New Construction Regulations

[Neels Nortje]

As most of you know I serve on the Minister of Labour's Advisory Council for Occupational Health and Safety (ACOHS).

At an ACHOS meeting held on 12 August 2009 the amended Construction Regulations were approved for and ACOHS agreed that the Construction Regulations should be published for comment. This mean that the regulations will now go to state legal and languish and then be published for comments.

There are some interesting changes (bold print) to the regulations, some of the major changes include the following:

"agent" means any competent person who acts as a representative for a client in the managing the overall construction work

“Construction site” means a work place where construction work is being performed

"contractor" means an employer, as defined in section 1 of the Act, who performs construction work.

"designer" means any of the following persons-
(a) a person who prepares a design;
(b) a person who checks and approves a design;
(c) a person who arranges for any person at work under his control (including an employee of his, where he is the employer) to prepare a design, as well as;
(d) an architect or engineer contributing to, or having overall responsibility for the design;
(e) building services engineer designing details for fixed plant;
(f) surveyor specifying articles or drawing up specifications;
(g) contractor carrying out design work as part of a design and building project;
(h) any competent person designing false work including its components, form work and support work;
(i) interior designer, shop-fitter and landscape architect.

“fall risk” means any potential exposure to falling either from, off or into.

“false work” means the combined system of formwork and support work

“formwork” means temporary or permanent shutters used to form wet concrete into an element of a structure, and includes both horizontally and vertically placed shutters


"health and safety plan " means a documented plan which addresses hazards identified and includes safe work procedures and other measures to mitigate, reduce or control the hazards identified;

"medical certificate of fitness" means a certificate issued in terms of annexure2 of these regulations by an occupational health practitioner as defined in the Act. This certificate shall be valid for one year provided no interim medical conditions occurred during this period that may affect the validity of the certificate

“occupational safety practitioner” means any person competent in occupational safety and certified as such by an institution accredited by the South African National Accreditation System (SANAS) having the knowledge, training, experience and/or qualifications specific to the occupational safety aspects of the work or task being performed: Provided that where appropriate qualifications and training are registered in terms of the provisions of the South African Qualifications Authority Act, 1995 (Act No. 58 of 1995), these qualifications and training shall be deemed to be the required qualifications and training; competent in Occupational Safety.

“permit” means a document issued by the provincial director authorizing a client to commence or continue with construction work

“Support work” means the temporary structure erected to support the formwork before the casting of a concrete element of a structure

Scope of application

These regulations, shall apply to any persons involved in construction work

Application for a Permit to Perform Construction Work

(1) A client who intends to have construction work carried out, shall fourteen days before that work is carried out, apply to the provincial director in writing for a permit to perform construction work if the intended construction work will
(a)(i) exceed 30 days or will involve more than 300 person days of construction work; and
(ii) includes excavation work; or
(b) includes working at a height where there is a risk of falling OR
(b) where the construction work will include;
(i) the demolition of a structure; or
(ii) the use of explosives
(2) The application to the provincial director contemplated in sub regulation (1) must be done on the form similar to Annexure ? to these Regulations. The following conditions will apply:
(a) The provincial director will issue a permit to perform construction work and a site specific number for each construction site permitting the client to commence with construction work which number will, be displayed, at the main entrance to the site for which the number was issued;
(b)A permit will only be granted where the following documents, fully completed, have been submitted as it appears in regulation 4(1)(a); (b); (i) and proof is to be submitted in writing that the following has been complied with in regulation 4(1) (c); (d); (e); (f); (g); (h); (j)(3) A client shall ensure that the principal contractor keeps a copy of the permit contemplated in sub regulation (1) in the occupational health and safety file for inspection by an inspector, client, client's agent or employee and that the unique number issued with the permit is displayed in an appropriate place at the entrance to the construction site
(4) Without derogating. from sub-regulation 3 (1)(a), a client who intends to have construction work carried out, shall only commence with the construction work if a permit has been issued to the Client for the specific site by the provincial director in writing

There are munch more changes and we will post them for discussion closer to the time of promulgation. Please feel free to contact us should you have any questions or feel free to post your comments here.

[Neil Enslin]

Hi Neels,

I believe we are going in the right directions with these changes made to the Construction Regulations. I hope that this will start some discussion and would like to see what others have to say.

[Richard]

Hi Neels,
Hopefully the wording of the new Regs will clarify a lot of misunderstanding that currently exists. I had hoped that they might be renamed "Construction and Maintenance Regulations" since a large number of staff in the maintence arena are under the mistaken inpression that they don't have to comply!
I look forward to seeing the complete revised text
Richard

[Neil Enslin]

Below are the proposed changes to the Client responsiblity in terms of the Construction Regulation, what do guys think about it?


