Level of compliance with occupational health and safety guidelines in emerging retail businesses

The advantages of protecting the lives, health and safety of employees working in retail businesses are many. Studies have shown the relationship between ensuring the occupational health and safety of employees and productivity in retail businesses. Emerging retail businesses are required by law to comply with occupational health and safety guidelines in the interest of protecting the health and occupational safety of employees working in retail businesses, clients of the retail businesses, and the general environment in which business is carried out. A survey of 406 retail businesses in the Greater Tshwane geographical region found that the level of compliance with occupational health and safety guidelines was 53%. The survey identified three influential predictors of compliance (business ownership, the availability of adequate money for carrying out retail business operations, and level of awareness about the advantages of compliance with occupational health and safety guidelines).


Introduction
The Greater Tshwane geographical region includes Pretoria and the surrounding suburbs and townships. City of Tshwane (2022) has released an annual report that provides a list of strategic and operational priorities in which ensuring satisfactory compliance with occupational safety and health requirements in retail businesses is a key operational priority. The survey was carried out to examine the extent of awareness as well as compliance with occupational safety and health guidelines in emerging retail businesses in its municipal region. The study is helpful for determining indicators of better compliance with the health, safety and occupational conditions of workers employed in retail business enterprises. Studies have shown the relationship between ensuring the occupational safety and health of employees and profitability in retail businesses. South African law requires all retail businesses to comply with occupational safety and health guidelines in the interest of protecting the health and occupational safety of employees working in retail businesses, clients of the retail businesses as well as local communities that host retail business activities.
Parker and Narayanan (2023) have listed down the advantages of looking after the personal safety and health of workers employed in the retail industry. The survey shows that the retail industry needs to be motivated to pay due attention to the plight of retail workers who render business related services in developing nations. The main problems are lack of awareness and inability to spend resources on the acquisition of valuable skills that are essential for satisfactory compliance with occupational safety and healthguidelines.
Esterhuyzen and Visser (2022) have listed down indicators of satisfactory compliance in small business enterprises. Examples of such indicators are awareness, education about occupational safety, education about occupational health, personal visits by health inspectors, and respect for the basic labour related rights of employees. Khan, Proverbs and Xiao (2022) have argued that onsite visiting, monitoring and spot inspection are helpful for promoting level of compliance with guidelines. Oni, Olanrewaju and Khor (2023) have provided steps to follow and simple guidelines that must be adhered to by all emerging business owners and operators. The steps suggested by the authors are suitable for identifying the priority operational needs of poorly resourced business enterprises in developing nations. The model enables researchers to work closely with owners and operators of business enterprises and to acquire close supervision, monitoring, evaluation and skills-related training opportunities.

