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Occupational Diseases in Mines and Works Act, 1973 (Act No. 78 of 1973)

Chapter II : Control in respect of mines and works, and determination of risk

13. Risk work

 

(1) The Minister may by notice in the Gazette declare to be risk work any particular work or all work performed in or at or in connection with any mine or works or part of a mine or works, or at a particular place or under particular circumstances in or at or in connection with any mine or works.

 

(2) The Minister shall under subsection (1) declare any such work as is referred to in that subsection to be risk work if he or she is satisfied, after consultation with the risk committee and after consideration of such representations (if any) as may have been made to him or her by the owner of the mine or works in question or by any organization acting on behalf of such owner or on behalf of persons employed at that mine or works, that any person performing the work in question is exposed to—
(a) dust of which the composition and concentration is such that it is in the opinion of the Minister harmful or potentially harmful; or
(b) gases, vapours or chemical substances, or factors or working conditions, which, in the opinion of the Minister, are harmful or potentially harmful.

 

(3) In the exercise of his powers under this section the Minister may differentiate between mines and works or between mines and parts of a mine or between works and parts of a works or between different classes or groups of mines or works or between different occupations, trades or kinds of work or between different classes or groups of persons, as he or she may consider necessary or desirable.

 

(4) Any work performed at a mine referred to in section 9 at a place which immediately before the commencement of this Act was “dusty atmosphere” in terms of the definition of that expression in the previous Act, shall be deemed, until the Minister by notice in the Gazette declares otherwise, to have been declared risk work under this section.

 

(5) For the purpose of determining whether a person is entitled to a benefit under this Act—
(a) work performed at a controlled mine or a controlled works before the date on which that mine or works became a controlled mine or a controlled works; or
(b) work performed at a mine or works which, in the opinion of the Chief Inspector as contemplated in the Mine Health and Safety Act, 1996, would have been declared a controlled mine or a controlled works had it not closed down,

shall be deemed to be risk work performed at a controlled mine or a controlled works.

 

(6) [Section 13(6) deleted by section 5 of the Occupational Diseases in Mines and Works Amendment Act, No. 208 of 1993]

 

(7) For the purpose of determining whether a person is entitled to a benefit in respect of tuberculosis, or for the purpose of determining the amounts which shall be levied from the owners of controlled mines or controlled works under this Act, a shift during which a person was required to perform risk work for a period of not less than fifteen minutes in the course of or in connection with the performance of his normal duties or in pursuance of an instruction issued by a person who has the authority to issue such an instruction, shall be deemed to be a shift during which risk work was performed at or in connection with a controlled mine or a controlled works and shall be so recorded by the owner of the mine or works in question.

[Section 13(7) amended by section 43 of the Occupational Diseases in Mines and Works Amendment Act, No. 208 of 1993]