.
The response will depend on the specific facts, applicable legislation and seriousness of the issue.
Occupational health and safety inspectors have statutory functions and enforcement powers under the OHS framework.
This is why businesses should avoid treating health and safety as a last-minute paperwork exercise.
The objective should be to identify and correct problems before an inspector identifies them for you.
Start by conducting an internal compliance review.
Ask yourself:
If you cannot confidently answer these questions, a professional compliance audit can help identify the gaps.
There is an important difference.
Preparing for an inspection usually means rushing to fix paperwork because an inspector may arrive.
Preparing your business means establishing systems that operate every day.
That includes:
When these activities form part of normal operations, an inspection becomes far less intimidating.
SHEQ Culture Consulting and Training assists organisations in identifying compliance gaps before they become serious problems.
We can assist with:
Instead of waiting for a problem, we help businesses build practical systems designed to maintain compliance throughout the year.
If you’re unsure, that is exactly why an assessment is valuable.
Contact SHEQ Culture Consulting and Training today to arrange a workplace compliance audit or consultation.
We’ll help you identify the gaps, prioritise corrective actions and strengthen your workplace health and safety system.
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SHEQ Culture Consulting and Training
Helping businesses move from reactive compliance to a proactive safety culture.
This article provides general occupational health and safety information. Specific requirements depend on the workplace, activities, applicable regulations and circumstances, and should be assessed individually.
Need help putting these insights into practice? Sheq Culture offers tailor-made health and safety training, auditing and consulting for organisations across South Africa.
Let’s work together to build a safer, smarter, and more compliant future for your organisation.