Changes to regulations as more South Africans go back to work under lockdown level 4

Millions of South Africans are expected to go back to work on Monday following President Cyril Ramaphosa moving the country’s lockdown to Level 4.

The country has been under lockdown since March to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.

In order to protect workers and curb the spread of the virus, the Minister of Employment and Labour Thulas Nxesi announced that certain regulations have been changed in terms of the Occupational Health and Safety Act.

“The direction reflects all that we have learnt about the virus and how to combat it over the period of the lockdown, and from international best practice,” Nxesi said in a statement.

In the video below, Minister Thulas Nxesi says employers must ensure a safe working environment for workers. 

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Regulations at workplaces

Nxesi says that the department is working closely with the Department of Health to create an environment that is supportive to workers and protects them from the virus. The minister has introduced the following regulations:

  • Ensure a minimum 1.5 metres between workers where no physical barriers erected between workstations
  • Workers must be supplied with Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) free of charge
  • Social distancing must be practiced in and around workplace
  • Employers to provide sufficient quantities of sanitisers with 70% alcohol content
  • Ensure workplaces, common areas such as kitchens and bathrooms are regularly washed, disinfected
  • Provide enough facilities for workers to wash hands with soap, clean water
  • Workers must always wear masks while at work and in public spaces
  • Employers are required to provide each worker with at least two cloth masks.
  • Where a risk assessment indicates, workers must be provided with alternative PPE (N95 mask, N97 mask, etc.) for a greater level of protection.

Failure to comply with the Occupational Health and Safety Act is a criminal offence and may lead to prosecution.

 Employers are required to provide workers with PPEs:

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Measures with regards to PPEs

The department has taken the following measures in order to ensure that workers are provided with PPEs:

  • Factories have been repurposed to produce and supply PPEs as well as hospital linen
  • There are factories already supplying PPEs to municipalities and provinces
  • Factories are in talks with the Health Department to equip field hospitals with PPEs

Nxesi says that health inspectors have carried out 2 226 inspections during the lockdown. The level of compliance by employers has increased from 50% to 60%.

BUSA to comply with lockdown regulations

Business Unity South Africa (BUSA) has given the assurance that it will do everything in its power to comply with the lockdown regulations as masses of workers return to work on Monday. These include mandatory screening for COVID-19 symptoms and making sick leave provisions for employees who displayed the symptoms.

BUSA CEO Cas Coovadia has called on the government to be lenient in its implementation of level 4 lockdown regulations.

“Employers want to cooperate they want to actually ensure that those conditions are prevalent in their workspaces and not the other way around; that they don’t want to cooperate. And therefore, we have to take the view that if anything falls through the cracks, we have to close business that just creates havoc in the economy; that creates a greater economic burden, not just on employers but on employees as well. If things do fall through the cracks we will have a process to give people a reasonable period of time to remedy that.”

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Below is the full statement by Minister Nxesi on the Level 4 lockdown regulations.

Source: SABC News (sabcnews.com)