The OHS Act: what it asks of cleaning, security and facilities employers

01

What the OHS Act says, and who it applies to

The Occupational Health and Safety Act 85 of 1993 came into force on 1 January 1994. Its purpose, in the words of its long title, is to provide for the health and safety of persons at work and in connection with the use of plant and machinery, and to protect people who are not at work from hazards arising from the activities of those who are. It applies to every workplace in South Africa except mines, mining areas and works, which have their own law; a further exclusion for certain ships, boats and floating cranes is written into the Act, but its commencement is still to be proclaimed.

The central duty is section 8(1): "Every employer shall provide and maintain, as far as is reasonably practicable, a working environment that is safe and without risk to the health of his employees." Section 8(2) says that includes safe systems of work; removing or reducing a hazard before resorting to personal protective equipment; establishing the hazards of the work, substances and equipment and the precautions needed; providing information, instructions, training and supervision; not letting work start until the precautions are in place; and enforcing them.

Section 9(1) extends the duty outward: an employer must conduct its undertaking so that people other than its employees who may be directly affected, such as visitors, tenants, learners, shoppers and the client's own staff, are not exposed to hazards. For a cleaning or security company on someone else's premises, both sections apply at once.

"Reasonably practicable" is defined in section 1. It weighs the severity and scope of the hazard or risk, what is known about it and about ways to remove or mitigate it, whether suitable means are available, and the cost against the benefits. The more serious the hazard, the more is expected.

02

The sections that matter day to day

Beyond sections 8 and 9, a handful of key provisions set out the responsibilities that do most of the work on an ordinary site:

• Section 13, duty to inform. Every employee must be made conversant with the hazards of their work and the precautions to take, and a health and safety representative must be told of an incident in their area as soon as reasonably practicable.
• Section 14, duties of employees. Take reasonable care, co-operate, obey the health and safety rules, report an unsafe situation as soon as practicable, and report an incident that injured you by the end of the shift in which it happened.
• Section 16, the chief executive officer. The CEO must ensure, as far as is reasonably practicable, that the employer's duties are properly discharged, and may assign duties to people under their control without shedding their own responsibility: the 16.2 appointment.
• Sections 17 to 20, representatives and committees. An employer with more than 20 employees at a workplace designates health and safety representatives in writing, at least one for every 100 employees in a shop or office and one for every 50 elsewhere. Where there are two or more, it sets up a health and safety committee, which meets at least once every three months.
• Section 24, reporting incidents to an inspector, covered below.
• Section 37, acts of employees and mandataries. An employer is presumed to have done what its employee did unless it proves the act was unauthorised, outside the employee's authority, and that it took all reasonable steps to prevent it. A mandatary, which the Act defines to include a contractor or subcontractor, is treated the same way unless the parties have agreed in writing how the mandatary will comply: the section 37(2) agreement.

Section 37 deserves a second look from anyone who runs contract staff. An instruction forbidding an act "shall not, in itself, be accepted as sufficient proof that he took all reasonable steps to prevent the act". A rule in a file is not enough; the employer must show it was trained, supervised and enforced.

03

The regulations that reach cleaning and security work

Most practical requirements live in regulations made under the Act. For a building, a cleaning contract or a guarding contract, these are the ones most often in play:

