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An OHS Inspector Is at Your Door: What Happens Next
⚡ Quick answer OHS inspectors from the Department of Employment & Labour may enter your workplace without a warrant, examine the premises, equipment and documents, question employees, and take samples. Afterwards they can issue three escalating notices: a contravention notice (fix this), an improvement notice (fix this by a deadline), or a prohibition notice (stop this work now) — plus prosecution with fines or imprisonment for offences. Most inspections are triggered by complaints, reported incidents or sector blitzes. The inspection-ready file is short: risk assessment, appointments, training records, registers and incident reports, current and retrievable in minutes. The OHS inspection is the enforcement moment every employer vaguely fears and few…
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Your Workplace Risk Assessment in One Afternoon (No Consultant Needed)
⚡ Quick answer A small business can complete a credible workplace risk assessment in one afternoon with five steps: walk the workplace and list the hazards; note who could be harmed by each; rate each risk (likelihood times severity); choose controls using the hierarchy — eliminate, substitute, engineer, administrate, protect; and write it all down with owners and dates. The OHS Act does not prescribe the form — it requires that hazards are identified and controlled, and only a written, implemented, reviewed assessment proves you did it. The risk assessment has a reputation problem: it sounds like a consulting engagement with a binder at the end. For most small businesses…
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The 7-Day Incident Reporting Rule Most Employers Learn Too Late
⚡ Quick answer Section 24 of the OHS Act requires employers to report serious workplace incidents to the Department of Employment & Labour within 7 days: deaths, unconsciousness, lost limbs, injuries likely to be fatal or permanently disabling, and incapacity of 14 days or more. The scene of a fatal or serious incident must be preserved until the inspector allows it to be disturbed. This OHS report is separate from the COIDA injury claim — both are due, on parallel 7-day clocks, to different offices. There is a legal clock that starts the moment something goes seriously wrong at work — and most employers have never heard of it until…
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Is Your First-Aid Kit Legal? What the Regulations Actually Require
⚡ Quick answer A legal workplace first-aid kit is a stocked box matched to your workplace’s hazards — dressings, bandages, plasters, antiseptic, gloves, scissors, a CPR mouthpiece and more, with hazard-specific additions like eye-wash where chemicals are used. Boxes must be accessible, marked, and under a named person’s control, with monthly checks against a contents list. Once more than 10 employees are at work, you also need a certified first aider — one per 50 employees in shops and offices, one per 100 elsewhere. No medicines in the box, ever. The first-aid kit is the cheapest compliance item in the OHS Act — and one of the most common inspection…
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Crossed 20 Employees? You Now Need a Health and Safety Representative
⚡ Quick answer Once you employ more than 20 people, the OHS Act requires a designated health and safety representative: at least one per 100 employees in shops and offices, one per 50 in all other workplaces. The appointment must be in writing, for a defined area and period, made in consultation with employees — and the rep is entitled to training and reasonable paid time off to perform the role. Designate two or more reps and a health and safety committee becomes mandatory, meeting at least every three months with minutes kept. Growth changes your legal duties quietly — and one of the quietest thresholds is twenty-one. The day…
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‘Resign or Be Fired’ Is a Legal Trap — Here Is What to Do Instead
⚡ Quick answer Telling an employee to ‘resign or be fired’ feels like a clean exit — but a resignation extracted under that pressure is legally a dismissal (constructive dismissal), and the employer then faces an unfair dismissal claim having run no fair process at all: no hearing, no warnings, no consultation. The employee has 30 days from the resignation to refer the dispute to the CCMA. The lawful alternatives are the ones the ultimatum was avoiding: a proper disciplinary process for misconduct, a performance process for poor performance, section 189 consultation for redundancy, or a genuine mutual separation agreement. ‘Just give them the choice — resign or be fired…
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Why Unpaid Suspension Almost Always Backfires on Employers
⚡ Quick answer Unpaid suspension backfires because of a simple rule employers miss: precautionary suspension — being sent home while allegations are investigated — must be paid, because it is not a finding of guilt. Suspending without pay as punishment is disciplinary action short of dismissal, which requires its own fair process and is an unfair labour practice risk at the CCMA (90-day referral window). The compliant toolkit is: paid precautionary suspension pending a prompt hearing, or a sanction after a hearing — never unpaid time invented on the spot. It feels like the natural middle option — not a warning, not a dismissal, just… home, without pay, while things…
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Dismissing During Probation: More Latitude, Not a Free Pass
⚡ Quick answer Dismissal during probation is permitted with more latitude than after confirmation — but it is never process-free. The Code of Good Practice requires: a reasonable probation period agreed upfront, ongoing evaluation against clear standards, guidance and training where the employee falls short, a reasonable opportunity to improve, and a process where the employee can respond before the decision. Probationers are protected against unfair dismissal from day one, and against automatically unfair reasons (pregnancy, union membership) completely. ‘It is probation, I can just let them go’ is the most expensive sentence in small-business HR. Probation exists so employers can assess a new hire with some protection — and…
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Alternatives to Retrenchment You Must Consider First (Section 189)
⚡ Quick answer Section 189 consultation must genuinely explore alternatives to retrenchment before jobs are cut: a hiring freeze, reduced hours or short-time, voluntary severance packages, early retirement, redeployment to other roles, salary sacrifices by agreement, and transferring work in-house instead of retrenching. Commissioners ask for these by name — an employer who cannot show alternatives were tabled and considered has failed the consultation, whatever the severance paid. The exploration must be documented in the consultation minutes. The question commissioners ask first in retrenchment disputes is not about severance — it is ‘what alternatives to retrenchment did you explore?’ Section 189 makes job losses a last resort, and ‘last’ is…
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Your First CCMA Case: What to Expect, Step by Step
⚡ Quick answer A CCMA case runs: the employee refers the dispute (30 days for dismissal); you receive the referral and a set-down notice; conciliation — a private settlement meeting — happens first, and most cases settle there; if not, dismissal disputes go to arbitration, often the same day (con-arb), where the employer must prove fairness with documents and witnesses; the commissioner issues a binding award within 14 days. There is no appeal — only narrow Labour Court review. Preparation is the entire game: the discipline file built before the dispute decides most outcomes. The envelope arrives — a CCMA case, with your company named as respondent — and most…
