Action plan to reduce farm injuries announced

  • Kate Wilkinson
Labour

Labour Minister Kate Wilkinson has launched a new action plan to bring down the “unacceptable” number of workplace injuries in the agriculture sector.

The Agriculture Sector Action Plan targets four priority areas that account for at least half of all injuries and deaths in the sector, including:

• use of agricultural vehicles and machinery
• the physical and mental health/wellbeing of agricultural workers
• slips, trips and falls, and
• animal handling.

Agriculture has one of the highest rates of workplace injury, disease and fatalities each year – double the average rate across all sectors. Provisional figures show that 15 agricultural workers were killed last year alone.

“People working in agriculture are exposed to a wide range of hazards. Their work is physically and mentally demanding, the hours are long and people often work in isolation,” Ms Wilkinson says.

“Agriculture is vital for New Zealand but it is also one of our most dangerous industries. On average we lose one farmer every month, with a farmer injured every 30 minutes. That is unacceptable.

“There is no excuse for anyone to be put in danger, suffer serious injury or lose their life while on the job.

“We need to concentrate our efforts on the four priority areas of the action plan to make a real difference. I expect farm workers to suffer fewer injuries as a result.”

The action plan, developed in conjunction with industry and stakeholders, was launched at Parliament today. It sets out how the agriculture sector and the government will work together over the next two years and beyond to reduce the work toll and outlines specific actions.

These include actions to: reduce harm from the use of quad bikes on farms; provide high quality information and training to the farming community; reduce falls on farms; provide suicide prevention support; and to promote health and safety in particular areas such as the wool, beef and lamb industries.

There are series action plans targeting the five sectors with consistently high levels of workplace injury, disease and fatalities – agriculture, construction, manufacturing, forestry, and fishing.