4. Client

(1) A client shall be responsible for the following in order to ensure compliance with the provisions of the Act:

(a) to prepare a baseline risk assessment for the intended project.
(b) to prepare a suitable, sufficiently documented and site specific health and safety specifications for the intended construction work based on the baseline risk assessment as contemplated in regulation 4.1 (a).
(c) to provide the designer with such health and safety specification as contemplated in regulation 4.1(b).
(d) to ensure that the designer takes this health and safety specification into consideration as contemplated in 9.2 of these regulations.
(e) to ensure that as far as is reasonably practicable the services of an occupational safety practitioner be utilized to give input at the early design stage and where not appointed at this stage, he or she shall be given the opportunity to input at a later stage.
(f) to include the health and safety specification, as contemplated in regulation 4.1(a), (b) & (c), in the tender documents.
(g) to ensure that potential principal contractors submitting tenders, have made adequate provision for the cost of health and safety measures.
(h) to ensure that the principal contractor to be appointed has the necessary competencies and resources to carry out the construction work safely.
(i) to ensure that every principal contractor is registered and in good standing with the compensation fund or with a licensed compensation insurer prior to work commencing on site as contemplated in COIDA; and
(j) to ensure that every principal contractor is registered and in good standing with the UIF, as contemplated in the UIA
(k) to appoint each principal contractor in writing for the project or part thereof on a construction site;
(l) to notify the provincial director in writing of the construction work as contemplated in regulation 3(1);
(m) to discuss and negotiate with the principal contractor the contents of the health and safety plan contemplated in regulation 5(1) and thereafter finally approve the health and safety plan for implementation.
(n) to ensure that no construction work shall commence until such health and safety plan has been approved.
(o) to ensure that a copy of the principal contractor's health and safety plan is available on request to an employee, inspector or contractor.
(p) to ensure that each principal contractor’s health and safety plan as determined in regulation 5(1) is implemented and maintained on the construction site: Provided that the steps taken, shall include periodic health and safety audits at intervals mutually agreed upon between the client and principal contractor, but at least every 14 days.
(q) to ensure that a copy of the audit report as contemplated in regulation 29.3 (d) is provided to the principal contractor within seven days after the audit.
(r) to stop any contractor from executing construction work, which is not in accordance with, the principal contractor's health and safety plan contemplated in regulation 5(1) for the site or which poses a threat to the health and safety of persons;
(s) to ensure that where changes are brought about to the design or construction, sufficient health and safety information and appropriate resources are made available to the principal contractor to execute the work safely;
(t) to ensure that the health and safety file is kept as contemplated in regulation 51(b) and maintained by the Principal Contractor.
(u) Where the client requires additional work to be performed as a result of a design change or as a result of an error in construction due to the actions of the client, the client shall ensure that additional resources are available to perform the required work.
(v) Notwithstanding the requirements of Section 24 of the Act, the client shall ensure that where one or more fatalities or permanent disabling injuries occur on a construction site, the client shall provide the provincial director with a full report as directed by the inspector who is conducting the investigation and must include the measures that the client intends to implement within 30 days to ensure a safe construction site, as far as is reasonably practicable.

(2) Without derogating from his responsibilities or liabilities, a client may appoint an agent in writing to act as his or her representative and where such an appointment is made, the responsibilities as are imposed by these regulations upon a client, shall as far as reasonably practicable apply to the agent so appointed and no client shall appoint any person as an agent, unless such person is a competent person.

(3) The Agent contemplated in subregulation 4 (2) shall be required to perform the duties of the Client as contemplated by regulation 4, and including the following;
(a) Base line risk assessment as contemplated in regulation 4(1)
(b) Safety Management system audits which shall include-
(i) Inspections;
(ii) Surveys;
(iii) Monitoring;
(iv) Incident investigations;
(v) Complaints and
(vi) Audit debriefing to the Client’s project management and the Principal Contractor before leaving the premises
(c) Reporting of information obtained on sub-regulation 1, 2 and 3 to:
(i) The Client, who shall copy the said report to the Principal Contractor within 7 days after the audit.
(ii) Department of Labour where necessary or if required to do so by the Chief Inspector.

[Neil Enslin]

Claire Deacon of OCCUMED cc wrote her thoughts on the proposed inclusion of the work permit, Annexure that will be included in the New Construction Regulation.

Some interesting thoughts for considerations if I may say so. You decide and let us know.

[Neil Enslin]

Below is a question posed by a, Health and Safety officer recently via e-mail, which I believe is a question many,Health and Safety officer will ask. What do you think is the answer to this question? or is it a case of individuals releasing that they might fall short once the proposed changes are made?

"I have become aware that there is amendments to the Construction Regulations of July 2003. One of the proposed amendments is that certain criteria will be stipulated as far as the competency of a SHE Officer is concernd. In line with this I wish to pose the following questions:



1. What is the anticipated competency requirements

2. What if a currently employed SHE Officer does not meet the new requirements, will a timeframe be stipulated to obtain such competency.

3. Will the non competent SHE Officer still be able to practice as a SHE Officer whilst obtaining the required competency."