Department of Employment and Labour inspectors have issued a prohibition notice to Coega Steel in Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth) after the company was found to have flouted various health and safety regulations.
The discovery of non-compliance became evident after an occupational health and safety inspector received anonymous pictures of a Coega Steel employee with burns on the hands and face due to an explosion that had taken place at the employer’s furnace department.
“The life-threatening incident, which left employees traumatised, revealed that a total of five employees were injured on the day. All these employees sustained multiple burns all over their bodies from face, neck, chest, head and hands to ankles due to the explosion,” the department said.
It is alleged that the incident happened on August 22 during a night shift and was not reported to the department in terms of legislation.
“The employer continued with production on the same day without conducting an internal investigation in order to get to the root cause of the incident, and concluded that the incident was due to human error.”
Employment and labour inspectors handed over a prohibition notice to stop all operations at the furnace department where the explosion had taken place as the employer had taken no action to prevent the reoccurrence of such an incident.
“The employer was further instructed to attend to the traumatised employees. To date the employer has not yet reported the incident as prescribed.
“There is a high rate of fatal incidents in sectors such as agriculture, chemicals, iron and steel as well as construction, and investigations regarding the incident are under way. As the custodians of the Occupational Health and Safety Act, the department will make sure that employee rights are protected and employers who contravene the law are brought to book,” said the department. - SAnews.gov.za
