After a string of explosions at Sasol plants, the Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood and Allied Workers’ Union (Ceppwawu) said on Thursday it will propose a safety plan to the petrochemical company by April.
This will be apart from the report of Sasol-appointed international safety consultants Du Pont, said Ceppwawu.
The plan will pertain to the entire chemicals industry, said Ceppwawu secretary general Welile Nolingo.
The plan should apply to synthetic fuel companies other than Sasol, among them Total, Shell and BP, he said.
Nolingo was reluctant to reveal details of the plan before it is tabled.
Ceppwawu will formulate the plan and a set of demands for Sasol in a meeting of shop stewards and members at Sasol Synfuels and Sasol Mines in Secunda in March, he said.
While Ceppwawu, which represents 7 000 Sasol workers, on Thursday welcomed Sasol’s appointment of Du Pont and its intention to review contractors’ skills and competency, it asked why the union has not been consulted.
”They just called us in to announce they had appointed Du Pont to audit their safety standards,” said Nolingo.
Although Ceppwawu expects Du Pont’s report to give Sasol a clean bill of health, it believes the report will raise a number of issues worthy of investigation.
Among these are the length of time Sasol allows for maintenance, and the state of the equipment it uses, particularly in sensitive areas.
Nolingo said almost all last year’s explosions happened while routine maintenance work was being carried out.
While in the past entire plants were shut down for up to a month for maintenance, now the norm is one or two weeks — and then the shutdown is only in the particular section of the plant in question.
”This is done to save costs at the expense of workers’ lives. We believe that unless Sasol is required to have a complete shutdown, these incidents will not stop,” said Nolingo.
He said in almost all the incidents, a leak was the cause.
He blamed the condition of the seals joining the pipes at Sasol’s ethylene plant in Secunda, Mpumalanga, for the explosion in which 10 people died and 360 were injured during a maintenance drill in September 2004.
A fuel spill caused a fire at the Natref refinery in Sasolburg in October. Another fire there in January was caused by a gas leak. There were other safety-related incidents in June, July and August.
In a statement last week, Sasol said it mainly uses contractors for maintenance work because they have specialised skills the company lacks.
Contractors were involved in at least two of the incidents, said Sasol chief executive Pieter Cox.
Ceppwawu has called on Sasol to play a greater role in the training of contractors and to integrate this training with that of its own staff. — Sapa