Machinery and plant equipment is probably the single biggest contributor to injuries, fatalities and liability in South Africa.
Yet,
it is one of the aspects of Health & Safety which is largely ignored by most companies - outside of construction specialists -
the reason being is that the required Safe Work Procedures, Checklists, Maintenance Registers and designated appointments for 80%
of the available machinery in South Africa does not exist - despite it being a requirement by law - See General Machinery Regulations,
Sections 1, 2, 3 and 4.
No Safety Management System can be even near complete or sufficient without dealing with all machinery
on site, and dealing with it comprehensively. Which is exactly why we have spent thousand and thousands of man hours painstakingly
researching the Risk Assessments, Safe Work Procedure, Maintenance Registers, Start-up and Shut-down Procedures, and Checklists for
just about every type of plant equipment or machinery available in South Africa. This is not available anywhere else, no retailer
will stock it, not a single competitor of ours can match our library on these.
| the elephant in the room|
machinery and occupational safety act 1993 occupational health and safety act 85 of 1993 summary occupational health and safety act south africa checklist occupational health and safety act 2014 machinery and occupational safety act 1983 occupational health and safety act summary general machinery regulations occupational health and safety act 2015
You can never do to many risk assessments in your business, or on your premises. This is what Health + Safety is all about - assessing
risks, and using this knowledge and information to devise best practice models to avoid any injury or any incident.
For this
reason, it is imperative for these documents to be available to the employees, and never more so than with dangerous plant equipment
and or machinery.
| no excuses |
While the law place a burden on suppliers to provide the users with their safe work practices, risk assessments and maintenance registers,
this hardly ever happen.
Placing an even bigger burden on the employer or CEO to take all reasonable steps in ensuring safety
at all times. Plant and Machinery specific risk assessments and safe work procedures are a minimum requirement to meet the reasonable
argument.
It is important to invest in a Health + Safety management system which can provide these very scarce, but vital piece
of the puzzle. Without it, you cannot comply.
