Employer Responsibilities Under South African Ergonomic Labour Law
And how to take action to overcome manual handling challenges that pose a health risk to employees
Are The Manual Handling Practices of Your Company Posing a Health Risk to Employees?
Sections of information have been taken from the Department of Labour's (South Africa) Ergonomic Regulations Notice. This document can be found here.
Risk Control
"7. (1) An employer or self-employed person must ensure that the exposure of a person to ergonomic risks is prevented or, where this is not reasonably practicable, adequately controlled.
(2) In order to comply with subregulation (1) an employer or self-employed person must, as far as is reasonably practicable, remove or reduce exposure to ergonomic risks by implementing control measures in accordance with the hierarchy of controls."
Duties of designers, manufacturers, importers and suppliers:
"Any designer, manufacturer, importer or supplier of machinery, plant or work
systems for use at work must—
- as far as is reasonably practicable, ensure that machinery, plant or work systems optimise human well-being and overall system performance;
- as far as is reasonably practicable, supply machinery, plant or work systems that can be transported, received, stored and handled in a manner that optimises human well-being and overall system Performance;
- provide information, instruction and training as deemed necessary to allow potential users to achieve optimal human well-being and overall system performance during use of machinery, plant or work systems
- as far as is reasonably practicable, install machinery, plant or work systems to achieve optimal human well-being and overall system performance; and
- provide information to potential users on the appropriate maintenance of machinery, plant or work systems to ensure safe operation and use."
Who is a Designer?
The following is taken from the definitions secion of the South African Government notice on Ergonomic Regulations (2019)
"designer" means any person who—
(a) prepares a design;
(b) checks and approves a design;
(c) arranges for a person at work under his or her supervision to prepare a design, including an employee of that person where he or she is the employer;
(d) designs temporary work, including its components; or
{e) contributes to, or has overall responsibility for machinery, plant or work systems design;
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