GUIDELINES FOR MANDATORY COPS: MINING
Occupational health programme on thermal stress
Title: Mine Health and Safety Act (29/1996) (MHSA)): Guideline for A Mandatory Code of Practice for an Occupational Health Programme (Occupational Hygiene and Medical Surveillance) on Thermal Stress
Government Notice: GN 146 in GG 39656 of 5 February 2015
Date of commencement: 1 July 2016
Potentially affected controls: Existing and new COPs for an Occupational Health Programme (Occupational Hygiene and Medical Surveillance) on Thermal Stress, Supporting procedures and specifications
Significant risks to health exist in mining. In order to protect, monitor and promote employees’ health status, an occupational health programme is required where exposure to such significant risks occurs. This guideline covers both occupational hygiene and medical surveillance to ensure compliance to the requirements of the MHSA and to bring about uniformity of health standards. Where the employer’s risk assessment indicates a need to establish and maintain either a system of occupational hygiene measurements or a system of medical surveillance, or where either system is required by regulation, the employer must prepare and implement a COP based on this guideline.
This guideline assists employers with the establishment of an Occupational Health Programme, but does not stipulate specific requirements for specific circumstances. It sets out a basic system for managing risk to health. The first component of any management system is finding out what the situation, secondly deciding what to do about it.
Minimum standards of fitness to perform work on a mine
Title: Mine Health and Safety Act (29/1996) (MHSA)): Guideline for A Mandatory Code of Practice on the minimum standards of fitness to perform work on a mine
Government Notice: GN 147 in GG 39656 of 5 February 2015
Date of commencement: 30 June 2016
Potentially affected controls: Existing and new COPs on the minimum standards of fitness to perform work on a mine, Supporting procedures and specifications
This guideline has been drafted to assist Occupational Medical Practitioners (OMPs) in determining fitness to perform specified work at a mine or entity that reports under Mine Health and Safety Act (Act 29 of 1996) as amended, or to continue to perform such work. This guideline outlines the most common approaches to be followed by the OMP to determine fitness-to-work of an employee suffering from a medical condition of a bodily system. It should however be noted that the approaches described within this guideline are not meant to be too prescriptive and OMPs should be allowed to introduce other approaches for evaluation of fitness to work as long as such approaches are supported by evidenced-based medical trials or by the appropriate medical associations e.g. South African/American Thoracic Society, etc.
Templates are provided as an Annexure for guidance on identifying possible risks and hazards associated with certain diseases and conditions. These are however not absolute guidelines, and they could be implemented as such.
Right to refuse dangerous work and leave dangerous working places
Title: Mine Health and Safety Act (29/1996) (MHSA)): Guideline for A Mandatory Code of Practice on the right to refuse dangerous work and leave dangerous working places
Government Notice: GN 148 in GG 39656 of 5 February 2015
Date of commencement: 1 July 2016
Potentially affected controls: Existing and new COPs on the right to refuse dangerous work and leave dangerous working places, induction and training materials informing workers of this right and the companies’ process to execute such
Under common law employers are required to provide and maintain a work environment that is safe and without risk to the health or safety of employees. This is reflected in section 2 of the MHSA which requires the employer to ensure, as far as reasonably practicable, that the mine is commissioned, operated, maintained and decommissioned in such a way that employees can perform their work without endangering the health and safety of themselves or of any other person.
Arising from this entitlement to a safe working environment, employees have the right to refuse dangerous work (RRDW) under common law. (There are certain exceptions, e.g. policemen, firemen, security guards, etc. who are specifically employed to do certain dangerous work.) This right entails not only that the employee is entitled to leave a working place where he / she has reason to believe that the working place is unsafe (the right to leave dangerous working places (RLDWP)), but also that an employee is entitled to refuse to do work in a working place that is safe, but in which there is any equipment, machine, device or thing the employee is required to use or operate which is likely to endanger himself/herself or any other employee (the RRDW). Put differently, the RRDW can be exercised either by refusing to do the required work but remaining in the working place, or by refusing to do the required work and leaving the working place.
The objective of this guideline is to assist the employer, in consultation with the health and safety committee at the mine, with the drafting of a COP including a procedure to be followed by the employees, health and safety representatives, and employers in the exercise of the RRDW and (RLDWP).
Management of medical incapacity due to ill-health and injury
Title: Mine Health and Safety Act (29/1996) (MHSA)): Guideline for A Mandatory Code of Practice for the management of medical incapacity due to ill-health and injury
Government Notice: GN 149 in GG 39656 of 5 February 2015
Date of commencement: 31 May 2016
Potentially affected controls: Existing and new COPs on the management of medical incapacity due to ill-health and injury, Review of Human Resource related policies and procedures
This guideline has been drafted to assist Occupational Medical Practitioners (OMP’s), Safety Health & Environment consultants (SHE) and Human Resource Consultants in managing employees with medical incapacity in mining. This guideline does not deal with individual medical conditions, but rather aims to formalise the basic principles of management of employees with medical incapacity in order to ensure that a fair and consistent approach is followed.
An employee’s medical condition requires a program for effective management of such an employee. This should be interpreted in functional terms and in the context of the specific job requirements and/or specific job requirements of adjusted or alternative jobs considered during the management of such an employee. The outcome of the process followed must pose no additional risk to the health or safety of such an employee or of co-workers, where relevant.
The interpretation of this guideline should be applicable for the unique operational circumstances of all mining operations, e.g. small mines, open cast mines, underground operations, beneficiation plants, condensation plants or smelters.
