Today many South Africans are expected to return to work. This includes employers and employees in manufacturing, construction, supply chain, wholesale and retail, public service and administration, information and communication services as well as agriculture, forestry and fishing.
In his address to the media on Sunday, Employment and Labour Minister Thulas Nxesi made it very clear that all employers and companies are expected to adhere to the Covid-19 regulations and ensure workplaces comply with the country’s health and safety laws.
This, Nxesi said, includes that companies are expected to dig out of their own pockets and provide workers with the appropriate personal protective equipment (PPEs). These laws are not only governed by the Covid-19 regulations, but also by the Labour Act.
What is, however, not clear yet is the lengths to which the government will go in holding companies that contravene these regulations accountable.
Over the years we have been witness to incidents where many workers have faced grim exploitation at the hands of their employers.
Recently, Independent Media titles ran a story in which a company was flagged for allegedly not adhering to social distancing at its facilities, and compelling up to 50 workers to share one sanitiser per week.
For several weeks now, the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union and Cosatu have been relentless in their call for public health-care workers to be provided with PPEs.
The unions went as far as dragging Health Minister Zweli Mkhize to court over what they termed government’s “failure” to provide health-care workers with the correct gear.
While their application was dismissed with costs, this should not detract from the fact that it is imperative that people’s lives are not put in jeopardy by companies that seek to recoup lost time and profits. In fact, companies that breach the regulations should not only be fined, but shut down indefinitely for placing the lives of many in danger.
Over the past fortnight it has become evident our economy is struggling, like many around the world, and that we need to ease the regulations. In the same breath, we cannot be lax about how we conduct our business.
Today should not be business as usual, but rather our business should be conducted with the utmost precaution so that we can save lives.