How to decide who might be harmed and how – The international society raves about the South African constitution where people from, amongst others, all race, gender, religion, political affiliation and sexual orientation have the right to establish a career. But this can be a bone of contention for health and safety practitioners when trying to protect employees from getting harmed.
Establishing who can get harmed in the workplace is essential to determine what measures have to be taken. But the responsibility of the health and safety practitioners goes beyond finding out who is working in the obvious dangerous environments or handles dangerous materials or items. They are also advised to establish what kind of people is represented at the workplace. Most important is, of course, establishing gender but it is also good to know if certain groups demand certain requirements. This includes expecting mothers, people with disabilities, migrant workers and people relatively new to the working environment. Each of these special groups can have specific requirements that elsewhere wouldn't have been considered.
Health and safety practitioner are obliged by law to establish a safe and healthy work environment where everybody can succeed. While many companies, these days, try to cut cost by producing a product in mass quantities, a 'one size fits all' approach by the health and safety practitioner will certainly not be the way to go.
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