A legal analysis of the employers' duty to provide a safe and health working environment in the mining sector in South Africa

Abstract

This study discusses a legal analysis of the employer’s duty to provide a safe and health working environment in the mining sector in South Africa. The employer’s duty refers to the obligations and responsibilities which the employer has towards their employees in the workplace. Employer must adopt reasonable and practicable measures to ensure the safety and health of employees. Employer has a duty to ensure that the mode in which employees conduct their work obligations is safe and does not detrimentally affect their health. Safe and health working environment entails that mine workers perform their work obligations free from harm, risks or death. Sadly, in South Africa, the implementation, compliance, and enforcement of this duty has been done on a slow pace, and there is need to accelerate it, to mitigate the risks involved in the mining sector. The mining sector is a dangerous workplace which requires strict compliance to health and safety standards. Measures, policies, and legislation can curb safety and health in the mining sector. This study will benefit the law, the government of South Africa and employers in the mining sector to prioritize safety and health in the mining sector to mitigate harm and fatalities in the mining sector.