New 2-year action plan launched to upgrade work health and safety conditions on farms
12/8/2017
Safework SA has recently launched a fresh 2-year initiative to upgrade the health and safety conditions in the working Agricultural field. This new action plan has been built after consultation with agriculture businesses and focuses on decreasing the number of accidents on farms and agricultural spaces all over South Australia.
Safework SA has recently launched a fresh 2-year action initiative to upgrade the health and safety conditions in the working Agricultural field.
This fresh new action plan has been built upon consultation with the Agriculture business and focuses on decreasing the number of accidents in farms and agricultural spaces all over south Australia.
According to SafeWork SA Acting Director Dini Soulio, there have been 40 fatal accidents documented in the Agriculture and similar industries e.g fishing in South Australia over the last 12 years.
This amounts to 25% of fatal accidents across all industries in the region, he added.
13 of these fatal incidents were a result of accidents involving vehicles.
The fresh action plan emphasized the costs of workplace damage claims. Claims filed between 2013 and 2016 costed $8M annually.
The livestock and milk industries are fond of joining this action plan, commented Andrew Curtis, the CEO of Livestock SA and SA Dairyfarmers Association.
Mr. Curtis pushed for more change in the field in an effort to decrease the number of serious and sometimes fatal incidents in the wider Agricultural industry. This action plan, as he revealed was launched following consultations with the industry heads and consists of 10 central areas of action to be implemented over the next two years in an effort to inform and protect agricultural workers from any mishaps.
The plan’s main aspect involves more collaboration with the Agricultural sector to build workshops and initiatives to support better health and safety conditions and covers:
● Assistance towards young farmer management groups
● Support of supply chain networks to raise awareness of health and safety matters
● Development of updated best practices
● An extensive campaign emphasising the risks and dangers of the workplace
● Practical control measures when driving quad bikes
● Additional involvement with secondary and 4th level organisations to make sure that health and safety guidelines are featured in the course curricula of students attending agricultural classes
For more information visit Safework South Australia
