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Which Statutory Workplace Posters and Notices Are Legally Required in South Africa?
Only two summaries are compulsory in every South African workplace, but machinery, hazards and other legislation can add more. This guide sorts out what must be displayed, what must simply be available on site, and what is good practice for a complete compliance board.
Written byJean Duvenage
Reviewed byArthur PaddockOn this page
South African law does not prescribe one identical set of posters for every workplace.
Some statutory summaries must be displayed by employers to whom the relevant legislation applies. Others become compulsory only where particular machinery, equipment, activities or workplace conditions are present.
There is also an important difference between:
- a prescribed notice or summary that must be displayed;
- legislation that must be readily available at the workplace; and
- posters that are useful for awareness but are not themselves legally compulsory.
Here is how the main requirements fit together.
The two main statutory workplace summaries
Basic Conditions of Employment Act summary
Section 30 of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act requires employers to display the prescribed summary of employees’ rights in a place where employees can read it. The summary must be in the prescribed form and comply with the applicable language requirements.
There is, however, an important small-employer exception: the section 30 display requirement does not apply to employers employing fewer than five employees. Get the BCEA summary poster.
Employment Equity Act summary — EEA3
Section 25(1) of the Employment Equity Act requires employers covered by the Act to display the prescribed summary of the Act at the workplace. The prescribed notice is commonly known as EEA3.
This display obligation should not be confused with the additional employment-equity planning and reporting duties that apply to designated employers. Following the amendments that took effect in 2025, annual turnover is no longer used to make a private-sector employer a designated employer simply because a sectoral turnover threshold has been exceeded. Get the Employment Equity poster.
The OHS Act: available on site, not simply displayed as a poster
The Occupational Health and Safety Act works differently. There is no general requirement for every employer to display an OHS Act summary wall poster.
Instead, the General Administrative Regulations require an employer with five or more persons employed to have a copy of the Occupational Health and Safety Act and the relevant regulations readily available at the workplace. Where fewer than five persons are employed, the employer must make a copy of the Act available to an employee on request.
An OHS Act summary poster is therefore useful as an awareness and reference tool, but it does not replace the statutory requirement to make the Act and applicable regulations available. For workplaces where Afrikaans is commonly used, an Afrikaans OHS Act summary can also support employee awareness.
Machinery and boilers: prescribed GMR notices
The General Machinery Regulations create additional display requirements where the relevant machinery is present. These include:
- Schedule C — Notice in respect of Boilers
- Schedule D — Notice in respect of Machinery other than a Boiler
These notices must be conspicuously displayed where the applicable provisions of the General Machinery Regulations apply. They are therefore not required simply because a business operates from commercial premises — their application depends on the machinery or plant being used.
Workshops, factories, plants and other workplaces operating machinery should assess whether these notices apply to their equipment and operations. You can get the GMR notices as a combination or individually.
Other workplace notices may also be legally required
BCEA, Employment Equity and the General Machinery Regulations are not the complete universe of workplace signage. Depending on the nature of the workplace, additional legislation may require specific warning, prohibition, information or statutory notices.
Examples can arise from requirements dealing with:
- smoking and designated smoking areas;
- hazardous substances;
- asbestos;
- noise;
- restricted areas;
- machinery;
- emergency equipment;
- occupational exposure; and
- specific exemptions or authorisations.
A workplace should therefore never rely on a generic poster pack as its complete legal-signage assessment. The required signage must ultimately be determined by the legislation, hazards, equipment and activities applicable to that workplace.
Posters commonly added to a complete compliance board
Many employers also display additional legal-information posters even where there is no general statutory requirement for that particular Act to be displayed as a wall chart. Common examples include:
- Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act — COIDA
- Labour Relations Act
- Unemployment Insurance Act
- Unemployment Insurance Contributions Act
- National Minimum Wage Act
- Skills Development Act
- Skills Development Levies Act
- Occupational Health and Safety Act summaries
These can be useful for employee awareness and help create a clear, organised compliance information board. They should, however, be described as informational or good-practice displays unless a specific legal provision requires that particular notice to be displayed.
