Opportunities await OHS graduates as government seeks to create fully fledged industry

As government plans to make substantial changes to South Africa's Occupational Health and Safety Act, which will place stricter obligations on companies across all sectors, career opportunities in the OHS industry are expected to skyrocket, experts say.

With South Africa's work environment having undergone major transformations over the past 25 years, the Department of Labour has highlighted the need for amendments to the Occupational Health and Safety Act, 1993. Speaking at the 2018 Saiosh Health and Safety Conference, Africa's largest OHS conference, the Department of Labour's Chief OHS inspector, Tibor Szana, said regulations now need to cover a much wider range of businesses.

"Our biggest concern was that we needed to address small, medium and micro enterprises, the informal sector and township businesses. They form a big component of the economy and the same rules need to apply. Health and hygiene forms a major part of industry and the regulations will address that going forward, too," said Szana.

In order to achieve these and other objectives, the Occupational Health and Safety Amendment Bill was approved for submission to Parliament in May 2018 and is currently being debated. Once adopted into law, the revised act will place stricter regulations on employers in areas such as risk assessment, safety management systems, employees' rights to leave the workplace, and the functioning of health and safety committees. Szana warned that employers who fail to meet regulations will now also face increased offences and penalties.

"There are always companies that want to comply, but there are those that don't care about their workers. The purpose of the amended act is to prevent people from getting injured. Compliance costs less than non-compliance, in both money and time."

While the amended Act will ramp up the pressure on employers to comply with regulations, it is also expected to provide a significant boost to South Africa's OHS industry.

"This being the 100th year of OHS in South Africa, the amendments seek to develop OHS into a fully fledged industry. We will see a very different professional landscape in five to 10 years' time," said Szana.

The Department of Labour is already working on placing another 500 inspectors on the ground in order to better enforce OHS regulations. Marietjie Bester from Oxbridge Academy, one of the leaders in providing OHS training in South Africa, says this is just one area which can provide encouragement to OHS students or recent graduates looking for work.

"The Department is making clear that it intends to improve law enforcement in OHS. The new regulations will bring about an increased level of enforcement and monitoring. This opens up new opportunities for professionals, such as OHS inspectors or mine examiners," Bester remarks.

In addition, the stricter obligations on employers could result in a wealth of new job opportunities for OHS graduates across the board.

"In order to avoid the harsher penalties, employers are going to need people who can ensure that health and safety obligations are fulfilled. In the coming years, we may well see a rise in demand for occupations such as safety officers, health and safety managers, environmental protection officers and others," Bester says.

It seems there could be no better time than now to pursue a career in OHS.