David Dickinson

Hearing protection device usage at a South African gold mine

BACKGROUND Occupational noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) occurs in many industries despite interventions such as hearing conservation programmes. AIMS To determine the actual and reported use of hearing protection devices (HPDs) in noise-exposed gold mine workers and their reported knowledge, attitudes and practices relating to NIHL and HPDs. METHODS A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted in which 101 noise-exposed mine workers were interviewed and their use of HPDs observed. RESULTS Thirteen percent of respondents erroneously indicated that their workplaces were not noisy, 16% did not appreciate noise as a hearing loss hazard, 6% did not know that HPDs protect hearing and 3% believed that HPDs did not protect hearing. While 93% of respondents reported using HPDs, only 50% were observed to be doing so. Observed use was less among lower skilled workers, and, despite training, 8% of respondents claimed never to have been informed about the benefits of HPDs. Consistent and continuous use was reported by 24% and 31% of respondents, respectively. Reasons for not using HPDs included discomfort. Most respondents (57%) preferred training methods other than the current computer-assisted training. CONCLUSIONS The persistence of NIHL may be explained by limited use of HPDs, along with the suboptimal knowledge of noise as a hazard, workplace noisiness and the benefits of HPDs among some workers. Concurrent with engineering controls, a range of HPDs should be available free of charge, and HPD training reviewed particularly for lower skilled workers.

Fighting for Life: South African HIV/AIDS Peer Educators as a New Industrial Relations Actor?

This article examines HIV/AIDS peer educators in South African workplaces, drawing on research in five companies with large peer educator programmes. The research indicates that peer educators are primarily focused on reducing new HIV infections and ‘normalizing’ the epidemic by promoting change in the behaviour of individuals — a feature that is not accounted for by theories of workplace mobilization based on collective action. Similarly, their role is inadequately explained by theories on the emergence of new workplace actors based on the changing nature of work, shifting identity salience in society, and the nexus between workplace and communities as opportunities for union regeneration. After outlining the profile and activities of workplace HIV/AIDS peer educators, attention is paid to their motivations and methods of action, their relationship to management and unions, and the way in which they straddle workplace and community. The implications of this and the possible trajectory of workplace peer educators as a new industrial relations actor are discussed.

Smokescreen or Opening a Can of Worms? Workplace HIV/AIDS Peer Education and Social Protection in South Africa

The HIV/AIDS epidemic threatens amongst other things social protection provided in the workplace. Social protection comprises a range of rights and responsibilities that afford security to workers and their dependants. Any increase in diseases that impact on working age adults will have a detrimental affect on the levels of social protection that can be afforded. Additionally Rosen and Simon (2003) have suggested that private sector companies are shifting the burden of the disease by means of inter alia atypical employment forms and the capping of employee benefits. Such responses both reduce the overall level of social protection and increase differentials between core and peripheral workers within companies. Alongside any shifting of the burden of HIV/AIDS South African companies are actively implementing workplace HIV/AIDS programmes. These involve a number of components including HIV/AIDS peer educators who form a frontline of advice and support for workers. Drawing on research in five large South African companies this article assesses the activities of workplace peer educators (PE) and how this might impact on social protection in the workplace. (excerpt)

Use and neglect of best-practice HIV/AIDS programme guides by South African companies

Numerous guidelines set out best-practice policies for HIV/AIDS interventions in the workplace. This study analysed 14 recognised codes and guidelines to gain an understanding of the theoretical consensus regarding the key components of best-practice workplace HIV/AIDS interventions. Nine key components of best practice were drawn from the analysis; interviews aimed to verify these components by determining the extent to which HIV/AIDS practitioners in South Africa share a similar understanding of best practice. Participants in a research questionnaire and semi-structured interviews included managers responsible for company HIV/AIDS programmes, HIV/AIDS experts, consultants, and disease management service providers. There was a high level of agreement between the practitioners who were interviewed and the codes and guidelines that were analysed concerning what best practice entails. However, reported usage of the recognised codes and guidelines to inform workplace HIV/AIDS interventions was low. Although large companies in South Africa may recognise certain interventions as examples of best practice, it appears that these are not being readily implemented. This appears to be partly because the cost-benefit of a recommended intervention is not immediately apparent or conclusive, and also because the concept of best practice with respect to workplace HIV/AIDS interventions is not yet fully accepted.

Just jokes! Icebreakers, innuendo, teasing and talking: The role of humour in HIV/AIDS peer education among university students

Peer conversation provides an important platform for people to explore and disseminate sexual health knowledge. Humour forms part of conversations held between peers including those where sexual health and sexual decisions are discussed. The central argument of this article links conversation, humour and peer education. Drawing on interviews and diaries kept by 12 student peer educators over a two-month period in a South African university, the article explores the forms and functions of humour in instigating and encouraging informal peer education between young people in a university setting. The evidence shows that humour can foster intimacy, familiarity and camaraderie in peer interactions; keeps conversation moving; and acts as a gateway to discussion of taboo, personal and private subjects that lie at the core of effective peer education. Components of humour (joking, teasing, innuendo, provocation) and the transformation of the serious (and boring) into the enjoyable (and accessible) are found in these peer interactions. However, humour can also limit communication by keeping conversations light and superficial or, in the case of inappropriate humour, close conversation altogether. Acknowledging the nuances of humour within conversation and peer education allows for a clearer understanding of the ways in which humour contributes to effective health promotion efforts and how it can be used within peer educator practice. The effect of the personality traits of peer educators on effective use of humour in conversation is an area that could benefit from further insight and research.