Literature review
Mid-year estimates published by Statistics South Africa (2022) indicate that the Greater Tshwane Geographical region has about 2.125 million inhabitants. The City of Tshwane (2022) has stated that ensuring satisfactory compliance with occupational safety and health in retail businesses is a key strategic and operational priority. This is because the labour, health and employee rights of employees working in retail businesses needs to be adequately protected. To this end, the Health Department of the City of Tshwane has a mandate to work with retail businesses and assess compliance with occupational health and safety guidelines. Schwatka, Dally, Shore, Dexter, Tenney, Brown and Newman (2021) have found that effective inspection and the promotion of awareness cannot be carried out in the absence of current, reliable and comprehensive databases of retail businesses. Current databases enable health inspectors to work methodically on indicators of compliance with the South African occupational health and safety act (Act no. 85 of 1993).
Although satisfactory compliance enables emerging retail businesses to protect the health conditions and occupational safety of employees, it is often viewed as an additional operational cost and costly responsibility. Tejamaya, Puspoprodjo, Susetyo and Modjo (2021) have examined indicators of compliance in retail businesses and have found that awareness education is helpful to alleviate misunderstanding about the cost of compliance. The need for awareness education is acute in developing nations. This is because little or no incentives are provided to retail businesses to foster compliance.
The various pieces of South African guidelines and legislation that need to be followed by retail businesses are pointed out in reports published by Departments such as Environmental Affairs (2022)  Passetti, Battaglia, Testa and Heras-Saizarbitoria (2020) have pointed out the need for integrated awareness and monitoring programmes in which assistance is provided to poorly resourced retail businesses. The recommendation made by the authors includes awareness promotion campaigns, education, and the provision of municipal assistance to retail businesses that cannot afford to pay additional health and occupational insurance fees for their workers. Retail businesses should be able to operate without causing harm to the general environment, business clients, the community in which they operate, and the health, safety and occupational rights of their workers.
Cunningham, Tinc, Guerin and Schulte (2020) have pointed out the need for capacity building, education, awareness campaigns and the strict enforcement of municipal bylaws that affect the wellbeing, safety and health of employees as well as host communities of retail businesses. Mouras and Badri (2020:149-160) have stated that disregard for the wellbeing of the general environment and the health condition and safety of employees is a result of lack of awareness about the needs of employees and failure in enforcing legislation and municipal bylaws. It has been stated by the authors that it is essential to promote awareness education at the same time while enforcing municipal bylaws. Rosemberg (2020: 382-383) has shown that the wasteful expenditure of scarce resources, pollution, contamination, and the abuse of natural habitat in emerging retail businesses is a result of lack of awareness, inability to promote health education, lack of resources for promoting primary health care services, and the failure of municipal and health authorities to enforce legislation. The author has shown the benefits of health and sanitary education, onsite inspections, evaluation, monitoring and effective control.
Retail business activities are affected by trends in digital technology applications, the use of social media for networking and marketing and online service delivery. Min, Kim, Lee, Jang, Kim and Song (2019) have shown the impact of the use of digital technology on the occupational safety and health of employees. Legislation on occupational safety and health serves as basis for protecting the safety and health of employees relying on retail businesses for livelihood. The maintenance of occupational safety and health services in retail businesses is an essential requirement for protecting long-term viability, job satisfaction, environmental wellbeing and safety in host communities. The measure enables host communities to live in harmony with retail businesses on a long-term basis. Safety and health regulations are valuable for protecting the rights of all participants of retail business activities in host communities. As technology evolves, working conditions change. As a result, workers need to be provided with work-related training opportunities on a regular basis.
Bayram (2019: 301-318) has listed down common examples of guidelines and regulations that affect the working condition of workers. Occupational safety and health guidelines that are applicable to retail businesses are equally important to protect the environment from pollution, contamination and abuse. Massive waste is generated by retail businesses in Tshwane. This waste needs to be minimised at source level. It should also be sorted and properly classified, processed and recycled. Johnstone (2019: 41-61) has shown that workers working in the retail industry must be properly documented and registered in order to remain safe and healthy. Their labour and human rights must be protected adequately. To achieve this goal, there is a need for a comprehensive and reliable database of all employees working in the retail industry.
Nyashanu, Simbanegavi and Gibson (2020) have shown that there is lack of consistency in the inspection of retail businesses. The authors have pointed out that inadequate attention is provided to emerging retail businesses and that there is no consequence management against businesses that fail to comply with guidelines. Gul (2018: 1723-1760) has pointed out that failure to comply with occupational safety and health guidelines is rife among informal retail businesses. There is no clear national policy on retail businesses operating in the informal retail sector.
Bentley, Onnis, Vassiley, Farr-Wharton, Caponecchia, Andrew and Green (2023)have suggested that public health and sanitary education, awareness campaigns and tax incentives are helpful for promoting compliance with legislation in retail businesses. Jensen and Gilkey (2023) have stressed that ensuring occupational safety and health is one of the pillars of public health services. The authors have identified socioeconomic determinants of satisfactory compliance with occupational safety and health guidelines, and have found that the provision of training and technical support is highly valuable. Guidelines outlined by the International Labour Organisation (2022) must be promoted in retail businesses. Reports published by the United Nations Environmental Programme (2022) and the United Nations Development Programme (2022) show indicators that are highly applicable to retail businesses that operate in Gauteng Province. The survey carried out by Padula, Cuddigan, Ruotsi, Black, Brienza, Capasso and the National Pressure Injury Advisory Panel (2023) has recommended that primary health care services and public health education should be promoted in poorly resourced and emerging retail businesses. Major cities of the world have succeeded in the effective management of urban waste by promoting compliance with occupational health and safety guidelines in retail businesses.

