Business Unity South Africa (BUSA) have put together a number of workplace readiness tools to help businesses that are reopening to put in place the necessary occupational health and safety provisions to enable a safe Return2Work. The following documents has reference:
- Workplace readiness practice note – provides minimum practice guidelines for all employers to resume operations safely and minimise the risk of COVID-19 transmission to workers.Practice Note – Workplace readiness_30April2020 (clean, links to come)
- CEO declaration template – confirmation that the employer has completed the required procedures and planning processes to safely resume operations at level 4 lockdown.CEO Declaration Template_30April_vf
- Risk assessment and management tool – a planning tool to aid a company to assess their COVID-19 related risks (tab 1) and then put in place plans and controls to mitigate those risks (tab 2). Note that this should be done with the workplace occupational health and safety committee, if applicable. R2W Risk Assessment & Management Tool_vf
- Risk adjusted strategy regulations – as issued last night, note in particular page 15 and Annexure E that have been included in the practice note and CEO declaration. Risk Adjusted Strategy Regulations 29 April 2020
Note, these documents seek to incorporate all the relevant official requirements, but do not replace the law. If a business has already assessed its occupational health and safety risks and put in place a plan, the business need not use these tools. The material is provided for guidance in the absence of the business having a process and plan in place; or as an additional reference to ensure that all important risk factors and control measures are considered. It is important to remind all businesses to keep their occupational health and safety records, and risk management approach available in the event that it is required for reporting or compliance purposes.
These documents will be available for download this evening on the following Return2Work website at: https://www.return2work.co.za/ together with official reference documents and resources. We will add further useful links to resources over the coming days and weeks. Note that the sector planning tool is already loaded and available on the website.