Companies that employ people in high-risk areas and the public in general, have one month left to comment on the draft ergonomic regulations set to be promulgated in the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHASA).
In January, Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant gazetted her intention to introduce Ergonomics Regulations into the Act and invited written public comments in relation to the draft. Under the proposed regulations, employers will be required to implement an ergonomics programme at any workplace where employees could be exposed to physical or cognitive ergonomic risk.
“The purpose of the programme is to eliminate, mitigate and control ergonomic risk factors, which may aggravate work-related musculoskeletal injuries,” ENSafrica director Warren Hendricks explained, adding that these injuries included anything that affected the body’s muscles, joints, tendons, ligaments and nerves by causing pain, numbness, tingling, swelling or loss of function.
Hendricks told delegates at an ENSafrica Occupational Health and Safety Seminar, in Sandton, on Wednesday, that as part of the ergonomics programme, employers would be required to implement specific training programmes for employees who may be affected or potentially exposed to such hazards.
The programme further calls for proper risk assessment, as well as the implementation of specific medical surveillance programmes.
The new regulations will apply to employers or self-employed persons who carry out work at a place which may expose them to physical or cognitive risk factors in that workplace or any person who designs, manufactures, erects, instals or supplies machinery, equipment or articles for use at work.