Myths or theories? Alternative beliefs about HIV and AIDS in South African working class communities

Despite three decades of public health promotion based on the scientific explanation of HIV/AIDS, alternative explanations of the disease continue to circulate. While these are seen as counter-productive to health education efforts, what is rarely analysed is their plurality and their tenacity. This article analyses the ‘AIDS myths’ collected by African HIV/AIDS workplace peer educators during an action research project. These beliefs about HIV/AIDS are organised, in this article, around core ideas that form the basis of ‘folk’ and ‘lay theories’ of HIV/AIDS. These constitute non-scientific explanations of HIV/AIDS, with folk theories drawing on bodies of knowledge that are independent of HIV/AIDS while lay theories are generated in response to the disease. A categorisation of alternative beliefs about HIV/AIDS is presented which comprises three folk theories — African traditional beliefs, Christian theology, and racial conspiracy — and three lay theories, all focused on avoiding HIV infection. Using this schema, the article describes how the plausibility of these alternative theories of HIV/AIDS lies not in their scientific validity, but in the robustness of the core idea at the heart of each folk or lay theory. Folk and lay theories of HIV/AIDS are also often highly palatable in that they provide hope and comfort in terms of prevention, cure, and the allocation of blame. This study argue that there is coherence and value to these alternative HIV/AIDS beliefs which should not be dismissed as ignorance, idle speculation or simple misunderstandings. A serious engagement with folk and lay theories of HIV/AIDS helps explain the continued circulation of alternative beliefs of HIV/AIDS and the slow uptake of behavioural change messages around the disease.

Myths, science and stories: working with peer educators to counter HIV/AIDS myths

The failure to bring about widespread or effective behavioural change in response to South Africas HIV epidemic requires that new forms of health communication be explored. This article reports on an action research project in which a group of workplace HIV/AIDS peer educators at a South African mining company recorded HIV/AIDS myths that they encountered, around which they then developed stories as an alternative response to repeating factual, scientific messages, which seem to have little effect on target populations. A total of 16 stories were developed during the project. Some of the peer educators appeared to be much better at using stories within their activities than others. In part, this was a reflection of the enthusiasm and abilities of individual peer educators. It was also observed that the stories were used to respond to situations that were sometimes quite different from the original stimulus for the story. The complex range of skills that allows an individual to introduce and effectively use a story in day-to-day conversation should not be underestimated. The article suggests that rather than repeating the projects focus on developing stories tailored to specific HIV/AIDS myths, a more effective approach could be to develop stories that support core messages for facilitating HIV prevention, testing and treatment.

The employment relationship in the domestic workspace in South Africa: beyond the apartheid legacy

Employing more than one million people, domestic service is one of the largest sources of employment for black women in South Africa. In this article, we contend that, historically, the impact of apartheid has been to skew the analysis of employment relationships in domestic workspaces in South Africa so that the power asymmetry and exploitation that so characterise these relationships have been labelled an artefact of the racist apartheid regime and its legislation. By reviewing literature on domestic workers globally and drawing on a study into the impact of the Sectoral Determination for the Domestic Worker Sector, which was promulgated in 2002, we argue for a broader understanding of this relationship: one that takes into consideration its global similarities.

AIDS, order and 'best practice' in the South African workplace: managers, peer educators, traditional healers and folk theories.

This article examines the response of three medium-sized South African manufacturing companies to HIV/AIDS. It is argued that the response is heavily influenced by managerial conceptions of workplace order — sometimes divergent from industrial realities — which results in the selective inclusion and omission of best-practice components. The role of peer educators and traditional healers within workplace programmes, and the handling of folk theories developed independently by workers, are used to illustrate the particular nature of workplace responses. Ideologically based selection of best-practice components is likely to limit the success of workplace HIV/AIDS programmes and result in slow development and improvement.

Contracting out of the Constitution: Labour Brokers, Post Office Casual Workers and the Failure of South Africa’s Industrial Relations Framework

There is widespread concern over the continued viability of South Africa’s post-apartheid constitutional settlement and the increasingly violent axes of social tension. This article outlines the mobilisation of casual workers, employed by labour brokers but working in the South African Post Office (SAPO), who were excluded from the constitutionally sanctioned industrial relations system, despite the presence of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU)-affiliated Communications Workers Union (CWU). Drawing on interviews, ethnographic research, court documents and other material, the article analyses the casuals’ mobilisation strategies that succeeded in removing labour brokers from SAPO. Initially the key conflict introduced by the use of labour broking was between the labour brokers and their employees: a tension, it is argued, moulded by South Africa’s constitutional settlement, which has largely frozen inequality in place, combined with neo-liberal pressures. In maintaining discipline over a parallel but unequal workforce within SAPO, labour brokers departed from the constitutionally framed industrial relations system. After extensive, but unsuccessful, attempts to resolve matters though constitutional means, casual workers prosecuted alternative, violent forms of industrial action. They also re-aligned conflict from labour brokers to SAPO as they negated the ‘contractual move’ on which labour broking, and other forms of externalised employment, relies. The article reflects on this ‘contracting out of the Constitution’, particularly in regard to the role of unions struggling to remain relevant within a changing employment terrain, the crisis of the South African industrial relations system, and the increasingly violent nature of the country’s democracy.