• The General Administrative Regulations, 2003 (R. 929 of 25 June 2003). An employer with five or more employees must have a copy of the Act and the relevant regulations readily available at the workplace (regulation 4). Regulations 8 and 9 set how incidents are reported, recorded and investigated.
• The General Safety Regulations (R. 1031 of 30 May 1986). Under regulation 3, more than five employees at a workplace need a first aid box at or near it, and more than 10 need at least one person with a valid first aid certificate readily available for every group of up to 50 employees (up to 100 in a shop or office). A notice must say where the box is and who is in charge of it. See the first aid box checklist.
• The 2025 amendment to the General Safety Regulations (Government Notice 5954, Government Gazette 52226 of 6 March 2025). Regulation 2(1) requires every employer to evaluate the risk of any condition its activities create and make it safe. New regulation 13H requires every indoor workplace to be kept clean, orderly and free of materials not needed for the work, and floors, walkways, stairs and passages to be in good repair, skid-free and free of obstructions and waste. New regulation 13J requires escape doors to be kept clear and easy to open from inside, fire escape staircases to be kept clear, and firefighting equipment to be maintained in good working order.
• The Facilities Regulations, 2004 (R. 924 of 3 August 2004). Toilet paper and soap free of charge, a seat on every pan designed for one, towels or hand dryers, drinking water, and, in regulation 9, every room and facility they cover kept "in a clean, hygienic, safe, whole and leak-free condition, and in a good state of repair". Those are the ablution facilities a cleaning team keeps.
• The Regulations for Hazardous Chemical Agents, 2021. They apply wherever work may expose a person to a hazardous chemical agent, which can include some cleaning chemicals. Regulation 5(1) requires an assessment of exposure, after consulting the health and safety representative or committee, immediately and then at intervals not exceeding two years. See hazardous chemical agents.

04

Who does what when the work is contracted out

A contract cleaner or a grade C officer on a client's premises works inside two sets of duties. Their own employer owes them the section 8 duty wherever they are posted. The client, in control of the premises, owes them the section 9 duty, and owes its own staff and visitors a safe building whoever is working in it. Neither can hand the whole duty to the other. In practice the division is agreed on paper:

1. The section 37(2) agreement, setting out in writing how the contractor will comply on the client's premises.
2. 16.2 appointments on both sides: the provider's contract manager or site supervisor, the client's facilities or building manager.
3. Risk assessment. The provider assesses its own work, such as chemicals, wet floors, lone working at night and patrols of car parks and plant rooms; the client shares the hazards of the building. See hazard identification and risk assessment.
4. Induction and site rules. Section 13 applies to every person posted there: for an officer, the site instructions as well as company training; for a cleaner, the chemicals, equipment and areas that need care.
5. Representatives. Section 17(5) deems employees who work away from where they ordinarily report for duty to be working where they report. How that applies to staff permanently posted at a client's building is worth settling when representatives are arranged.

Many clients ask a contractor for a safety file before work starts, kept current for the life of the contract. For a service contract it is usually a contractual requirement, but most of the documents in it are ones the Act and its regulations ask for.

05

Incidents, records and what an inspector can do

Section 24(1) requires an employer to report to an inspector any incident at work in which a person dies, becomes unconscious, loses a limb or part of one, or is injured or ill enough that they are likely to die, suffer a permanent physical defect or be unable to work for at least 14 days; any major incident; and any dangerous occurrence such as a hazardous spill or machinery running out of control. After a death or serious injury, section 24(2) forbids disturbing the site without an inspector's consent, except to prevent a further incident or rescue people. The General Administrative Regulations set the clocks and the record:

• Within seven days of a section 24(1)(a) incident, notice to the provincial director on the form the regulation calls WCL 1 or WCL 2 (regulation 8(1)(a));
• forthwith, by telephone or similar means, after a death, loss of consciousness or a limb, or a likely permanent defect, and for any incident under section 24(1)(b) or (c) (regulation 8(1)(b)), and for an incident to a person who is not an employee (regulation 8(3));
• a record in the form of Annexure 1, kept at the workplace for at least three years and open to an inspector, of every reportable incident and every other incident needing medical treatment other than first aid (regulation 9(1));
• an investigation begun within seven days and finalised as soon as reasonably practicable (or within the contracted period for contracted workers), by the employer, a person it appoints, a representative or a committee member, with the findings entered in Annexure 1 as soon as it is complete (regulation 9(2) and (3)).

That report is separate from a compensation claim for an employee hurt at work. See incident reporting and investigation and injury on duty.

The Department's guide What every worker and employer should know about health and safety in the workplace explains that inspectors may issue a prohibition notice that stops an activity at once, a contravention notice for a breach of a regulation, usually with 60 days to put it right, and a direction notice prescribing better measures. They may ask for any document the employer keeps and demand an explanation of any entry in it.