Quick checklist: what should your workplace display?
| Legal status | Poster or requirement | When it applies |
|---|---|---|
| Statutory display | Employment Equity Act prescribed EEA3 summary | Employers to whom the display requirement applies |
| Statutory display, subject to BCEA exclusions | Prescribed BCEA summary | Generally where the employer has 5 or more employees and the relevant BCEA provisions apply |
| Must be readily available — not merely displayed | OHS Act and relevant regulations | Employers with 5 or more persons employed; smaller employers must make the Act available on request |
| Statutory display where applicable | GMR Schedule C — Notice in respect of Boilers | Where the relevant boiler provisions apply |
| Statutory display where applicable | GMR Schedule D — Notice in respect of Machinery other than a Boiler | Where the relevant machinery provisions apply |
| Other statutory signage | Hazard-, activity- and legislation-specific notices | Depends on the workplace |
| Informational / good practice | COIDA, LRA, UIF, NMW, Skills Development, OHS summaries and similar charts | Useful for employee awareness and compliance communication |
Important: this guide focuses on statutory wall summaries and commonly encountered workplace notices. It is not a complete register of every safety sign that may be legally required at a particular workplace.
Where should statutory notices be displayed?
Where legislation requires a notice to be displayed, it should be positioned so that the people for whom it is intended can readily see and read it.
A central compliance board, staff notice board or other prominent employee area is often suitable for general statutory summaries. Machinery-, hazard- or location-specific signage must instead be positioned where the applicable legislation requires it and where it communicates the relevant risk or instruction effectively.
How this fits into your health and safety system
Statutory notices are only one part of workplace compliance. A strong compliance system should connect the information displayed on site with the organisation’s legal register, risk assessments, appointments, procedures, training, inspections and supporting records.
That same evidence will usually form part of your health and safety file and may be reviewed during audits, client assessments or other compliance checks. If you are unsure where your site currently stands, you can start with one of our free safety checks. You can also read more about how a health and safety compliance certificate fits into the broader compliance process.
Where to get workplace legal posters
OHSE Resolved supplies a range of workplace legal posters, statutory summaries and compliance-board charts designed for South African workplaces. You can purchase individual posters from the OHSE Resolved shop or choose a poster pack covering the most commonly used workplace summaries and notices.
The Essential Compliance Pack provides the core workplace set, while the Complete Set provides the wider collection. These legal-information posters are separate from our free downloadable safety-awareness posters, which cover practical workplace topics such as PPE, working at height and everyday hazard awareness.
Common questions
How many posters are legally required in a South African workplace?
There is no single number that applies to every workplace. The Employment Equity Act requires the prescribed EEA3 summary to be displayed where the Act’s display requirement applies. The BCEA also requires its prescribed summary to be displayed, subject to the Act’s exclusions, including the exclusion for employers with fewer than five employees. Additional compulsory notices may apply depending on machinery, equipment, hazards and other legislation applicable to the workplace.
Is the OHS Act poster compulsory?
A general OHS Act summary poster is not itself compulsory for every workplace. The legal requirement is different: employers with five or more persons employed must have a copy of the Occupational Health and Safety Act and the relevant regulations readily available at the workplace. An OHS Act summary poster is useful for employee awareness but does not replace the Act and applicable regulations.
Do small employers need the Employment Equity poster?
The Employment Equity display requirement is separate from the additional duties imposed on designated employers. Since the 2025 amendments, the old annual-turnover thresholds no longer make a private-sector employer a designated employer simply because a particular turnover level is exceeded. The principal employee-number threshold for private-sector designated employers is now 50 or more employees, subject to the other categories recognised by the Act.
What posters does a workshop or factory need?
The answer depends on the equipment, machinery and hazards present. In addition to the generally applicable statutory summaries, the General Machinery Regulations may require the prescribed Schedule C or Schedule D notices where relevant. Factories and workshops may also require additional hazard-specific safety signage depending on their activities, substances, equipment and occupational exposures.
Where must workplace posters be displayed?
General statutory summaries should be displayed where employees can readily see and read them. Machinery-, hazard- or activity-specific notices must be positioned in accordance with the legislation governing that particular notice. A central compliance board can work well for general statutory information, but it does not replace signage that must be placed at a specific machine, area or hazard.
Work with OHSE ResolvedGet your workplace compliance board in order
Choose the statutory summaries and legal-information posters relevant to your organisation with the Essential Compliance Pack, or contact us for a broader compliance assessment. A poster on the wall is only one part of compliance — we can also assess the legal requirements, documentation, risk controls and supporting evidence behind it.
AuthorJean DuvenageSAIOSH Registered Professional, Managing DirectorReviewed byArthur PaddockSenior Safety ConsultantThis guide is general information about South African occupational health and safety requirements as at September 2026. It is not legal advice, and it does not replace the text of the Act and Regulations or a workplace-specific signage assessment. Requirements depend on your workplace, activities and hazards.
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