Glenda Daniels Occupational health and safety inspectors from the Department of Labour are resigning in droves and some have been suspended amid mounting concern about a major overhaul of the department. The exodus of staff coincides with a backlog of 5 000 unexamined accident cases, including 700 fatalities at workplaces across the country. In just three weeks, eight inspectors have resigned and two have been suspended, according to a representative of the aggrieved inspectors, Jo Bradley, who was herself suspended last week. She says the department is in danger of “collapsing completely”. Bradley says that for 10 months the department has ignored complaints about its internal restructuring process, which will effectively roll specialised inspection services into one general inspectorate. Other inspectors say the new system will be staffed by insufficiently qualified employees. Aggrieved inspectors have launched a court bid to force the government to uphold safety standards in the workplace. The Occupational Health and Safety Association, consisting of about 100 inspectors, applied for a motion of notice, which is due to be heard in the Pretoria High Court next week. Inspectors investigate accidents, diseases and fatalities caused by work-related negligence in health and safety matters.
Labour department Director General Rams Ramashia concedes there is a huge backlog but will not confirm the figures. He says Bradley was suspended because of “misconduct” and that if people are resigning it is for “career options outside government”. Bradley says the restructuring has created severe problems related to “throwing together different programmes into one, for instance, labour relations, unemployment insurance and occupational health and safety.
“The inspectors opposed the integration because of the specialist nature of work that these programmes entail,” Bradley said. Flip de Jager, a control inspector from Occupational Health and Safety in the Department of Labour in Bloemfontein, who has also been suspended, says he received a letter informing him of his suspension because of “misconduct”. However, he believes he was suspended because he expressed discontent about the government’s plan to integrate departments and to “appoint inspectors off the street”. “There are various specialised operations in occupational health and safety, such as engineering, mechanical, hygiene, safety. Now what they are trying to do is get anyone off the street to do training and to create a one-stop service, which can’t work.” De Jager says he has filed a complaint with the Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration about his suspension. Ramashia says the shake-up is to get rid of “fragmentation which was hindering the delivery of services” so that the enormous backlog of unexamined cases could take place.