Falling from height remains one of the biggest causes of fatalities and major injuries in certain industries and include falls from scaffolding, ladders and through fragile surfaces. Safe ‘Working at Height’ refers to the precautions put in place to prevent a person from falling a distance liable to cause personal injury or death.
 In 2015, the Institute for Work at Height Trade Association and Professional Body, along with many other organisations operating in the construction, mining and occupational health and safety environment worked collaboratively to develop these new ‘Guidelines for Safe Working at Height’. Experts from a multitude of industries employing staff that need to work at height participated in the development of these guidelines under the chairmanship of Mr Dave Bass while the development was also discussed at each stage with the Department of Labour.
The new gudelines will provide supervisory staff with the basic knowledge they will need to understand and ensure safety on tasks to be carried out at height - having the input from industry experts in various fields will ensure that the document is appropriate and relevant to current practices.
Astutis International Account Manager, Joe Large commented:
"Working at height is inherently dangerous. Falls are the second leading cause of accidental or unintentional injury deaths worldwide and each year (according to the World Health Organisation), an estimated 424, 000 individuals die from falls globally. Updated local guidelines will mean that those working at height as part of their job in South Africa, will hopefully be safer during the course of their working day."
Developed for industry, by industry, the decision was taken to launch this document officially at the Working at Height Conference, 10th of October 2016 at Bytes Conference Centre in Midrand - the keynote speaker of which will be the Chief Inspector, Mr Tibor Szana.
See more about October's conference here.
Saiosh is Platinum Sponsor of the Guidelines for Safe Working at Height document. Each conference delegate will get a free copy of the Guidelines at the Conference which has has also been accredited by Saiosh with 2 CPD points. | 
