The Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern Africa (SEIFSA) and MSHEQ Health and Safety Consultants and are joining forces to promote safety training in the Metals & Engineering (M&E) Sector.
“This is the first time we have set up this type of partnership. It makes sense to do it with SEIFSA as they represent a significant number of employers in the steel and engineering industry, a huge but dangerous industry.
We are excited to see where this journey takes us,” says Charné Vosloo, the founder and managing director of MSHEQ Health and Safety Consultants.
Vosloo refers to the partnership as a symbiotic relationship and says she looks forward to a long-term training partnership.
“SEIFSA is happy to partner with MSHEQ in this initiative as we know how crucial workplace safety is, especially in our sector, and the best way to ensure the safety of workers is through high-quality training,” says Lucio Trentini, the CEO of SEIFSA.
The Employment and Labour Deputy Minister is also committed to keeping workers safe. Boitumelo Moloi spoke about the importance of workplace safety at a recent Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) conference in Cape town, urging companies to develop a mandatory culture of health & safety compliance. “We should not allow compliance to happen by accident. If you think compliance is exorbitant, try noncompliance,” he warned.
Vosloo is in complete agreement: “We genuinely want employees to work safely so they can go home to their families, and just as importantly, we want employers to be committed to providing a risk-free and safe working environment. Our philosophy is “if we don’t train them, we can’t blame them”. All workers have the right to refuse to work in an unsafe workplace, but how do they know if they have not been trained?”
MSHEQ offers 21 accredited courses in various subjects, including first aid, firefighting and risk assessment, that run for one- or two-day sessions with the aim of preventing accidents and/or injuries in the workplace. Some courses are aimed specifically at managers while others cater for the needs of high-risk workers.
Vosloo says her all-female team as well as MSHEQ’s 13 years of health & safety experience offer a new perspective in the male-dominated steel and engineering industry.
“SEIFSA is excited to join MSHEQ in this partnership and to shine a light on the importance of training both workers and managers to improve the safety record of companies in the Metals & Engineering Sector,” says SEIFSA CEO Lucio Trentini.
SEIFSA is a national federation representing 18 independent employer associations in the metal and engineering industries, with a combined membership of over 1 200 companies employing over 170 000 employees. The federation was formed in 1943 and its member companies range from giant steel-making corporations to micro-enterprises employing fewer than 50 people.
