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Director: Occupational Health, Safety and Wellness
Mr Andile Tolom
Tel. :+27(0)41-506 3285
Fax.:+27(0)41-506 3069
email: atolom@mandelametro.gov.za
health@mandelametro.gov.za

Secretary: Mrs Celestine Jooste
Tel: +27 (0)41-506 3285
                                     Fax.:+27(0)41-506 3069
                                     email: cjooste@mandelametro.gov.za
 
WELLNESS CENTRE ADDRESS: 172 Heugh Road, Walmer, Port Elizabeth, 6070

INDEX

Introduction
Vision
Safety Division
Employee Assistance Programme 
Occupational Health Unit, Document Control
Communication and Reporting
Policies

The Occupational Health Unit of the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality functions within the occupational health and safety team, incorporated in the Public Health Directorate.

Whilst the ‘safety-wing’ is primarily engaged with Occupational Safety, the occupational Health Unit (OHU) focuses on occupational hygiene and health; both units, however, function in an integrated manner with the objective of:

• Preserving and improving the occupational safety and health of employees;
• Ongoing hazard identification, risk assessment and risk management programmes; and
• Legal compliance of the NMBM activities and services.
  

To ensure that The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality complies with occupational health and safety legislation and then achieving world class employee well-being standards.

The occupational health unit performs the following:

• Medical surveillance of employees, in the form of pre-placement, periodical and exit medical examinations;
• Fitness for work assessment of employees with diseases, disabilities or impairments;
• Fitness for duty assessment of employees who may be suffering from illness, from the effects of medication or from drug- or alcohol-intoxication and/or addiction;
• Primary medical care of NMBM employees;
• Employee assistance for psycho-social problems of employees;
• HIV voluntary counselling and testing;
• HIV care management;
• HIV drug treatment;
• Medical evaluation of employees with recurrent sick leave, work incapacity or threatening work disability;
• On-the-shop floor occupational health monitoring.

Medical Surveillance

Medical surveillance is a legally-mandatory medical examination of applicants and employees, aimed at:

• Safe and hygienic placement of a person in the job;
• Establishment of pre-existing conditions and the ensuing recommendations to the employee and to the employer;
• Detection of disease at an early stage;
• Assisting the NMBM in taking action to reverse early effects or to slow the progression of the disease;
• Assessing the effectiveness of workplace control measures;
• Establishing any effects the employment may have had on the health of an employee;
• Establishing and implementing preventative measures for which the employer is responsible: vaccination, medical test schedules. 

Medical surveillance may consist of:

• A job-specific medical questionnaire;
• A directed clinical examination;
• Blood or urine biological monitoring tests;
• Special physical tests such as X rays, electro-cardio-gram, lung function testing, audiometry.

Occupational Health Monitoring

The occupational health team will regularly visit work places and evaluate the potential health hazards of the work exposure.

Fitness for Work Assessment and Certification

• Where employees may meet with disease or injury, the Occupational Health Unit will assess the effect of the employee’s health on job placement and, in the converse, the potential health effects of the work on the employee.
• Job placement recommendations are made to line management.
• Legally mandatory certificates of fitness for coded drivers, heights-and crane workers and construction vehicle & machinery operators may be issued by the OHU.

Fitness for Duty Assessment

• Where employee’s physical and mental condition is influenced by the effects of disease, the effects of medication and the effects of illegal substances and alcohol, the OHU may be called by line management to make an evidence-based assessment, apply this to the inherent job requirements and make a job placement recommendation to line management.

Primary Medical Care

• Municipal employees may obtain primary medical care from the OHU. This includes both acute and chronic care and medication.
• Daily clinics are held and employees with restricted job placement certificates of fitness (e.g. diabetic construction vehicle operators) may remain under control and observation through the primary care clinic.

HIV AND AIDS

The Occupational Health Unit runs an independent HIV-management unit, aimed at managing NMBM employees and their affected parties.

The management protocols encompass: 

• Voluntary counselling and testing of employees;
• Managing the care-phase of HIV infections;
• Primary care of opportunistic pathology during the care phase;
• Prevention of immune-degradation during the care phase;
• Treatment with Highly Active Anti-Retroviral Treatment;
• Treatment of opportunistic disease;
• Referral for secondary-level treatment.

Sick Absenteeism Evaluation

Click on the link below to download the relevant document
Sick leave management
Sick leave management - schematic approach

Whist, the occupational health clinic is not responsible or accountable for the outcomes of time and attendance management of employees, it performs a critical support function to line management and HR in that it will:

• Assess referred employees, whose attendance is non conforming and who allege ill-health;
• Managing the ill-health of referred employees through medical aid, referral to secondary level medicine and psycho-social assistance;
• Report promptly on the findings to line management;
• Manage the disability process if applicable;
• Assist with training of line-management in the return to work process;
• Manage and validated referred dubious sick certificates with medical service providers; and
• Assist line management with the assessment of attendance patterns, particularly where illness is involved.

Incapacity Evaluation

Where employees or line-management perceive that the employee may not be able to perform the required work, due to a medical impairment and where recurrent sick absence occurs, the employee’s fitness for work and continued job placement will be assessed by the OHU. The absenteeism management will also identify employees with as serious medical (physical or psychological) impairment. When referred to the occupational medical unit, the employee’s impairment will be evaluated, investigated and comprehensively documented. Should job placement become an issue, the occupational medical unit issues a report, in which the occupational medical implications of the impairment are assessed with respect to:

• Adapted working conditions in the current job
• Adapted employee- arrangements to remain in the current job
• Alternative employment assessment within the NMBM.

Such a report can be issued to HR or line management in assistance of the incapacity job placement procedure.

Disabiltiy Evaluation

• The processes, in which the OHU is engaged, are formulated in evidence-based codes of practice and algorithms.
• Shop-floor assessment reports and risk assessment for the occupational health monitoring;
• A code of practice for medical surveillance, identifying testing standards and standards of fitness for work;
• A chain of custody and reporting methodology for the fitness for duty assessment;
• Primary medical care algorithms applicable to medical and nursing staff;
• Standards for counselling, obtaining informed consent and testing for HIV;
• Medical care algorithms for HIV care and treatment;
• A code of practice for sick absenteeism- and incapacity evaluation;
• A documented process for disability evaluation and compilation of medical and occupational information.

The OHU reports monthly on:

• Work performance by the occupational health team;
• Occupational health and hygiene shop-floor assessments;
• Results of biological monitoring, which may influence risk management.

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POLICIES

Click on the link below to download the relevant policy:

Occupational Health and Safety Policy
Employee Assistance Programme Policy
HIV/AIDS Workplace Policy
Smoking Control Policy