OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH ACT, 2006.

An Act to consolidate, harmonise and update the law relating to occupational safety and health; to repeal the Factories Act, Cap. 220 and to provide for connected matters.

PART I
PRELIMINARY.

1. Commencement.

This Act shall come into force on a date to be appointed by the Minister by statutory instrument and different dates may be appointed for the commencement of different provisions.

2. Interpretation.

In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires—

"air receiver" means any vessel (other than a pipe or coil, or an accessory, fitting or part of a compressor) for containing compressed air, connected with an air compressing plant or any fixed vessel for containing compressed air or compressed exhaust gases, used for the purpose of starting an internal combustion engine;

"area under the influence of" includes any area where the fall of the contaminant released directly or indirectly from an undertaking may come to rest or be present and cause its deleterious effect whether in its original form or in a chemically modified form through natural processes having been carried here by prevailing wind, rain water run-off or by any other natural agent, and any area where dangerous levels of the contaminant may be present and cause its effects, having been taken there through the effluent or other waste disposal methods used at the undertaking;

"article" means solid, liquid or gas or any of their combination or any plant designed for use or operation (whether exclusively or not) by persons at work or any article designed for use as a component in any plant or work process;

"authorised person" means in relation to the performance of any function or duty under this Act, a person who is authorised in writing by the Commissioner for Occupational Safety and Health, to perform that function or duty;

"bodily injury" includes injury to health;

"building operation" means the construction, structural alteration, repair or maintenance of a building (including re-painting, re-decoration and external cleaning of the structure), the demolition of a building, but does not include any operation which is a work of engineering construction within the meaning of this Act;

"chemical substance" means any natural or artificial substance intended for use in any physical state whether gaseous, liquid or solid and in particular includes; pesticides, fungicides, fumigants, herbicides, wood preservatives, fertilizers, growth control chemicals, industrial chemicals, laboratory chemicals, solvents, pharmaceuticals and food preservatives and food additives;

"class or description" in relation to a workplace, includes a group of workplaces described by reference to locality;

"Commissioner" means the Commissioner for Occupational Safety and Health and includes any other inspector authorised to act on his or her behalf, by the appointing authority;

"competent authority" means a government department, or other public authority with the power to issue regulations, orders or other instructions having the force of law;

"competent person" means a person with suitable training and sufficient knowledge, experience and skill for the performance of specific work;

"confined space" includes any chamber, vat, pit, pipe, flue, tank, drain, sewer, still, tower or any other confined space (other than a steam boiler) where there may be a concentration of dangerous fumes, toxic materials or substances, harmful liquids or lack of oxygen, that cause danger to the health of an employed person;

"currency point" has the meaning assigned to it in Schedule 1;

"dangerous occurrence" means a readily identifiable event, with potential to cause an injury, or disease to persons at work or the public;

"driving belt" includes any driving strap or rope;

"fatal occupational injury" means occupational injury leading to death;

"fume" includes gas or vapour;

"gas" means any combustible gas produced for the purpose of heating or lighting;

"gas plant" means any plant, apparatus or machine for generating gas (including any container holding compressed, dissolved or liquified gas under pressure) connected to a system of appliances or points and includes all pipes and appliances for storing the gas, or for conveying or regulating the flow of the gas to the places where it is to be used, but excludes any plant, apparatus, machine, pipes or appliances used solely in connection with a single private dwelling-house;

"General Register" means the register kept in accordance with the requirements of section 112;

"health" in relation to work means not merely the absence of diseases or infirmity, it includes the physical and mental elements affecting health which are indirectly or directly related to safety and hygiene at work;

"incident" means an unsafe occurrence arising out of or in the course of work where no personal injury is caused, or where personal injury needs only first-aid treatment;

"inspector" means an inspector appointed under this Act and includes the Commissioner;

"lifting appliance" means a pulley block, gin wheel, chain block, or set of chain blocks;

"lifting gear" means chains, ropes, chain slings, rings, hooks, shackles, swivels, eyebolts, lifting beams and scale beams;

