New SA COVID-19 Laws for companies of 50 Employees and more- October 2020

New government regulations stipulate that weekly reports of your company’s COVID-19 procedures and statuses are to be sent to the Department of Labour if you have more than 50 EMPLOYEES, this only previously applied to companies that had 500 employees or more.

The new rules are gazetted in the “Consolidated Direction on Occupational Health and Safety measures for CERTAIN workplaces” which came out on 01 October 2020. In the gazette it states, amongst other things, the following:

1.      An employer with more than 50 employees must submit a record of its Risk Assessment and COVID-19 Health and Safety Policy/Plan.

2.      The employer to submit a WEEKLY REPORT of the number of issues in their workplace (eg. Vulnerability status, screening details, testing results, high risk contacts, post infection outcomes, etc.)

3.      New procedures on employees that are infected with the virus, as well as employees exposed to infected persons.

4.      Different levels of risks.

5.      High exposures to COVID-19, and workers refusing to work in such conditions.

6.      Non-compliances and disputes.

7.      Appointments of COVID-19 Compliance Officers and Managers.

8.      Details of COVID-19 Screening and Isolation procedures.

9.      The number of employees considered High Risk in your workplace.

10.  Etc.

Companies based in Cape Town can send their data and weekly reports to: Fezeka Ngalo |Specialist: Occupational health and safety | Provincial Office: Western Cape |mailto: [email protected]

Your local Department of Labour in other provinces can be contacted to submit your weekly reports.

If you would like a copy of the above-mentioned Gazette or would like more information you are welcomed to email me: [email protected]

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