COSATU NOBs, Comrades from our Affiliates, our Provinces represented by the provincial organisers, colleagues from the Department of Labour, Department of Health, the Compensation Fund and the ILO, colleagues and comrades, welcome and thank you very much for joining this important workshop.

Comrades as we gather here today, we are here on behalf of more than 1.4 million workers we organise across all sectors of our economy. Safe work is not a privilege comrades; it is a right of all workers across sectors and our members rely on us to ensure that employers comply with safety regulations. We have called for this important workshop because it is about time that COSATU and its Affiliates have robust engagements about the current status of occupational health safety in the country and what it means for workers and what COSATU should be doing to address these challenges faced by workers. The CEC of COSATU has adopted a programme for provinces and Affiliates to identify companies that are not complying with labour regulations including, OHS, COIDA, Minimum Wage. Affiliates and Provinces need to develop a campaign on this and ensure that we expose and force these workers to comply with the law. We see all these deaths and injuries as a clear failure of policy justice. We will not stand by while our comrades are sacrificed at the hands of corporate greed and government complacency.

All of you here comrades must develop those programmes and be proactive and not wait for disaster to strike before COSATU is seen to be doing something. We can’t only want to be active and visible when workers have died like in the George collapse, or the Sea Harvest Disaster, or very recently the disaster of the Thembisa Hospital fire. To date, the Employer of the workers who died at the George building collapse has been arrested or made to account for the loss of life for workers. The Families of the Sea Harvest workers who died at sea have not yet received their compensation more than a year after the incident happened. We have seen recently the death of a female worker who was killed by her partner in the workplace at the Pick n Pay during working hours. There are many cases comrades and COSATU needs to be on the ground ensuring that employers comply with regulations of this country and workers are equally trained and fully capacitated on OHS matters. All of us here comrades must have a collective effort that ensures that every workplace has a health and safety committee and OHS Reps who are fully active at workplace and shopfloor level. The employer has no right to appoint Reps to serve on the OHS workplace committee on behalf of workers. Workers have the right to nominate their won Reps and the employer can only appoint his Employer Reps.

The ILO Constitution sets forth the principle that workers should be protected from sickness, disease and injury arising from their employment and yet, for millions of workers the reality is very different. According to ILO estimates, every year 2.34 million workers die due to occupational fatalities, 2.2 million of which result from work-related diseases, which is equivalent to 5,500 deaths every day. I think we can all agree that these figures are alarming comrades, and it cannot be business as usual for as long as workers keep dying at this rate as a result of unsafe workplaces.

This causes huge suffering for workers and their families and serious economic losses for economies and societies. Many of these tragedies are preventable through the implementation of sound preventive measures, information and training, adequate inspection and the commitment of government, employers and workers to occupational safety and health. Government, employers and workers all have an interest in safe and healthy workplaces, and this offers a sound basis for successful social dialogue and consensus building.

Chief Inspector, what is happening with the amendment of the OHS Bill? This process started back in 2016 through a NEDLAC process and to date the Bill has not been finalised. The department must tell us what is the reason for the delay because COSATU participated in this amendment process through the ACOHS and the unexplained delay by the Department of Employment & Labour in processing the Bill has been reckless and has compromised the rights of workers and South Africa’s international obligations. We call on the urgent finalisation of this process Chief Inspector and the Bill be tabled at parliament.

Comrades we do acknowledge that the inspectorate plays a crucial role in the enforcement of workplace health and safety standards and the protection of workers. It must be independent, capacitated and fearless in performing its duties. The inspectorate must recognize the critical role played in health and safety by workplace health and safety representatives and registered trade unions and must actively involve them in their workplace inspections, investigations and accident inquiries. Organised Labour must accompany Inspectors when they go to workplaces to conduct inspections, especially in the farms and other sectors that employs vulnerable workers because we continue to receive cases of Employer abuse, non-compliance and a total disregard of the law. If we are to talk collaboration and strategic approach to enhancing decent work, the department of labour must recognise this critical role played by organised labour towards achieving this goal.

When it comes to issues of compensation fund comrades, workers continue to face great challenges and difficulties in accessing compensation for injuries on duty. The COSATU call centre receives many calls from workers seeking help because of the frustration they experience from the CF. It can’t be correct that when workers are injured on duty, they must still struggle to access their money comrades. Other workers are left with permanent disabilities and others even die on duty but the CF must push them from pillar to post just to access what is due to them. This cant be correct comrades and the compensation fund must leave this workshop having clarified its claim processes and its turnaround strategy. It must also tell us about its challenges so that we collaborate in finding solutions for workers

Lastly comrades, as COSATU we need to ensure that we continue to demand that:

• Health and safety rights of workers are prioritised
• No worker must suffer to access compensation after injury on duty
• And that the Department of Employment and Labour must enforce the law not merely observe from the sidelines.

COSATU will not rest until every worker, in every sector, every mine, every farm, every factory, every workplace is safe, protected, and empowered.

Amandla!!!!!

Solly Phetoe (General Secretary) of the Congress of South African Trade Unions