"lifting machine" means a crane, crab, winch, teagle, runway, transport or forklift trucks used for raising or lowering persons or objects;

"machinery" includes any driving belt;

"maintained" means maintained in an efficient state, in efficient working order, and in good repair;

"Minister" means the Minister responsible for occupational safety and health;

"noise" means all sound which may result in hearing impairment or which may be harmful to health or which is dangerous, disagreeable or undesired;

"non-fatal occupational injury" means occupational injury which does not lead to death;

"occupational accident" means an occurrence arising out of or in the course of work which results in fatal occupational injury or non-fatal occupational injury;

"occupational disease" means a disease contracted as a result of an exposure to risk factors arising from a work activity;

"occupational injury" means any personal injury resulting from an occupational accident;

"occupier" means a person, using or occupying premises as a workplace or who is employing workers;

"owner" means a person for the time being, receiving the rents or profits of premises, on his or her own account or as an agent or trustee for any other person, or who would receive the rent if the premises were leased;

"plant" includes any machinery, equipment and appliance;

"premises" includes any place and, in particular includes any vehicle, vessel, air craft, installation or land, any off-shore installation or any other installation (whether floating or resting on a lake or river bed or the subsoil of the river bed or resting on land covered with water or the subsoil of the land), and any tent or movable structure;

"prescribed institution" means any department, organisation, institute or other body of an expert character prescribed by the Minister by statutory instrument;

"prime mover" means an engine motor or other appliance which provides mechanical energy derived from steam, water, wind, electricity, the combustion of fuel or other source;

"process" includes the use of any locomotive;

"radiation" means all frequencies of electro-magnetic wave spectrum including in particular microwaves, infra-red, visible and ultra-violet, X-rays, and also includes ionising radiation such as (a) particles, (ß) particles and (?) rays which result from emission from radioactive isotopes;

"railway" means any railway used for the purpose of public traffic whether passengers, goods, or other traffic, and includes any works used in connection with and for the purposes of the railway;

"regulations" means regulations made under section 119;

"safe working load" means a load specified in a certificate of test obtained from a manufacturer or issued by an authorised person;

"safe working pressure" means in the case of a new steam receiver, that pressure that is specified in the manufacturer's certificate or a certificate issued by an authorised person;

"sanitary conveniences" include urinals, water-closets, earth-closets, privies, ashpits and any similar conveniences;

"steam boiler" means any closed vessel in which for any purpose, steam is generated under pressure greater than atmospheric pressure, and includes any economiser used to heat water being fed to any vessel, and any super-heater used for heating steam;

"steam container" means any vessel (other than a steam pipe or coil) constructed with a permanent outlet into the atmospheric pressure, and through which steam is passed at atmospheric pressure or at approximately that pressure for the purpose of heating, boiling, drying, evaporating or other similar purpose;

"steam receiver" means any vessel or apparatus (other than a steam boiler, steam container, a steam pipe or coil, or part of a prime mover) used for containing steam under pressure greater than atmospheric pressure;

"transmission machinery" means every shaft, wheel, drum, pulley, coupling, clutch, driving belt, or other device by which the motion of a prime mover is transmitted to or received by any machine or appliance;

"work of engineering construction" means the construction of any railway line or siding, and the construction, structural alteration or repair (including re-pointing and re-painting) or the demolition of any dock, harbour, inland navigation, tunnel, bridge, viaduct, waterworks, reservoir, pipe-line, aqueduct, sewage, sewage works, or gas-holder, and includes any other works as may be specified by the Minister, by a statutory instrument;

"worker" means a person who performs work, regularly or temporarily for an employer and includes a public officer;

"working environment" means all places of work and all sites and areas where work is carried out including not only the permanent, indoor, stationary places of work, such as factories, offices and shops but also temporary places of work such as civil engineering sites, open-air places such as fields, forests, roads, oil refineries and mobile places of work such as cabs of trucks, seats of tractors and excavators, ships, galleys, freight decks of aircraft, and without exception; places where workers are found as a consequence of their work (including canteens and living quarters onboard ships);

"workplace" has the same meaning as "working environment";

"vibration" means any vibration which is transmitted to the human body through solid structures and is harmful to health or is dangerous.

