Employers have approximately four weeks left to complete gap analyses and close out compliance, the Labour Court has confirmed that late compliance will not readily be excused and inspectors can halt operations with immediate effect pending appeal.
We previously alerted clients to the Physical Agents Regulations, 2024 and the Noise Exposure Regulations, 2024, which were promulgated on 6 March 2025 and will repeal the Environmental Regulations for Workplaces, 1987 and the Noise-Induced Hearing Loss Regulations, 2003 respectively, with effect from 6 September 2026. Our earlier alert sets out the detailed obligations under both sets of regulations, risk assessments, exposure monitoring, medical surveillance, control measures, training and record-keeping, is available
here.
This alert does not repeat that detail. Instead, we focus on two things: why the clock is now genuinely running out and what happens to businesses that are not ready.
The compliance runway is almost over
Employers were given 18 months from promulgation to align their operations with the new regime. That runway ends on 6 September 2026, just over five weeks away. In brief, employers should by now have at a minimum:
- completed documented risk assessments for physical agents (cold/heat stress, vibration, non-ionising radiation and illumination) and for noise exposure;
- implemented exposure monitoring programmes where risk assessments indicate exposure at or above the relevant limits;
- implemented medical screening and surveillance programmes, including audiometric testing where relevant, overseen by an occupational medicine practitioner;
- implemented the hierarchy of control measures (engineering, administrative and PPE) to eliminate or reduce exposure; and
- delivered the required training and implemented record-keeping systems (records must be retained for 40 years).
If any of these steps are outstanding, this is the last practical window to complete them before the regulations come fully into effect.
Inspectors' powers and what "halt operations" really means
As we highlighted previously, inspectors appointed under the Occupational Health and Safety Act 85 of 1993 have wide powers of enforcement, including the power to prohibit an employer, in writing and with immediate effect, from continuing or commencing any act or use of plant or machinery, that in the inspector's opinion threatens or is likely to threaten health or safety. Inspectors may also direct employers to take specified remedial steps within a specified period and may block, bar, barricade or fence off the relevant part of a workplace to enforce a prohibition.
An employer aggrieved by an inspector's decision may appeal, first to the chief inspector and, ultimately, to the Labour Court. Critically, however, an appeal against a prohibition does not suspend it. The prohibition remains in force and the business must stop the prohibited activity while the appeal runs its course.
The Labour Court has now confirmed how strictly this is applied
These provisions were recently considered in Jack's Dive Chest CC v Minister of Employment and Labour, where an employer facing prohibition notices sought urgent interim relief to suspend those notices pending its appeals, arguing that the delay involved in the appeal process would cause catastrophic and irreparable harm to its business. The Labour Court dismissed the application, holding that the relief sought was directly contrary to section 35(5) of the Act, which exists precisely to ensure that a business whose safety standards have been found wanting cannot continue to operate until a competent authority has set aside that finding. The court held that while exceptional circumstances may in principle justify departing from this rule, that will only happen in the clearest of cases and financial hardship arising from the appeal process is insufficient.
The practical consequence for businesses is stark: once a prohibition notice is issued, the affected operations must cease immediately and remain suspended for the duration of the appeal, potentially for many months, unless the employer can satisfy the high threshold required for a court to intervene.
Why this matters now
Employers have already had 18 months' notice of these changes. A business that has failed to take adequate steps to prepare by 6 September 2026 will find it far harder to argue that its case is "exceptional". Inspectors assessing compliance after that date, and courts asked to intervene in prohibition notices, are unlikely to be sympathetic to employers who had ample time to act and did not. Given that appeals can take months to be finalised and an operational disruption in the interim can be commercially devastating, the safest and most cost-effective course is to be demonstrably compliant before 6 September 2026, not to rely on the appeal process as a safety net afterwards.
What we recommend
- Complete a gap analysis against the Physical Agents Regulations and the Noise Exposure Regulations if this has not already been done.
- Prioritise the remediation of high-risk gaps, exposure above occupational exposure limits, missing medical surveillance and absent control measures, before 6 September 2026.
- Ensure all required documentation is readily accessible, as inspectors are entitled to call for risk assessments, monitoring records and training records on inspection.
