The National Employers Association of South Africa (Neasa) has warned that it will legally challenge the government’s proposed new “impractical” and “confusing” regulations for dealing with Covid-19 in the workplace once the national State of Disaster has been lifted.
Neasa CEO, Gerhard Papenfus, said the organisation would immediately take the government to court if the Code of Good Practice: Managing Exposure to SARS-CoV-2 in the Workplace, which was gazetted on March 15, came into effect.
The new regulations aim to guide employers in managing exposure to Covid in the workplace and include directions on risk assessment in terms of the Occupational Health and Safety Act and the Hazardous Biological Agents Regulations, the development of a plan to limit infection, and how to manage isolation and absenteeism for dealing with employees who refuse to be vaccinated.
The government plans for the code to come into effect when the state of disaster ends.
“The moment the Code of Good Practice: Managing Exposure to SARS-CoV-2 in the Workplace becomes operational – immediately upon the lifting of the current State of Disaster – Neasa will approach the High Court to challenge its legality.
“We are perturbed by the contents of the newly introduced code and the accompanying regulations in respect of Hazardous Biological Agents (HBA) in the workplace,” Papenfus said.
He added that the regulations were “impractical” and “confusing” and ignored the truth about the virus and its latest Omicron variant as well as the appropriateness of vaccines, while placing “massive” and “unreasonable” administrative and legal obligations on employers.
He also points out that the inclusion of the virus as an HBA in the regulations, effectively required every employer to comply with all the HBA regulations.
“The Occupational Health and Safety Act and the HBA regulations were designed to mitigate the risk of exposure to an HBA which originated in the workplace, and to prevent the possible transmission to the community.
“Covid-19 does not originate in the workplace but is already circulating freely in all communities,” Papenfus said.
He argues that the Constitution guarantees the right to ‘just administrative action’ by public bodies.
“It is our view that the minister’s actions in respect of the ‘Code’ and the HBA-regulations are neither lawful nor reasonable and in contravention of the principle of legality, which is one of the founding values of the Constitution.”
He said Neasa had already instructed its legal team to bring an application to review and set aside the code, immediately upon its implementation.
He said Neasa was also considering taking legal action regarding the amendments to regulations relating to the surveillance and the control of notifiable medical conditions under the National Health Act, which would make the Covid-19 lock-down permanent.
“The proposed regulations will undoubtedly continue to cause significant damage to the already battered and bruised South African economy.
“The majority of South Africans are already beyond the Covid-19 ‘scare’ and government’s attempt to bring them back and under government’s control by means of these regulations is simply contra-productive,” Papenfus added.