PART II
ADMINISTRATION AND ENFORCEMENT OF THE ACT.

3. Appointment of inspectors.

(1) Subject to any written law relating to the appointment of a person to the public service, there shall be appointed a Commissioner and any other inspectors as are necessary for the purposes of this Act.

(2) Notice of the appointment of an inspector shall be published in the Gazette.

(3) Every inspector shall be provided with a certificate of appointment, and shall while visiting a workplace to which this Act applies if required, produce the certificate to an occupier or to a person holding a responsible position of management at the workplace.

4. Administration of the Act.

The Commissioner shall be responsible for the administration of this Act.

5. Duty of confidentiality by inspectors.

(1) An inspector shall treat as confidential the source of any complaint of a contravention of this Act, brought to his or her notice and shall not disclose to an occupier or his or her representative, that the visit is made in consequence of the complaint.

(2) An inspector who contravenes subsection (1) commits an offence.

6. Powers of inspectors.

An inspector shall, for the purpose of the execution of this Act, have power—

(a) to enter, inspect, and examine, during the day or at night any workplace and every part of it, where he or she has reasonable cause to believe that any person is employed in it;

(b) to enter, inspect and examine during the day, any place which the inspector has reasonable cause to believe to be a workplace and any building of which a workplace forms part and in which he or she has reasonable cause to believe that explosives or highly inflammable materials are stored or used and to exercise such powers as may be necessary to inspect any machinery, plant, appliance, fitting or chemical in the workplace;

(c) to be accompanied by a police officer to a workplace to be inspected and examined, where he or she has reasonable cause to encounter any serious obstruction in the execution of his or her duty;

(d) to require the production of registers, certificates, notices and documents kept under this Act and to inspect, examine and make copies of any of them;

(e) to make any examination or inquiry as may be necessary to ascertain whether this Act, is complied with, in respect of the workplace and any persons employed in it;

(f) to require any person who he or she finds in a workplace to give any information which is in that person's power to give, regarding the occupier of the workplace;

(g) to examine, either alone or in the presence of any other person, as he or she thinks fit, any person, with respect to any matters under this Act and to require that person to be examined; but that person shall not be required to answer any question or to give any evidence which tends to incriminate him or her;

(h) in case of an inspector who is an occupational physician, to carry out any medical examinations as may be necessary for the purposes of his or her duties under this Act;

(i) to take such measurements and photographs and make such recordings as he or she considers necessary for the purpose of any examination or investigation under paragraph (d);

(j) to take samples of any article or substance found in any premises which the inspector has power to enter, and of the atmosphere in the premises or in the vicinity of the premises;

(k) in the case of any article or chemical substance found in any premises which this Act applies, which appears to have caused or which is likely to cause danger to safety or health, to cause it to be dismantled or subjected to any process or test;

(l) to take possession of any article or substance discovered and detain it for so long as is necessary for all or any of the following purposes—

(i) to examine it and do it anything he or she has power to do under this paragraph;

(ii) to ensure that it is not tampered with before his or her examination of it is completed; and

(iii) to ensure that it is available for use as evidence in any proceedings for an offence under any of the relevant statutory provisions or any proceedings relating to the breach of this Act.

7. Occupier to accord facilities to inspectors.

An occupier of a workplace or his or her agents, shall furnish the means required by an inspector, necessary for an entry, inspection, examination, inquiry, the taking of samples or any alterations, for the exercise of his or her powers, in relation to that workplace.

8. Causing delay to, or obstruction of inspectors.

(1) A person shall be deemed to obstruct an inspector in the execution of his or her duties where that person—

(a) wilfully delays an inspector in the exercise of his or her duties or fails to comply with a request of an inspector;

(b) fails to produce any register, certificate, notice or document which is required under this Act;

(d) conceals or prevents or attempts to conceal or prevent a person from appearing before or being examined by an inspector.

