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This article forms part of the archives of Business Insider South Africa, which was published as a partnership between News24 and Insider Inc between 2018 and 2023.
- New draft rules would dramatically increase the minimum level of light allowed, by law, in South African conference rooms.
- Conference rooms will still be allowed to be a lot dimmer than office desks, but not to quite the same extent.
- Reception areas will also have to brighten up.
The conference rooms and a few other areas in South African offices may be way too dimly light, new draft government rules on workplaces suggest.
And, if that plan goes ahead, employers will have to brighten them up, or they could be facing fines calculated on a per-day basis from next year.
The minimum level of light allowed in specific areas in specific workplaces is regulated by law, and the current rules go back to 1987.
Now labour minister Thulas Nxesi has proposed a shakeup, which will classify light among other "physical agents" that can do harm in the workplace, such as sound and heat, rather than just considering it alongside environmental factors such as ventilation.
The result will be a couple of new rules: windows and "other sources of natural light" will have to be kept clean, and flickering light – of the kind so common with failing fluorescent tubes – must be eliminated.
Then there are the changes to minimum light levels.
For offices, areas used for "computer and business machine operation" will still be required to be at a minimum average illumination of 500 lux, as is currently the case. But for conference rooms, the minimum will jump from 300 lux to the same 500 lux. At the same time, what is defined as "entrance halls and reception areas" will need to be double as well lit, going from a minimum of 100 lux to a minimum of 200 lux.
Corridors will have a 200 lux minimum, and reception desks a 300 lux minimum, while stairs can drop as low as 150 lux.
A level of 500 lux is widely considered decent for office work that involves a lot of reading, from either paper or screens, but South African companies have at times been advised to keep offices at 400 lux or lower, in order to save energy.
The draft physical agent regulations for occupational health and safety are open for comment for the next three months.
