For welding contractors
Welding safety file
Fume you cannot see, sparks that travel further than you expect, and arc eye by the afternoon.
Generate your safety file — R500What the law requires
There is no separate safety file law for welding contractors. The Occupational Health and Safety Act 85 of 1993 and the Construction Regulations 2014 are national and trade-neutral — they apply to welding work exactly as they apply to every other trade on a South African site, with no minimum project size exemption.
What changes with the trade is the content. The regulations require the file to reflect the work actually being carried out, so the risk assessments, method statements, appointments and registers in a welding file are driven by the hazards welding contractors actually create.
Why a welding file is different
Welding produces a respiratory exposure serious enough to be classified as carcinogenic to humans, and it is a hazard routinely left out of a welding safety file in favour of fire and arc eye. Fume, fire and radiation all need to be in there.
What to get right in a welding safety file
These are the hazards that should be reflected properly in the risk assessments and method statements — the parts of the file that are easiest to leave generic and hardest to defend when they are.
Welding fume
Fume is a recognised human carcinogen, and stainless and galvanised work adds hexavalent chromium and zinc oxide on top. Local exhaust ventilation is the primary control and respiratory protection the backup — and in a confined space, fume plus oxygen displacement is the combination that kills.
Sparks and spatter travelling
Spatter travels well beyond the immediate work area and finds combustibles through gaps, gratings and floor openings. A hot work permit, removal or covering of combustibles, screens and a fire watch after work stops are the controls, and the check on what is below and behind is the step most often skipped.
Arc radiation to welder and bystanders
Ultraviolet from the arc causes photokeratitis to anyone looking toward it, not only the welder. Screens protect the people walking past who have no protection and no reason to expect harm — and they are the group most often injured.
Also governed by: Hazardous Chemical Agents Regulations 2021
Welding fume is a hazardous chemical agent, bringing exposure assessment and control duties — including for hexavalent chromium on stainless work.
Documents a welding scope typically triggers
On top of the core compliance pack every construction file carries, welding contractors should expect to need these. The exact set depends on your scope.
- —Safe work permit checklist and permit issue control register
- —Pressurised gas cylinders method statement; compressed gas storage and handling risk assessment; gas safety toolbox talk
- —Fire equipment checklist and register; fire prevention appointments (CR 29)
- —Confined space supervisor appointment (GSR 5) and confined space rescue procedure for vessel work
- —Training register for welder competencies
- —PPE issue register — respiratory protection and welding helmets
What is most often missing from a welding safety file?
In practice, the fume exposure assessment. Files reliably cover fire and arc eye because both produce immediate, visible incidents, while fume — the exposure classified as carcinogenic to humans — gets a line about ventilation and nothing more. Stainless and galvanised work make it more serious still.
More background: what a construction safety file is and what a compliant template must contain.
Get your welding safety file in 8 minutes
MySafetyFile generates a complete, site-specific construction safety file — drawn from a library of 351 documents across 9 categories — in about 8 minutes for R500. Register free, enter your project and scope, and download a file that is ready to print or submit. There is no monthly fee, and one account handles unlimited projects.
Every document is aligned with the OHS Act and Construction Regulations 2014, developed by a SAIOSH-registered practitioner, and carries a unique identification code that ties it to the account and project it was generated for.