(2) Where an inspector is obstructed in any workplace, the occupier of the premises commits an offence.

(3) A person who obstructs an inspector commits an offence and is liable, on conviction to a fine not exceeding 48 currency points, or a term of imprisonment not exceeding one year or both.

9. Powers of inspector to prosecute.

(1) An inspector may prosecute or conduct, as the case may be before a magistrate's court any charge, information, complaint or other proceeding arising under this Act, or in the discharge of his or her duty.

(2) Where prosecution is brought at the instance of an inspector or where prosecution is conducted by an inspector, an objection to the competency of the inspector to give evidence as a witness in the prosecution shall not be sustained.

10. Establishment of the Occupational Safety and Health Board.

(1) There is established the Occupational Safety and Health Board.

(2) The Minister shall, by statutory instrument, prescribe the membership of the Occupational Safety and Health Board.

(3) The Board shall give expert advice to the Minister on matters concerning occupational safety and health, welfare and the working environment.

(4) A person appointed to the Occupational Safety and Health Board shall hold office for a period to be specified by the Minister in the instrument of appointment.

(5) The salaries and emoluments of the members of the Occupational Health and Safety Board shall be determined by the Minister, with the approval of the Minister responsible for finance.

11. Advisory panels.

The Minister may appoint an advisory panel as he or she may from time to time think necessary, to give advice or assistance on any workplace process, chemical, hazard, injury or disease.

12. Terms of service of members of advisory panels.

(1) A person appointed to an advisory panel, shall hold office for a period to be specified by the Minister in the instrument of appointment.

(2) The salaries and emoluments of the members of an advisory panel shall be determined by the Minister with the approval of the Minister responsible for finance.

PART III
GENERAL DUTIES, OBLIGATIONS AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF EMPLOYERS.

13. Duty of employers to protect workers.

(1) It is the responsibility of an employer—

(a) to take, as far as is reasonably practicable, all measures for the protection of his or her workers and the general public from the dangerous aspects of the employer's undertaking at his or her own cost;

(b) to ensure, as far is reasonably practicable, that the working environment is kept free from any hazard due to pollution by—

(i) employing technical measures, applied to new plant or processes in design or installation, or added to existing plant or processes; or

(ii) employing supplementary organisational measures.

(2) Without prejudice to the generality of an employer's duty in subsection (1), the matters to which the duty extends shall include in particular—

(a) the provision and maintenance of plant and systems of work that give, as far as is reasonably practicable, a safe working environment including its vicinity;

(b) arrangements for ensuring, as far as is reasonably practicable, safety and absence of risks to health, in connection with the use, handling, storage and transport of articles and substances;

(c) the provision of adequate and appropriate information, instructions, training and supervision necessary to ensure, as far as is reasonably practicable, the safety and health of the employees, and the application and use of occupational safety and health measures, taking into account the functions and capabilities of the different categories of workers in an undertaking;

(d) as far as is reasonably practicable, regarding any workplace under an employer's control, the maintenance of the workplace in a condition that is safe and without risks to health, and the provision and maintenance of means of access to and exit from the workplace, that are safe and without such risks;

(e) the provision and maintenance of a working environment for the workers, that is, as far as is reasonably practicable, safe, without risks to health and which is adequate, regarding facilities and arrangements for the welfare of workers at work;

(f) the provision of correct information of the real and potential dangers of substances used in an undertaking including any toxicity tests and environmental impact assessment involved in the use of the substances, to all concerned;

(g) the provision, where necessary, of adequate personal protective equipment to prevent, as far as is reasonably practicable, the risks of accidents or of adverse effects on health.

14. Safety and health measures of employers.

(1) An employer who has at least 20 workers at a workplace shall—

(a) prepare, and as often as may be appropriate, revise a written statement of policy with respect to the safety and health of employees while at work;

(b) make arrangements for carrying out the statement of policy;

(2) The guidelines for writing and checking the statement of policy are specified in Schedule 2.

