Mining Weekly reports that legal firm Webber Wentzel’s annual Mining Roundup seminar heard on Thursday that the mining industry in SA responded well to the new directives to prevent the spread of Covid-19 and to ensure employee health.
The firm’s occupational health and safety specialist partner Kate Collier said: "The mining industry proved adaptable and willing to change its practices to ensure the safety and productivity of employees. Mines included key role players in their planning, as well as identifying where the roles of employees and leaders had changed and changing their roles as the legal regulations developed or to serve their risk mitigation strategies developed internally." The role of occupation medical practitioners (OMPs) also changed as the Covid-19 regulations developed because their role included not only employee health but also public health aspects. Labour law specialist partner Lizle Louw said: "The key themes we identified include changes to business risk management and communicating with employees on a daily basis, as well as these changes moving outside the scope of purely health regulations to identify what boards and management teams must do to keep operations safe and productive. The role of the OMP has become increasingly important, specifically in relation to vulnerable employees.” Louw went on to advise: "We have seen mines take all measures to avoid termination, including annual sick leave, reskilling options and mutual separation options. If termination is necessary, incapacity, as defined in labour law, should be relied upon because there was no misconduct by the employee, nor is it a retrenchment in terms of operational requirements.”
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard at Mining Weekly
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