Author: Partner Jackson Inglis
Agriculture plays an important role in Australian industry. The scale and nature of operations in the agriculture sector means high risk activities are undertaken on a day-to-day basis. This makes compliance with work health and safety (WHS) duties fundamental to the management of any agriculture-based workplace. In the 5-year period from 2017– 2021, there were 163 worker deaths in agriculture alone, representing 18% of all worker fatalities across Australia in that period. Seventy-three per cent of these deaths involved a vehicle, including tractors, quad bikes, or all-terrain vehicles.
In each state and territory, WHS legislation imposes a wide range of general duties on persons conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU). These include a primary duty to ensure the health and safety of your workers while they are performing work for the PCBU, and to ensure that the PCBU’s operation does not put the health and safety of other persons at risk.
There is also a specific duty imposed on PCBUs with management and control of plant at the workplace to take reasonably practicable steps to ensure that the plant being used is without risks to the health and safety of any person. In the agriculture industry, the duties go even further, with express obligations to ensure tractors are fitted with an appropriate rollover protective structure and to monitor the use of quad bikes in the workplace.
It is important to be aware that WHS duties are risk-based. This means an incident does not have to occur for a PCBU, and/or an “officer” of the PCBU, to be charged with a breach of duty under the applicable WHS legislation. Charges against PCBUs can arise from the conduct of audits by WHS regulators, or the identification of breaches when Inspectors are in the workplace investigating an unrelated incident. This means that PCBUs must be proactive in ensuring they have a robust WHS management system in place.
As the old saying goes, prevention is always better than the cure. As regulators are also prosecuting individuals for breaches of WHS legislation in increasing numbers, it is essential that all participants in the agriculture industry, from farm hands to Chief Executive Officers, understand and comply with their personal WHS duties.