Occupational Safety and Health Bill H.B. 6, 2025

The Occupational Safety and Health Bill would replace Zimbabwe's two main workplace safety statutes — the Factories and Works Act [Chapter 14:08] and the Pneumoconiosis Act [Chapter 15:08] — with a single framework covering all workplaces. It is a proposal before Parliament and binds no one unless and until it is enacted and brought into force.

It would put the Department of Occupational Safety and Health on a statutory footing under a Director as the principal regulator, preserve the Medical Bureau of Occupational Diseases through the repeal with power to summon and examine witnesses and issue binding decisions, and establish a tripartite Zimbabwe Occupational Safety and Health Advisory Council to advise the Minister and promote social dialogue between social partners.

Duties would be spread across the whole supply chain: employers, workers, and the designers, manufacturers, importers, sellers, distributors and suppliers of plant and substances. Employers would have to establish an occupational safety and health support framework, meet standards for employing people in specified occupations, register their workplaces, submit plans before building or altering premises, register and have machinery inspected, and keep an accident and incident register.

Worker protection is direct. An employer would not be able to deduct from or reduce a worker's pay for anything the Act requires the employer to provide, nor dismiss, demote, cut the pay of, or worsen the conditions of a worker because the employer suspects or believes — correctly or not — that the worker gave information to an inspector, complied with an inspector's requirement, or gave evidence in proceedings. Contravening either prohibition would be an offence carrying a fine up to level 14 or two years' imprisonment, or both.

Enforcement would run through appointed inspectors with powers of search and entry, a duty to investigate every accident that kills or injures someone (and any near miss that might have), with evidence taken down in writing, reported to the Authority and the Minister, and a copy sent to the Police where there is loss of life, serious injury or a contravention. Inspectors could issue improvement notices requiring remedial action and prohibition notices stopping an activity outright, and refer defects to other competent authorities. An Occupational Safety and Health Appeals Board would hear challenges.

Offences would cover breaching an inspector's reasonable safety requirement, preventing someone from appearing before or answering an inspector, tampering with or misusing safety equipment, using safety equipment in a way that injures or kills, making false statements or false register entries, and forging documents issued under the Act — with penalties running to level 14 and five years' imprisonment for the graver ones. Misusing confidential information for personal gain would also be an offence, and locking workplaces in specified circumstances would be prohibited.

The Bill would also provide for an accident prevention and workers compensation scheme, funding and audit of the Department, accreditation of occupational safety and health service providers, codes of practice, ministerial directives and regulations, and limitation of liability for board members, employees and agents acting in good faith.

The text available here was truncated at the extraction limit, so the later parts and any schedules are summarised only in part.