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Effective health and safety workplace inspections for employers and contractors in South Africa can be a useful management control which attempts to pick up any non-conformances before an incident or accident occurs. By critically examining the workplace, inspections can also help identify and record any hazards and risks for corrective action.

Health and safety inspections for employers and contractors forms a vital part of a proper health and safety management system. Inspections such as these allow the employer and contractor to ensure that the workplace and work activities are health and safe. They also work to reduce and prevent incidents, injuries, illnesses, and even death.

Small and medium business entities (SMEs) in South Africa face numerous challenges, with the compilation of the Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) file as one of these challenges. This file is one which is compiled by trained and competent OHS practitioners or a team of professionals who have the correct skills, knowledge, experience, and qualifications.

Leadership plays a crucial role in promoting organisational values as well as behaviours towards the transformation of health and safety performance and overall protection of employees along with service providers, contractors, and members of the public.

In the workplace, where it is not possible to reduce or eliminate hazards or risks completely, and where employees are exposed to potentially high hazards and risks, it is imperative for a permit to work system to be implemented, monitored, and maintained. The purpose of this blog is to provide guidance for employers and contractors on Permit to Work (PTW) Systems, the training and competence needed, general design, and work planning as well as risk assessment.

When considering the health and safety requirements in which both employees and employers have a duty, there may still be some health and safety hazards and risks that cannot be reduced or eliminated. For this reason, there must be a permit to work system in place which is effective. The purpose of the blog is to provide guidance for employers and contractors on Permit to Work (PTW) Systems and the various responsibilities associated with them.

In numerous industries it is not always possible to reduce or eliminate safety and health hazards and risks. For this reason, there must be permitted to work (PTW) systems which form part of the task risk assessment process. The purpose of the sections below is to provide a guidance for employers and contractors on Permit to Work (PTW) Systems, what they are, when they are required, the essentials needed for such systems, and how roles can be harmonised with permit to work systems.

The purpose of the permit to work is that it helps to reduce the risk of safety incidents. This is done by ensuring that people involved with certain high-risk tasks are aware of the specific hazards, that they take the necessary precautions and that they are competent to conduct the task.

OHS Online - Permit to Work for Contractors and Health and Safety Overview There are some tasks that carry some inherent hazards. To ensure that these hazards are adequately and correctly controlled, it is appropriate to operate and maintain a permit to work system. OHS Online – Permit to work for contractors and health and safety, is a key factor which may be misinterpreted and even misused. It must not be confused with a risk assessment but as an addition to such a process. The procedure will assist managers in identifying the types of tasks that require a permit to work, who is responsible for raising and closing such a permit, and what the role of the contractor or maintenance personnel will play in the process. It should be noted that the procedure on permits to work is accompanied by task identification registers as well as the permit to work which must be completed by the relevant parties. The permit to work system must form part of the Occupational Health and Safety programme, it must be maintained, monitored, and reviewed for its effectiveness to ensure a consistently healthy and safe work environment.