Objectives of study
The survey was carried out to examine the extent of compliance of retail business enterprises with occupational safety and health regulations in the Greater Tshwane geographical region and explore obstacles to satisfactory compliance in retail business enterprises.

Results of study
Slightly more than half of the 406 retail businesses in the survey (53%) demonstrated satisfactory compliance with occupational safety and health regulations and guidelines that apply to retail businesses. The remaining 47% of the 406 retail businesses failed to demonstrate satisfactory compliance with such regulations and guidelines. Table 1 shows attributes that are associated with satisfactory compliance with such regulations based on Pearson's tests of associations (Beh& Lombardo, 2021). These attributes are actual ownership of retail business, having enough capital for conducting business, sufficient awareness about the importance of occupational safety and health guidelines, the profitability of retail business, the economic sector of the retail business, the type of race of the business operator, the gender of the business operator, the age of the business operator, and the operation of retail business for 6 years or longer (a lengthy duration of retail business operation). The retail business has enough capital for conducting business 68.38 0.000 The business operator is sufficiently aware about the importance of occupational safety and health guidelines 53.54 0.000 The retail business is profitable 52.90 0.000 The economic sector of the business enterprise 52.69 0.000 The type of race of the business operator 40.81 0.000 The gender of the retail business operator 38.87 0.000 The age of the business operator 28.95 0.000 The retail business has been operated for 6 years or more 32.45 0.000 Subsequent multivariate analysis was carried out by using ordered logit regression analysis (Gilbert, 2022). The aim of multivariate data analysis was to identify influential factors that affect the extent of compliance. At the end of the procedure, three influential factors were identified. These were the type of ownership of retail business, the availability of enough capital for operating retail business, and the level of awareness about guidelines that need to be followed by retail businesses. Table 2 displays adjusted odds ratios for these three influential factors. Level of awareness about guidelines that need to be followed by retail businesses 4.62 0.0000 (3.37, 5.87) Table 2 shows that retail businesses that are operated by actual owners comply better with occupational safety and health guidelines in comparison with retail businesses that are operated by employed managers by a factor of 6.40. The table shows that retail businesses that have enough capital for operating business comply better with occupational safety and health guidelines in comparison with retail businesses that do not have enough capital for operating business by a factor of 5.89. The table shows that retail businesses in which there is enough awareness about guidelines that need to be followed comply better with occupational safety and health guidelines in comparison with retail businesses in which there is not enough awareness about guidelines that need to be followed by a factor of 4.62. The reliability of these estimates was ascertained by way of estimating the percentage of overall correct classification (86.89%), the likelihood ratio test (a probability value of 0.0000) and the Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness-of-fit test (a probability value of 0.1716).

Discussion of results
The results show a key area of shortcoming in services related to occupational safety and health services in retail businesses. The availability of a reliable database of retail businesses is highly helpful for monitoring purposes. The City of Tshwane (2022) has an integrated development plan in which municipal solid waste generated by retail businesses can be managed optimally. The identification, analysis and assessment of risks to occupational safety and health in retail businesses is one of various indicators of performance.
It is important that regular inspection activities are carried out in retail businesses, and that all retail businesses are actively encouraged to take part in training and awareness programmes. Education should be given to retail businesses in areas such as the benefits of ensuring the safety and occupational health of employees and customers, personal hygiene, environmental cleanliness and sanitation, proper waste disposal, waste minimisation at source level, sorting, classification and recycling of municipal waste.
There is a significant need for proper monitoring and site inspections at regular intervals.

Recommendations
In light of what the results indicate, the following recommendations are made: • A comprehensive database of emerging retail business enterprises should be set up for businesses operating in the Greater Tshwane geographical region. Such a database is essential for the effective monitoring of retail businesses. The database needs to be regularly updated and maintained and disseminated to stakeholders. • A training programme should be rolled out to all emerging retail businesses on occupational safety and health as well as environmental sanitation and cleanliness. • An incentive should be provided to retail businesses that are not registered formally for fear of having to pay tax. An awareness campaign should be promoted in all emerging retail businesses so that they understand the benefits of formal registration. • Support should be provided to emerging retail businesses on risk assessment and management in areas related to occupational safety and health.