Health and safety compliance audits for Sandton businesses
Compliance can simply be defined as employers conforming to a rule such as a specification, policy, standard or law. In this case, it refers to the Occupational Health and Safety Act, making OHS compliancy a prevalent business concern for workplaces in Sandton.
This can be attributed to the ever-increasing number of regulations that require all organisations to practice vigilance in maintaining a full and working understanding of their requirements towards regulatory compliance in all health and safety aspects.
Even though OHS strategies may differ across the numerous industries in South Africa, legitimate organisations who have employees must have a proper and effective safety plan in place.
Acts exist to govern the way in which organisations operate and in South Africa, this is dictated by the Occupational Health and Safety Act. Thus, regardless of the industry, size or nature of business of the organisation, employers have certain legal duties towards their employees.
As stipulated in Section 8 of the Occupational Health and Safety Act, employers have the responsibility to provide a workplace void of any risks to the health and/or safety of employees.
However, Section 14 of the same Act also provides employees with the duty of ensuring their own health and safety as well as those of fellow employees.
Employees are expected to follow all health and safety procedures implemented by their employers for their health and safety. Employees may only perform work in an environment that has, prior to conducting work, been declared free of hazards and risks. 
Health and safety audits
To ensure that an employer complies with the Occupational Health and Safety Act and that the work environment is hazard- and risk-free, it is necessary for a health and safety compliance audit to be conducted, such as that offered by SafetyWallet to its subscribers.
Workplace health and safety serves the purpose of implementing, promoting and maintaining the highest levels of physical, mental and social well-being of employees and those who visit the premises. It also involves preventing working conditions from either contributing to or causing any adverse health issues, injuries or illnesses.
Apart from conducting a health and safety compliance audit, employers must ensure the following:
- Easy access to the OHS Act
- Proper and effective personal protective equipment
- Proper and thorough maintenance of machinery and access control to machines
- Safety training
- Health and safety officers
- Injury on duty (IOD) reports
- Health and safety policies.
When do employers receive a health and safety compliance certificate?
The OHS compliance certificate is only issued once a health and safety compliance audit has been conducted and the employer is found compliant with the Occupational Health and Safety Act. Workplace health and safety involves the identification, mitigation and elimination of hazards and risks that could cause an incident or any harm to individuals, whether they are employees or visitors.
There are several ways in which the workplace health and safety can be determined. It can be done through planned and unplanned inspections by OHS personnel or, which comes more recommended, a SafetyWallet health and safety compliance audit. Once the employer is found compliant, they will be issued their health and safety compliance certificate.
For how long is the health and safety certificate valid?
The health and safety compliance certificate is only valid for a year. Once a health and safety compliance audit has been conducted and a certificate is issued, another audit must be conducted within a year to have the certificate issued once more, to reaffirm compliancy.
What can employers expect from their SafetyWallet health and safety compliance audit?
Once employers have subscribed to SafetyWallet, they can book an audit. SafetyWallet will provide the subscriber with a qualified and professional auditor who will first review all the aspects of the OHS programme. This will be weighed against the following:
- The Occupational Health and Safety Act and regulations.
- All other applicable legislation.
- National standards and by-laws.
- SafetyWallet audit protocols.
The SafetyWallet auditor will assess the effectiveness of these measures and their implementation. This is done by inspecting the premises and through operational activity sampling. Key personnel will be interviewed by the SafetyWallet auditor, followed by a confidential discussion of their roles, duties and responsibilities in relation to occupational health and safety.
Once the audit is concluded, the SafetyWallet auditor will compile a comprehensive audit report and it will be presented to the SafetyWallet subscriber and their management team. The report will contain the auditor’s observations, recommendations and an action plan for consideration.
Subscribers can expect the following when having a SafetyWallet compliance audit conducted:
- Legally compliant workplaces.
- Qualified, experienced and professional auditors.
- Client feedback after each follow-up visit.
- Audit protocols that are regularly updated.
Annual issuing of the compliance certificate. 
