Add water usage to code of conduct

IN REFERENCE to “Urgent water savings needed in the workplace”, Cape Argus, December 2. The water situation in Cape Town and many other parts of the country has become dire.

Many workplaces are not respecting calls for proper water management. Invariably the owners of the companies and the directors don’t send a message out to the staff who are wasting water.

A feasible and practical solution would be for each business to have a water wastage policy which would be added to the disciplinary codes and for the Codes of Good Practice within the company to be properly monitored and implemented. The implementation stage would see staff receive a copy and an explanation of the code.

If the workplace is unionised, a perfect solution would be to engage the union to endorse the code of water management.

This code would outline certain areas where water is used and would put into practice a proper management protocol.

If the protocol is breached, this would lead to disciplinary warnings which might lead to a disciplinary hearing which could lead to dismissal.

Water management practices in the company would then become a high profile management tool and would be respected and followed if the consequences of breaching them could lead to dismissal.