Answer to Question #163172 in Management for Bradley Bokang

Question

You are an Inspector at the Department of Labour and Employment, assigned to investigate a complaint of non-compliance with the health and safety standards by some employers in the mining sector following recent media reports of former gold mine workers who are suffering from Silicosis and Tuberculosis, which are regarded as endemic occupational diseases on South Africa’s gold mines. The media reports were followed by a complaint from a shop steward who is employed by one of the mining companies fingered in exposing its employees to the risk of silicosis and tuberculosis occupational disease. Discuss how you will go about investigating the complaint. Provide at least 12 statements, each statement counts 2 marks.

Answer 1

1. Going to the gold mines and interrogating individual ex-workers to determine the truth.
2. Executing a comprehensive inquiry on the company's management to validate their compliance with the required regulations.
3. Conducting an all-encompassing interview with the shop steward to get me first-hand information on the same.
4. Personal observation that entails visiting the premises on a specified time period.
5. Asking current workers in the area
6. Visiting surrounding healthcare facilities to know the statistics of the people suffering from tuberculosis and silicosis.
7. Using the South African government records to check the validity of the licenses that the gold mines use to run their businesses.
8. Asking other non-miners in the gold mines that are employed by the companies apart from the shop steward to understand the risks involved.
9. Using specific cameras that record all the work that the minors do in the mines over time to monitor the risk exposure.
10. Collaborating with a biochemical specialist to measure and find out the amount of disease-causing elements in the emissions of the mines as a basis to uncover the health risks involved with gold mining to the workers.
11. Collective interviews with groups of the current employees at the mine fields.
12. Collective interviews with the managers and supervisors in the fields to explain the nature of their work and the protection that they grant to employees.