The Civil Engineering Contractor March 2018 | Page 31

INSIGHT
In terms of the Occupational Health and Safety Act, 1993 (Act No. 85 of 1993), employers have a duty to maintain
and provide, as far as reasonable, a working environment that does not pose a health risk to any employee.
regarding prevalent hazards, associated
work procedures, and control measures
to be taken before commencing a specific
work activity. Thereafter, contractors
must ensure that continuous training is
provided at intervals determined in the
risk assessment monitoring and review
plan for the relevant construction site.
Contractors must ensure that fall
protection plans are in place if any of the
associated construction work rests on fall
risk positions. In this regard, contractors
must ensure that all unprotected openings
in floors, edges, slabs, hatchways, and
stairways are adequately guarded, fenced,
or barricaded, or that similar means are
used to safeguard any person from falling
through such openings. Contractors
must also provide employees with
approved fall protection equipment that
is sufficiently strong for the intended
use. The contractor’s responsibility in
respect to structures is to ensure that all
reasonably practicable steps are taken to
prevent an uncontrolled collapse of any
new or existing structure or any part
thereof, which may become unstable
or is in a temporary state of weakness
or instability due to the carrying out of
construction work.
Contractors must also ensure that
all temporary work operations are
carried out under the supervision of a
competent person. Further to this, all
contractors are required to confirm
that all temporary work structurers are
adequately erected, supported, braced,
and maintained to ensure that they are
capable of supporting all anticipated
vertical and lateral loads that may be
applied to them.
Contractors must conduct preliminary
evaluations of the stability of the ground
prior to the commencement of any
excavation work. Contractors must
have reasonably practical measures in
place to ensure that no person is buried
or trapped by a fall or dislodgement of
material because of an excavation and
may not require or permit any person
to work in an excavation that has not
been adequately shored or braced.
In respect of demolition work,
contractors must ensure that a detailed
structural engineering survey of the
structure to be demolished is conducted
prior to the demolition work, to
ascertain the method of demolition to
be used. Further, a contractor must
ensure that the method statement on
the procedure is followed during the
demolition process of a structure and
that precautionary measures are taken
to protect the safety of employees.
With respect to suspended
platforms, contractors must ensure
that the outriggers of each platform
are constructed of material that is of
adequate strength and has a safety factor
of at least four in relation to the load it
could carry. Such a platform must have
suspension points with a stop device or
other effective devices at the outer ends
to prevent the displacement of ropes. In
addition, contractors must ensure that
each employee working on a suspended
platform is provided with and wears a
body harness as a fall prevention device,
which must always be attached to the
suspended platform. A contractor using
access scaffoldings must ensure that such
scaffoldings comply with SANS 10085.
The Construction Regulations
provide that the contractors must
ensure that all construction vehicles,
mobile plants, and other construction
equipment are kept in good working
conditions and that they are used in
accordance with their design and the
intention for which they were designed,
while giving due consideration to the
health and safety of employees.
In terms of the Environmental
Regulations
for
Workplaces
(GN R2281, GG 10988, 16 October
1987), contractors must ensure that
suitable housekeeping is continuously
implemented and maintained at
construction sites. nn
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