SHE Rep Duties and Responsibilities in South Africa (and How to Appoint One)

A health and safety representative represents employees on health and safety matters. The work is to identify hazards, inspect the workplace, report unsafe conditions and unsafe practices, take part in investigations, and put the employees' view to the employer during ordinary working hours. That time counts as work time.

In practice the representative is the eyes of the workforce. They walk the workplace rather than wait to be told what changed. They keep a note of what they find. They raise it with the person who can fix it, and they follow up when the answer is slow. Where an incident happens, they are part of the investigation rather than a spectator to it.

One limit is worth stating. The representative does not carry the legal duty to fix the hazard. That duty stays with the employer. The representative's job is to see the problem, put it on the record, and push until it is dealt with.

An employer with more than 20 employees must designate health and safety representatives in writing within four months of starting business or of the headcount passing 20. The number required is at least one per 100 employees or part thereof in shops and offices, and at least one per 50 employees or part thereof in all other workplaces.

The ratios decide the headcount for you. A shop with 250 employees needs at least three representatives, because the count runs one per 100 employees or part thereof. A workshop, plant or construction operation with 250 employees needs at least five, because the count there runs one per 50.

Eligibility is narrow in one respect. Only full-time employees who know the workplace's conditions and activities can be designated. That rules out a contractor's casual hand who has never walked the site, and it points you towards the people who understand how the work actually runs.

Section 18(3) requires the employer to provide the facilities, assistance and training that a representative may reasonably require. Duties and any training happen during ordinary working hours and count as work time. Section 19 makes a health and safety committee mandatory once there are two or more representatives, and that committee must meet at least once every three months.

The facilities clause covers simple things: somewhere to keep records, access to the areas being represented, and the information needed to do the job. Assistance can mean admin support or an hour with a manager. Training is the piece most employers underestimate, and it is the reason a representative ends up unsure whether they are allowed to stop a job.

Once there are two or more representatives, the committee becomes part of the structure. It is where individual findings turn into decisions that management has to answer. A representative who raises a hazard and gets no response has a next step: the committee item, minuted and dated.

Section 13 is the duty to inform, section 14 holds the employees' own duties, and section 18 deals with health and safety representatives. A representative carries the section 18 functions. Every employee, representative or not, still carries the section 14 duty to take reasonable care of their own safety and that of others.

The confusion matters in a dispute. An employer who says the representative should have stopped the job is mixing the two roles together. An employee who thinks the representative is responsible for compliance has the wrong end of the arrangement. Keeping the sections apart makes the whole conversation clearer.

The weekly work depends on the setting. A construction representative walks the site, checks fall protection and access equipment and records what is unsafe. A retail representative checks aisles, storerooms and fire exits. An office representative checks walkways, electrical equipment and housekeeping. All three feed their findings into the same committee structure.

Appointment runs in a sequence. Work out how many representatives the ratios require, consult the employees, let them nominate or elect a candidate, designate the person in writing, give them the time and the training, and set up a committee if two or more representatives exist. Skipping the consultation step is the most common mistake.

Consultation is not decoration. Employees who choose their own representative use that person, and a representative imposed from above gets ignored. Where the workforce is large, divide the workplace into areas and let each area choose.

The written designation is the part an auditor will ask for. It should be a single page, signed and dated. Keep a copy in the safety file and give the representative one.

The last step is the committee. Two representatives mean a committee, and a committee means minuted meetings at least every three months. From there the representative has a channel, and management has a record that the hazards were raised.

An appointment letter must name the employer and the workplace, name the representative, state the legal basis under the OHS Act, describe the area or section represented, give the number of employees and the date the appointment takes effect, and carry the signatures of both parties.

The rest of the letter does the useful work. It should confirm that duties and training happen during ordinary working hours and count as work time, set out the facilities and assistance available, and point to the health and safety committee if one exists. Each signature needs a date beside it.

Write it on the employer's letterhead and keep it to one page. There is no official prescribed wording, so what matters is that every field above appears and that the document is signed and dated. RSTL Centre's SHE Rep course runs one day at R600 and covers these duties in full.