When the health and safety inspector calls

Health and Safety Inspector Visiting?

Does the prospect of a health and safety inspector turning up at your place of business fill you with dread?  It shouldn’t, if you have a system in place and procedures to follow. 

Safety sensitive environments

If your place of business is a safety sensitive environment, you must, where reasonably practical, provide a safe and healthy environment where workers are protected from risk. This includes health and safety on farm. It’s all about identifying and eliminating risk, and while it’s not always possible to eliminate the risk completely you can isolate, minimise and monitor. Sound complicated?  It’s not really.

Here are the basics:  

• manage your risks and be able to show you are doing so.
• identify health and safety risks to people in your workplace.
• for prevention, monitor both workers health and workplace conditions. 
• when planning, include both workers and family, then ensure they know how to manage risk.
• train and supervise people who work at your workplace.
• keep a record of any incidents or events related to health and safety.
• do you have procedures for dealing with workplace emergencies, and do your workers know how to follow them? 
• do you have safe and healthy facilities for workers? 
• is your machinery and your systems safe for workers to use?
• do you have the correct PPE and do you and your workers know how to use it? 

Who is responsible?

At the end of the day, you are responsible as the business owner and operator for the people who live or come onto your place of business. Gone are the days of ‘she’ll be right’, because if the health and safety inspector calls or if an accident occurs without you having the right systems and procedures in place to keep people safe, you will be liable. 

For more questions on health and safety on farms head to ‘your questions’ at WorkSafe.

• on January 21, 2021