Bitline SA

ABOUT US

Health and Safety Specialists in South Africa

Bitline South Africa assists construction companies, designers and their clients to comply with the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHS). Services incorporate construction regulations to meet legal requirements and international standards. The specialist systems that Bitline produces facilitate strong management commitment and complete worker involvement, which are necessary elements for a successful, healthy and safe workplace for all the stakeholders.

Driven by professional management of health, safety and environment within the construction and petroleum industries.

Bitline is headed by a group of educated and skilled professionals who have 35 years’ experience in business. This experience spans across multiple industries including, but not limited to, mining, lumber, construction, oil, O.H.A.S coaching and training, as well as 15 years’ construction HSSE experience. Bitline is a safety consultant for BP, Shell, Engen, Chevron, Caltex, Transnet, Sasol, as well as a host of civil clients.

Our Mission

The main purpose of Bitline is to ensure thorough understanding of relevant legislation, risks and common HSSE problem areas with construction work, through a professional code of conduct that includes integrity and moral responsibility, which will not detract from the dignity of the profession and must lead to professional relationships. The key to fulfilling our ultimate obligation is for all our staff to provide consistent work in a way that reflects favourably or bring credit to the profession.

Legislation

Bitline is able to assist clients with legal compliance to the following legislation:

• Occupational Health and Safety Act 85 of 1993
• Which includes the General Administrative, General Safety and Construction Regulations
• SANS 10085-1

SERVICES

Health, Safety, Security and Environment Services

Occupational health and safety (OHS) is a vital factor in the protection of life and property. It is a key contributor to the improvement of quality and productivity and forms part of those elements that assist in ensuring the continued existence of any business:

Occupational health and safety encompasses the social, mental and physical well-being of workers in all occupations.

Poor working conditions have the potential to affect a worker’s health and safety. It can also affect the environment workers live in. This means those workers, their families, other people in the community, and the physical environment around the workplace, can all be at risk from exposure to workplace hazards.

• Unhealthy or unsafe working conditions can be found both indoors and outdoors.
• Employers have a moral and legal responsibility to protect workers.
• Work-related accidents and diseases are common in all parts of the world and often have many direct and indirect negative consequences for workers and their families. Single accident or illness can mean enormous financial loss to both workers and employers.
• Effective workplace health and safety programmes can help to save people and the environment.
• Clients are becoming increasingly demanding and value those companies with certain moral values incorporated, in order to be more efficient and to offer higher quality work.
• Innocent lives and large amounts of money is lost annually due to poor or a lack of proper OHS management programmes with construction service providers. Implement a tight and comprehensive health and safety system that accurately caters to your business-specific needs.

What Bitline Does For Your Company:

• Advisory Service
• Evaluation & Audits
• Accreditation & Processes
• Occupational Health & Safety Management Systems
• Tailor-made HSSE Procedure Manuals
• Risk Assessment
• Training
• Contractor Pre-Qualification
• Project Safety Officers
• On-site Safety Officers
• Permit Issuing
• Incident & Accident Investigation
• Gas Monitoring & Client Permit Systems

Advisory Services

A comprehensive advisory service that is directly related to the construction industry is available.

OHS issues are often given less attention than production and programme issues because OHS issues are generally seen as anti-productive and difficult to confront. Here are some reasons why construction management generally neglect HSSE:

• Lack of policing by government authorities
• Lack of pre-health qualification
• HSSE does not form part of production process
• Conflicting legislation between IR and OHS
• Lack of workers education
• Lack of communication
• Short-term financial gain
• Unemployment rate

Successful OHS practice requires the collaboration and participation of both employers and workers in health and safety programmes, and involves the consideration of issues relating to occupational medicine, industrial hygiene, toxicology, education, engineering safety, and ergonomics and psychology, among other disciplines.

Accreditation Processes

Clients are becoming increasingly involved and demanding in their selection of contractors – this is due to legislation in South Africa. The new Construction Regulations focuses and defines the role of the designer and client in health, safety, security and environment-related matters.

The objective of the accreditation procedure is to ensure that the contractors are adequately experienced and competent to undertake work on behalf of the client, in a safe and environmentally-sound manner. It is mandatory for clients to only contract or recommend contractors who have successfully been accredited in terms of these procedures.

OHS Management Systems

Efforts in occupational health and safety management must aim to prevent industrial accidents and diseases, and at the same time recognise the connection between worker health and safety, the workplace, and the environment outside the workplace:

Poor working conditions of any type have the potential to affect a worker’s health and safety.

Unhealthy or unsafe working conditions are not limited to factories and can be found anywhere – whether the workplace is indoors or outdoors. For many workers, such as agricultural workers or construction workers, the workplace is outdoors and can pose many health and safety hazards.

Poor working conditions can also affect the environment workers live in. This means that occupational hazards can have harmful effects on workers, their families, and other people in the community, as well as on the physical environment around the workplace.

Why is Occupational Health and Safety Important?

Work plays a central role in people’s lives, since most workers spend at least eight hours a day in the workplace, whether it is on a plantation, in an office, factory, etc. Therefore, work environments should be safe and healthy. Yet this is not the case for many workers. Every day workers all over the world are faced with a multitude of health hazards.

Tailor-made Procedures

Enhance corporate image, build a reputation and add value to the quality of construction work performed on-site – get all this with comprehensive HSSE procedures. The aim of a HSSE procedure manual is to facilitate a tailor-made package for the employer as comprehensively as possible, and yet simplified enough to ease implementation with regards to legislative requirements.

The manual covers basically all aspects pertaining to the scope of work. It includes designation forms, registers, procedures, company rules, induction details and more.

The use of the manual will have to be enforced by management and recognised as a company prescribed document. The use will then be explained and assistance for implementation will be given. Evaluations and audits cover the effective implementation of the procedures manual and will become a yardstick, which also coincide with national standards in South Africa.

Risk Assessments

The Occupational Health and Safety Act 85 of 1993 places certain responsibilities on the employer (an employer is defined as “any person who employs or provides work for any person and remunerates that person or expressly or tacitly undertakes to remunerate him, but excludes a labour broker” as defined in section 1(1) of the Labour Relations Act {28 of 1956}):

There are an unlimited number of hazards that can be found in almost every workplace. These include both obvious unsafe working conditions and insidious, less obvious hazards.

Hazards often are built into the workplace. Therefore, the employer must ensure that hazards are removed, rather than trying to get workers to adapt to unsafe conditions.

The most effective accident and disease prevention begins when work processes are still in the design stage, when safe conditions can be built into the work process.

Bitline provides comprehensive service relating to hazard analysis and risk assessments. We help ensure that your business conducts itself in a manner that is not only legal, but safe and secure for all those involved.

Evaluation & Audits

Health, safety, security and environment audits are carried out on-site. It covers all the requirements of the OHS Act. The audit criteria comprises of approximately 160 legal items. The report will include a percentage score, non-compliance items as dictated by the OHS Act, general recommendations and indicate unsafe conditions or unsafe acts that need immediate attention.

A copy of this report is confidential and will only be distributed to the person requesting the audit. The report of non-compliance items can be discussed during site meetings and production sessions to encourage corrective action.

The system is also a barometer for determining company HSSE performance and becomes a measurable instrument.