15. Safety representatives.

(1) The Minister shall make regulations to provide for the appointment, in prescribed cases, of safety representatives.

(2) It shall be the duty of every employer to consult a safety representative in the making and sustenance of arrangements, which enable the employer and the workers to co-operate effectively in promoting the development of measures to ensure the safety and health of employees.

16. Safety committees.

(1) It shall be the duty of every employer, if requested to do so by safety representatives, to establish in accordance with regulations, a safety committee for a workplace with at least 20 workers.

(2) The safety representatives shall represent employees on a safety committee.

(3) A safety committee shall keep under review the measures taken to ensure the safety and health of employees and any other functions as may be prescribed.

17. Employer to consult with workers' organisations.

(1) To give effect to this Act, an employer shall act in consultation with a workers' organisation and this consultation shall include—

(a) consultation on the role of the workers' organisation in the practical implementation of measures prescribed under this Act;

(b) as far as possible, providing close collaboration at all levels, between the employer and the workers in the application of the measures prescribed under this Act.

(2) A representative of the employers and a representative of the workers shall accompany an inspector or any other authorised person supervising the application of any measures prescribed under this Act, except where the inspector or authorised person is of the view that the accompaniment shall prejudice the performance of his or her duties.

18. Employer to monitor and control the release of dangerous substances into the environment.

(1) Where there is major handling of chemicals or any dangerous substance which is liable to be airborne or to be released into rivers, lakes or soil and which are a danger to the animal and plant life, it shall be the duty of the concerned employer to arrange for equipment and apparatus to monitor the air, soil, and water pollution and to arrange for the actual monitoring of these mediums, with a view of rendering them safe from the dangerous undertaking.

(2) Records of monitoring in subsection (1) shall be kept and made available to an inspector.

19. Employer to provide protective gear.

(1) Without prejudice to the duty in subsection (2), where the level of air pollution and chemical substances in a working environment exceed the exposure limits specified by an occupational hygienist, an employer shall provide adequate and suitable protective clothing and protective equipment to the workers of his or her undertaking.

(2) It shall be the duty of an employer to ensure that personal protective equipment provided under subsection (1) is used whenever it is required.

20. Employer to provide alternative suitable employment.

Where an assignment involves continuous exposure to dangerous emissions or to substances and agents which are harmful to health, and it is certified to be medically inadvisable to continue the exposure, it shall be the duty of the employer to provide the worker concerned with suitable alternative employment.

21. Employer to supervise health of workers.

(1) Subject to any conditions determined by the Commissioner, every employer shall provide for the supervision of the health of the workers exposed to or liable to be exposed to occupational hazards due to pollution and other harmful agents in a working environment and this duty shall include—

(a) a pre-assignment medical examination of workers, before assignment to specific tasks which may involve danger to their health or of that of others;

(b) periodic medical examinations of workers during employment which involves exposure to a particular hazard to health;

(c) biological monitoring or investigations which may be necessary to control the degree of exposure and to supervise the state of health of the worker concerned;

(d) regular medical examinations for biological or other tests or investigations after termination of assignments which may cause or contribute to future health impairment.

(2) In any case as may be prescribed by the Commissioner, an employer shall make adequate arrangements to provide occupational health service in an undertaking, to secure adequate health for the workers and for any other persons in the area under the influence of the undertaking.

(3) It shall be the duty of every employer to inform a worker concerned of any health hazards involved in his or her work.

22. Medical records of workers to be kept.

(1) It shall be the duty of an employer to keep and maintain records of the medical examination information obtained under section 21, in a format and for a period to be prescribed by the Minister, and to avail these records for epidemiological and other research.

(2) To the extent determined by the Commissioner, records kept under this section shall include information on occupational exposure to air pollution and other harmful agents.

PART IV
GENERAL DUTIES OF EMPLOYERS AND THE SELF-EMPLOYED.

23. Employers' duty to persons other than employees.

(1) It

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