Farmers await the final act

Farmers will be required to systematically manage the risks faced by them and anyone who works on their farm.

The spectre of health and safety reform has hung over farmers like a dark, foreboding cloud throughout the year. Federated Farmers meanwhile campaigned in the background with the Government and WorkSafe to ensure proposed legislation was realistic and practicable to farmers. Federated Farmers' health and safety adviser Nick Hanson was present throughout those pivotal meetings and discusses the reform and what farmers can expect.

Early in the new year, before the drought had taken hold and the dairy payout sensationally plummeted; farmers would have been more concerned about encountering a WorkSafe inspector across the paddock.

Some might still be, but it shouldn't hold the same trepidation or animosity.

Few pieces of legislation this year have caused as much controversy as the Health and Safety Reform Bill, with Federated Farmers and agriculture in the thick of it.

After much acrimony and, at times, woefully ill-informed debate, the bill was passed in September and will come into force next April as the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015.

The biggest controversy was over a relatively minor point -- the definition of 'high risk' industries for the purpose of worker engagement. The initial list of "high risk" industries omitted most types of pastoral farming and this led many to portray agriculture as being exempt from the provisions of the bill.

In reality, the exclusion only covers the need for small businesses to have a formally trained staff health and safety representative -- a total of four pages of a 275-page bill -- and besides, this list is only the start of what will be an extensive consultation period to ultimately determine what is 'high risk', with no guarantees made.

The act has implications for farmers as it does for every other business. Farmers will be required to systematically eliminate or, if not reasonably practicable, manage the risks faced by them and anyone who works on their farm.

The bill also puts new obligations on the 'person conducting a business or undertaking' (PCBUs in the language of the new act) that have overlapping duties. This essentially means farmers and agricultural contractors working together under more co-operation and co-ordination.

And, as well publicised, there are much higher fines available to the courts in the event of a proven breach of the law, and greater responsibility put on directors, partners or trustees which will have an impact on farming companies, partnerships and trusts.

Federated Farmers supports the principles of the act and welcomes its passing, but there were significant concerns with the bill as it was introduced.

While the effect of the farming lobby was generally overstated by media, we were able to demonstrate a case for several meaningful changes during the consultation phase.

The original bill would have made it impossible to undertake any recreation on your farm. From a picnic to riding horses, and even hunting which, under the act, the area has to be free of all health and safety risks.

The reform states that while the farmer retains duty of care for farm structures like barns and sheds, and any farm area where work is being undertaken, absent these work environments, there will be limited responsibility under this act at least.

Federated Farmers Industry Forum:

Federated Farmers still envisages a large amount of work to be done on health and safety. Now legislation has been passed the industry has an opportunity to be proactive and to address the obvious threat to farming from such high numbers of fatalities and serious injuries.

The federation has since convened a CEOs forum with Beef+Lamb NZ, Dairy NZ and WorkSafe NZ to address the big issues at the highest level, reflecting the importance of the issue.

Good health and safety starts with leadership and we are committed to working together in the new forum to improve the culture on farms in New Zealand.

Not all health and safety rules farmers need to adapt to are controlled by the act, or even regulations. The priorities and opinions of WorkSafe are also incredibly important as they are required to interpret what compliance with the governing act looks like.

WorkSafe isn't a farming expert and we intend working with them through direct engagement and through a number of existing groups.

That way, they can appreciate the risks facing farming, and what steps are reasonably practicable for farmers, given the inherent unpredictability of farming in New Zealand.

One of the bigger issues is rules around quad bikes, particularly passengers, and we are talking with WorkSafe to get more sensible and workable rules.

In the meantime, the passing of the act has generated a process of consultation for a series of regulations that sit underneath the act and will come into force at the same time.

If you consider the act to impose the high level principles and duties, the regulations will be more detailed about what compliance with the principles of the act will mean.

There is a raft of regulations with the most relevant to farmers being those involving hazardous substances, and the "general risk and workplace management".

These regulations impose a series of restrictions on the presence of young people in certain workplaces.

Although it is not expected this will place unreasonable restrictions on the presence of children on farms, it is an opportunity to get absolute clarity that there is a place for children on working farms, so long as they are kept safe, so far as is reasonably practicable.