Christel Fouche

Health and Safety of Children at Work Regulations

  • April 8th, 2010

The Health and Safety of Children at Work regulations were promulgated on the 15th of January 2010 and subsequently added to the list of existing regulations in the Occupational Health and Safety Act, Act 85 of 1993.

The Health and Safety of Children at Work regulations address many previously neglected areas of concern regarding minors in the working environment.

After reading through and studying the new regulations, I have some questions:

  • What happens during the school holidays when children are brought to the working environment and do odd jobs – who approved this and if not – how is this regulated?
  • School children may not work for more than 20 hours per week during school terms and 40 hours per week during school holidays – how do you monitor these hours?
  • Does your insurance cover this extra risk on site?
  • Have you informed your employees (who are the parents of the children) been informed about the hazards and risks pertaining to their children in the work environment and the possible implications?
  • During school holidays, does your organisation offer a child care facility at work and have you considered the legal implications?

You can read my article and comments on the new Health and Safety of Children at Work regulations here.

9 Responses to “Health and Safety of Children at Work Regulations”

  1. Gareth says:
    April 12, 2010 at 9:52 pm

    hi there.

    please help me out….

    im 23 and passionate about health and safety, is there a degree i can do part time as im working as a safety officer? what is the best possible path you would suggest?

    Reply
  2. Christel Fouche says:
    April 15, 2010 at 1:03 pm

    Hi Gareth
    We NEED PASSIONATE people in H&S. I have forwarded the options for further development to you. Good luck and I hope I meet you soon.
    Regards Christel.

    Reply
  3. Johann says:
    June 10, 2010 at 1:54 pm

    Christel

    You have raised valid questions there. I believe the legislature have leave it up to the employers to apply self regulation within the scope of the legislation. So companies have to fill the caps in legislation with procedures.

    Reply
  4. Henry Siboza says:
    June 24, 2010 at 2:56 pm

    Safety of children at work either than child labour is a big problem in our country and in all african countries. The intend of the OSH act is not to make employers to choose either to have minors in their factories / plant / area of work, but not to allow any body ( person under the priscibed age) as per lagislation. So guys employers have a choice of compling with the act or face prosecution.

    Reply
  5. Christel Fouche says:
    July 2, 2010 at 12:33 pm

    Hi Henry
    Thank you for the comment – it does not refer to child labour but the protection of the following groups on your site:
    1. children between the ages of 15 – 17 who dropped out of school and is now emploable
    2. children of your employees who can not stay at home during the school holidays and are on site
    3. children that are doing holiday work for short periods of time
    They still need to be protected. Regards Christel.

    Reply
  6. Teresa Claassen says:
    September 20, 2010 at 11:13 pm

    Hi Christel, Would your baseline risk assessment not eliminate the risk of the three categories as you have noted above, when these would become a probable risk?
    We have a “No under 18″ rule at the company where I work and I passionately enforce that rule.
    With regard to employees’ children (who cannot stay at home during school holidays), this is opening industry up for a huge risk with regard to access. Industry would now probably have to engage and employ out-of-core-business employees (with the necessary skills etc) to look after and baby-sit these under age children on site. Althogh social responsibility is an integral, necessary and legal part of our lives, this is opening industry up for difficult-to-handle risks, and of course, where children are involved, the emitional side of social responsibility goes up tenfold, so does the corporate diligence of the company at stake, go down tenfold, should anything go wrong.
    Regards

    Reply
  7. Christel Fouche says:
    September 21, 2010 at 8:17 am

    Hi Teresa
    Yes – the baseline RA should identify this risk as well – but how many companies actually think this broad and include it? Yes – I agree – this is opening up a huge can of worms – but it is reality – now it is formalized where previously it was not. I believe rather to be pro-active and do something about it and this is where you are correct in saying it should form part of the RA process. Regards Christel.

    Reply
  8. nonyaniso Njwambe says:
    February 12, 2011 at 11:27 pm

    hi, I am concerned of the risk assessments conducted by these companies, do they consider the minors coming into their premises n thus making precautions in that regard. are the parents and their children taken through induction informing them of the risks n hazards. keep in mind that some of these exposures have a long term effect which means the symptoms might present themselves later in their lives and they will be no connection made to their earlier exposure as I suspect that no medical assessments are conducted. this scary and should be discussed further, I think there should be listed industries where no minors will be allowed under any circumstances.

    Reply
    • Henry Siboza says:
      March 21, 2012 at 8:38 pm

      Hi, I am still very much concern about child labour, I recently visited Mpumalanga Province. I have noted several child labour practised in farms, and also some general labour practised in construction areas around Nelspruit in town. I tend to ask my self do we really view child labour in South Africa as it been legislated in our legislation

      Reply

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