What the law requires

As required by the Occupational Health and Safety Act no 85 of 1993, Contractors Regulation section 7, the duties of a Principal Contractor and Contractor are stipulated ... as follow:

“A principal contractor must provide and demonstrate to the client a suitable, sufficiently documented and coherent site specific health and safety plan, based on the clients documented health and safety specifications contemplated in regulation 5(1)(b) which plan must be applied from the date of commencement of and for the duration of the construction work and which must be reviewed and updated by the Principal Contractor as work progress”

The elephant in the room

The personal liability that comes with the Health & Safety legal requirement demands good record keeping and administrative structure. Having to ... focus on the many challenges of planning and managing a project, leaves no time available to study and understand the Occupational Health and Safety Act, let alone complying with it.

Appointing a person with the specialized knowledge full time can be very expensive and not justified for the size or frequency of projects. Consultants are only a part solution as the requirement is not a once-off, but specific for every project.

Another challenge is having all the up-to-date records available for inspection as needed on site. This means that the day-to-day inspection and testing records must be complete and kept in a file on site. When multiple entities are working on the project, this can become a logistical nightmare in an office, let alone on a construction site.

What the website does

• Provides a DIY tool to build your own Health and Safety file, through answering questions, identifying risks from an available list ... and uploading the required documents, records and information.
• Contractor profile is retained and automatically included in all Health and Safety files created.
• Site and project specific information is generated per project.
• File is available electronically and can be accessed and updated via computer or mobile phone, allowing inspections to be completed and file on site.

A simplified system

• Employee register with medical certificates, training and appointment records
• Chemical register with MSDS ... records
• Equipment register with service, testing and inspection records
• Maintain client, site and sub-contractor network
• Facilitates the compiling of a Health & Safety plan and file as required by the Construction Regulation by the Construction Regulation:
  • Stipulate project criteria
  • Identify mandataries, contractors and responsibilities
  • Facilitate risk identification
  • System creates a dashboard for requirements based on the above
  • Flag all outstanding requirements
  • Flag all expiry dates
  • Provide generic templates for all forms, appointments, checklists, etc.
• Populates a simplified, integrated management system tailor made for each project
• The system accomodates the use of company own documents
• File is electronically available to all approved users including client per project via computer, tablet or cell phone
• Project administration and inspection records can be uploaded on-the-go
• Completed H&S file can be stored online or download
• Collaboration and file approval is done electronically
• Project file activity [document uploading, declaration checkbox approval, T&C approval] IP address and login detail audit trial kept
• All generic information is completed once, thereafter system collates the required information based on the role players & risks selected