OHSE safety resources
Resources for UCT OHSE representatives as well as UCT staff and students
Safety Toolbox
access-restricted (requires UCT login)
Background to legislation
Training requirements
Legal appointments
OHSE committee meetings
OHSE reporting
Incident management procedure
Templates
Background to legislation
Legal Liability training for UCT
Health and safety legal liability training aims to provide UCT leadership with an understanding of their legal responsibilities related to health and safety in the workplace.
It covers topics such as the legal framework, duties and responsibilities of employers and employees, risk assessment, and the consequences of non-compliance. This training is essential to ensure that managers have the knowledge and skills necessary to promote and maintain a safe and healthy work environment, prevent workplace accidents and injuries, protect their employees, and avoid legal liability.
Understanding the OHSE legal structure aligned to the OHSACT
The two most important appointments under the Occupational Health & Safety Act 85 of 1993 can be found under section 16(1) and 16(2).
“16. Chief executive officer charged with certain duties
- Every chief executive officer shall as far as is reasonably practicable ensure that the duties of his employer as contemplated in this Act, are properly discharged.
- Without derogating from his responsibility or liability in terms of subsection (1), a chief executive officer may assign any duty contemplated in the said subsection, to any person under his control, which person shall act subject to the control and directions of the chief executive officer”.
Training requirements
Managers must ensure that employees receive appropriate training and instruction
on how to work safely, including the use of personal protective equipment, the safe
operation of machinery and equipment, and emergency procedures.
For training bookings please select the respective training type and date
by clicking here.
Legal appointments
An employer is responsible for occupational health and safety. However, an employer is in most instances a corporate body or legal entity and unable to perform the duties imposed on it in terms of the Occupational Health & Safety Act 85 of 1993. Thus, the employer is required to appoint employees (managers, supervisors and other staff) to perform its duties on its behalf in an effort of compliance.
The employer in making these appointments have to ensure that the employees they appoint are trained and qualified to perform the functions on its behalf.
All appointments are to be signed and filed with the respective department/unit once training is completed.
OHSE committee meetings
The following agenda is generic and contains the minimum items for discussion.
All minutes are to be retained by each dept/unit.
There are 3 OHSE Committee Levels
- OHSE Sub Committee
- Faculty/Pass Dept. OHSE Committee
- COHSAC
Level 1 and 2 Committee Chairpersons are required to complete an OHSE Committee
report for each meeting.
OHSE reporting
The OHSE Committee reporting template is aligned to the OHSE agenda and allows for more efficient reporting from each Committee Chairperson.
Matters for escalation are to be documented at the next tier. (See flowchart)
Click here to see the guide on how to complete the OHSE Committee meeting Chairpersons reports
OHSE reps are to conduct monthly/quarterly inspections as per the terms of reference of each committee/subcommittee.
This inspection checklist needs to be completed every 30 days (monthly) as part of the monthly OHSE representative inspection process.
The number of completed inspection checklists for an annual cycle = 12.
Incident management reporting
Whenever an OHSE incident occurs please use the HSO2 report to notify the Occupational health unit at ohse@uct.ac.za.
The following reporting process in case of an incident is to be followed.
Document links
Evacuation drill guide and report
Manuals
UCT OHSE Handbook
How to implement occupational health, safety and environment at UCT (requires UCT login)
Download
Health & Safety at the Workplace
What every worker and employer should know... Published by the South African Department of Labour
Download
Templates
access-restricted (requires UCT login)