While legislation will differ between state and state, and country and country there are a number of standard areas of concern for lawmakers that mean most of the following risks will be at the heart of any type of protection that is put into law for employees of a farm or agricultural business.
General Principle
Health and safety regulations and legislation have one core principle at their heart, that of requiring employers to provide a safe and secure workplace for their employees, that is as free as possible of known risks and hazards that are related to that industry.
Most legislation requires both the employer to provide such a workplace and for employees to take responsibility as well, in terms of adhering to the required policies and procedures that are in place to ensure the safety of them all.
On farms and in agricultural businesses the main focus of legislation would be concerning machinery, vehicles, signage and the nature of work in confined spaces.
There is also likely to be legislation or requirements concerning the shutting off of power to any equipment before it is serviced, maintained or used after it has been serviced, and the provision of appropriate PPE by the employer.
The wearing of such PPE by the employee, and the responsibility of employees to flag up to an employer any spillage or accident that could affect the welfare or safety of other employees.
Tractor Safety
The main area of legislation concerning tractor safety is around what are known as tractor rollover protection requirements.
Many people will look at tractors and see that they have an ROPS fitted to them. This is pretty standard for virtually all new tractors, but a lot of older tractors were built and used before it became a legal requirement to fit one.
The main benefit is to the operator of the tractor. If the tractor should overturn for any reason, the ROPS works as a rollover protection system saving the operator, hopefully, from being squashed either by the weight of the tractor or by the land that the tractor has overturned onto.
Tractor safety is recognised as one of the key elements of all agricultural legislation and in addition to machinery requirements, there are likely to be legal requirements concerning the training and operation of any type of tractor or agricultural vehicle.
Whilst requirements may differ by country, they are likely to include some of the following provisions.
Seat Belts
Wearing a seat belt as in motor vehicles is often a legal requirement, as well as training on how to manage different types of terrain that the tractor or vehicle may be used on, specifically avoiding commonplace hazards such as potholes, ditches, uneven surfaces etc.
Vehicle operators should be highly aware of the risk of sloping land and how most tractors and other types of vehicle are high risk hazards in these conditions.
This applies to large tractors as well as garden or lawn tractors which are often used in smaller agricultural businesses as a way of ground maintenance. They are highly susceptible to turning over over when they are used on uneven land, or land where there is a significant incline.
Proper training and awareness needs to be given to all operatives of all types of farm vehicles before they are used. In the event of any type of accident or incident then the operative may need to be retrained or removed and put on other duties.
Even without any incident it is a good idea, and often a legal requirement, to have a fixed period of training renewal which may either be once a year or more frequently if the type of work is particularly hazardous.
Signage
Farms and agricultural businesses need a significant amount of signage at various points of the business to make sure that people are not only aware of particular hazards and dangers but that they are frequently reminded of these on a daily basis.
Even if people are aware of risks there is always a danger of complacency, often a natural reaction to any type of risk when it is encountered and dealt with safely on a regular basis.
Signage helps keep people fresh in terms of their awareness of danger and means they are more likely to be open to whatever is needed to be done to reduce the risk and keep people safe.
Machinery Guarding
Machine guarding is one of the most important areas of all types of prevention of accidents and risks of injury. Many types of machinery will come with guards fitted although some may not.
For those that don’t it is likely that it is the employer’s responsibility to make sure that guarding is fitted if possible, and if not to assess whether or not it is actually appropriate machinery to be used on the farm or an agricultural business.
Guarding protects an employee from inadvertently being exposed to a number of dangers, particularly electrocution, and injury from the build up of a power source that is left in the machine.
All types of machinery need to be cleaned various times and often need to be serviced, adjusted or simply unclogged.
It should be an absolute rule that when any type of this work needs to be done, the machinery needs to be turned off and left for a significant period of time before any work is done. This is to make sure there is no build up of power or power residue in the machinery that poses a risk if an employee tries to access it too quickly.
This is especially true with machinery such as snow blowers, where is a significant residue of power in the machine even once it has been unplugged or switched off.
This residue of power can cause significant physical damage to anyone using it, if they put their hands or any other part of their body into machinery, even when switched off.
Confined Spaces
Confined spaces, by their very nature, are more hazardous than non-confined spaces.
This is because the nature of the work in a confined space doesn’t allow for freedom of movement as such, requiring employees to be more careful of the nature of the work they are doing.
Also restricted access for other people to enter and leave the space makes it more difficult for an employee to provide help if it is needed.
