Abstract
Background: The Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA) of South Africa, act number 85 of 1993 was implemented for different industries and institutions but its implementation is still a challenge in most sectors. Occupational health and safety (OHS) is involved in the promotion and maintenance of the highest degree of physical, mental and social well-being of workers in all occupations. Objective: The present study was conducted to investigate the factors that affect the occupational health and safety of workers at a South African institution of higher learning. Methods: A quantitative cross-sectional study design was used in which 466 academic and non-academic staff from a South African university in Durban voluntarily participated. Data were collected using an online survey using a questionnaire on Google Forms. The study was approved by the Biomedical Research Ethics Committee (BREC) of the University of Johannesburg (REC-733-2020), and permission to conduct the study was obtained from the management at the university. The data were analysed using EPINFO 7.2 for crudes and statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 26.0 for adjusted odds ratios. Results: This study revealed that both academic and non-academic staff did not know about the Staff Wellness Centre, (AOR=0.60 95% CI [0.38 – 0.95]). The university workers strongly agree that they have enough security, (AOR= 2.54 95% CI [1.24 – 5.23]), and that they have access control in their buildings, (AOR= 3.10 95% CI [1.31 – 7.33]). The participants were more likely to strongly disagree that the university does not provide online counselling during student protesting, (AOR=0.37 95% CI [0.16 – 0.88]) and (AOR= 0.45 95% CI [0.22 – 0.93]). Conclusions: It is important that the university should consider the implementation of a short training in occupational health and safety during the probation phase of the workers and to improve the services by offering online counselling during student protests and at any point as the workers face different challenges of life. The results also demonstrate that the university has safety and security measures in place as much as there is a need for access control and to employ more security. The study showed that the working conditions need an improvement to avoid overcrowding in lecture venues.
M.A. (Public Health)