The penalties are in section 38(1): contravening sections such as 8, 9, 13, 14, 16, 17(1) or 24 is an offence carrying, in the Act as published in 1993, a fine of up to R50 000, imprisonment of up to one year, or both.

06

Where the record fails, and what SiteClara does about it

Most OHS Act paperwork on a contracted site is done once and filed: appointments, the section 37(2) agreement, the risk assessment, the induction register. What goes wrong is the daily part the regulations describe: ablutions kept clean and in good repair, passages and fire escapes kept clear, the first aid box stocked, the unsafe condition reported before the shift ends. That lives on a sheet inside the store room door, often signed ahead for the week. When an inspector or the client asks what was done on a given night, the answer is a signature, not a time.

SiteClara records routine checks where they happen. A printed QR poster, with an optional NFC tag behind it, sits at each location, such as an ablution block, a fire escape, a plant room door or a guard point. Cleaners, officers and supervisors scan or tap on their own phone, with no app to install, see the checks due there, and mark each one done or say what stopped them, with a photo when one is asked for. The time and the named person are recorded as it happens. A hazard or fault reported there goes onto the team's list of open jobs until someone closes it.

The supervisor sees what is due, done and missed, gives the reason a check was missed, and approves a daily report that goes to the client's facilities manager and other nominated contacts at 8am the next morning: what was reported, completed and still open, and how the scheduled checks went.

07

Questions people ask

What is section 7 of the OHS Act?

Under section 7 of the Occupational Health and Safety Act 85 of 1993, the chief inspector may direct an employer in writing, or a category of employers by notice in the Gazette, to prepare a written health and safety policy describing the organisation and its arrangements for carrying out and reviewing the policy. The employer must display the policy prominently, signed by the chief executive officer, where its employees normally report for service.

What is section 14 of the OHS Act?

Section 14 of the Occupational Health and Safety Act 85 of 1993 sets the general duties of employees: take reasonable care of themselves and others, co-operate with the employer, obey lawful orders and the health and safety rules, report an unsafe or unhealthy situation as soon as practicable, and report an incident that injured them or may affect their health by the end of the shift in which it happened.

What rights does a worker have under the OHS Act?

Under the Occupational Health and Safety Act 85 of 1993, a worker must be told the hazards of the work and the precautions (section 13), may not be made to pay, or have deductions made, for anything the employer must provide for their health or safety (section 23), and may not be dismissed or disadvantaged for giving information the Act requires, complying with an inspector, giving evidence or refusing to do something the Act prohibits (section 26).

Does the OHS Act apply to a small business?

Yes: the section 8 and 9 duties in the Occupational Health and Safety Act 85 of 1993 apply to every employer, whatever its size. Some obligations start at a headcount: a copy of the Act and regulations at the workplace from five employees (regulation 4 of the General Administrative Regulations), a first aid box above five and a trained first aider above 10 (regulation 3 of the General Safety Regulations), and health and safety representatives above 20 (section 17 of the Act).

08

Where to read the official text, and a list to take away

The Act is on gov.za (Occupational Health and Safety Act 85 of 1993), with the amending Act 181 of 1993. The Department of Employment and Labour publishes the regulations and its plain-language guide Health and safety in the workplace. Gazette notices such as the 2025 amendment change the regulations from time to time, so check for the current text before relying on an old copy. On a site you run or service, check that:

• a copy of the Act and the relevant regulations is at the workplace;
• 16.2 appointments are in writing, current, and name people actually on site;
• a signed section 37(2) agreement is in place with every contractor;
• hazards are assessed and every employee has been told of them;
• representatives are designated above 20 employees, and a committee meets at least every three months where there are two or more;
• the first aid box is stocked and signposted with the name of the person in charge;
• ablutions, passages, stairs and escape routes are checked, clean and clear, and each check is recorded when it is done;
• incidents are reported in time, entered in Annexure 1 and kept for three years, and each investigation is begun within seven days.