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Agriculture workbook

12. Safety induction

Contents

1. Facts

Injuries to inexperienced workers account for a substantial amount of workplace injuries. When a new worker is engaged for full time, casual or for seasonal work, they need to be provided with the information, instruction, training and supervision necessary for them to carry out their job safely. It cannot be assumed that they have sufficient prior knowledge, training or experience.

An induction needs to be carried out for each new worker. Induction for new workers will help make the property a safer and more productive workplace. The induction, information, instruction and training you must provide includes:

  • the occupational safety and health responsibilities of both the employer and the employee (sections 19 and 20 of the OSH Act);
  • arrangements for the reporting of safety hazards and injuries;
  • safety and health procedures relevant to the workers job; and
  • how safety and health information can be accessed.

2. Training

To be both productive and safe on the farm, workers need to be competent to be able to confidently and safely carry out their work. A competent person is one who has acquired through training, qualification or experience, or a combination of them, the knowledge and skills to carry out a specific task.

Younger workers need to be given extra safety consideration as they generally have little or no experience in a working environment. The type of training required will vary depending on the tasks to be performed.

3. Supervision

As rural properties can be hazardous, it is important that as an employer, you ensure workers are following the established safe work procedures. To determine the extent of supervision necessary the competence, experience and age of each worker must be taken into consideration.

4. Emergency procedures and first aid

Procedures must be established to deal with emergencies and for the prompt reporting of injuries should they occur. All people must be familiar with the procedures to ensure action is taken with out undue delay.

5. Hazard and injury reporting

A system must be in place to enable hazards to be reported to a responsible person so that a record can be made and action taken to rectify the hazard. Similarly any injury that occurs to any person on the property needs to be reported to the employer.

The employer has a lawful responsibility to notify WorkSafe of deaths and certain injuries that occur on the property.

The types of injuries that must be notified are:

  • a fracture of the skull, spine or pelvis,
  • a fracture of any bone in the arm, other than in the wrists or hand, or in the leg, other than in the ankle or foot,
  • an amputation of an arm, a hand, finger joint, leg, foot, toe or toe joint,
  • the loss of sight of an eye,
  • Any injury which in the opinion of a medical practitioner, is likely to prevent the worker from being able to work within 10 days of the day on which the injury occurred.

Notification can be made by either in person, in writing, by fax, by phone or email. Forms are available from WorkSafe on 1800 678 198 or here.

An induction checklist is a good starting point and can be used to ensure all new workers are familiar with safety procedures. A sample induction checklist can be found here.

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