Health and Safety Legislation Changes

Health and Safety legislation has changed as of 4 April 2016, make sure you are up-to-date with the new rules.

Click here to find out how the changes affect you and what you can do to keep yourself and people around you safe.

WorkSafe New Zealand have issued some guides to working more safely on-farm. In 2015 there were 122 sheep shearing-related injuries serious enough to require funding support from ACC. Leading injuries included back injuries, sprains, strains and muscular stress caused by prolonged bending. Read more about safer farms.

Health and safety on farms is about looking after people – farm workers, contractors, farm visitors, yourself and your family.

20 people were killed in workplace accidents on farms in 2013 – that’s more than the number that died in forestry, construction and manufacturing combined – making farming one of the most dangerous occupations in New Zealand. These numbers represent peoples’ fathers, mothers, husbands, wives, sons or daughters, with the true impact of the deaths and the serious injuries carried by our farming communities and families.

Each of these deaths, and many of the non-fatal injury incidents were preventable. The true cost of not taking health and safety seriously is far too high.