Unpacking the Rural plant Code of Practice: Training and skills

This video is about ensuring you and your workers have the right training and skills to work safely and effectively. It's one of a series of educational videos designed to help you use the Rural plant Code of Practice to manage work health and safety risks on farm.

There are several other videos in this series including the safe use of technology, vehicle safety and in-field traffic management.

Hello, I'm Mark Lalor from Queensland Government and I'm the manager of Workplace Health and Safety Agricultural Unit.

And I'm Jasmin Smith, I'm the project manager for Smart Ag Queensland at the Queensland Farmers Federation.

Hello Jasmin, we're talking a little bit about training for workers and information for producers around training requirements for people coming onto the farm and operating rural plant.

So, one of our main issues that we find when we go onto a farm is the farmer does an induction with his worker but he doesn't sort of do any training or keep any training records around operating different types of plant on the farm.

To help those people on farm what sort of information and training that they need to provide their workers and how do they do an assessment on the workers and how do we keep any records around training.

I mean, it's always better to have some kind of records than none. So even if you can't get perfect records or really detailed records, notes in the diary can be really helpful.

And there's a wealth of free resources out there too that help with documenting inductions and even scheduling a weekly toolbox talk or something in the diary so you can prove that you've taken those steps to do your bit when it comes to inducting and conducting regular safety training.

Like you mentioned before, our minimum standard is keeping a diary entry. 'Jasmin started work for me today and I showed her how to operate a John Deere tractor and we did that by, I demonstrated up and down on the field and the activities that we were doing with that and showed her how to attach a slasher to the tractor' and I've deemed her competent on the day.

And just handwritten in the diary? Written note.

Typed on the computer? Yeah, yeah.

Look, and a lot of people say, you know, when do we have to do it, you know? And I say,  go home at night, have dinner, just get out the diary and you know, your diary for the day, 'what have I done today?' You really need that basic record.

So if you're a little bit further down the safety journey, you know, then we're looking for some evidence on paper that, you know, we've got the manufacturer's handbook and in there it gives you good safety information that you need as part of demonstration for your competency assessments. And then develop a document as competency checklist and some of those are available through either our website or yours.

And like say the manufacturer's handbook tells you heaps of information and a lot of people don't even bother to look at that. But it gives you that information around about operating safely and you can copy that into a checklist for yourself and say, these are the key things I really need to teach somebody new on farm with.

How else can you think of unpacking how the training and skilling component of the Code can be applied on farm in pretty simple ways? Like how can they use it as a blueprint to know what they need to do to induct their staff properly or what are the basics in your opinion that they need to be needing to be safe and compliant when it comes to training and skilling.

Yeah, like I say the Code is broken down into pieces of different types of plant on farm and then it also goes into the steps of training and assessment of your workforce and so anyone that comes to work for you on your farm we want to ensure that they're trained and competent to be able to do the job.

And a lot of people ask, well, if something, an accident happened down the road because that person didn't operate the piece of plant safely, is there a come back on me because I've signed off that person as competent?

And the rule is there that they were deemed competent at that point in time. They have an accident down the road, well we're going to investigate that accident. If you've got no evidence to say that you've trained that person, we're looking for that and we'll be looking for reasons why you haven't done it.

Better safe than sorry.

For sure, yeah.

A lot of the work I've done in Smart Ag Queensland so far has been predominantly supporting Queensland growers to access safety training. There's been huge interest, I think 2,200 people off the top of my head in one year participating in safety training, a lot of which are around some of those high risk work licences, which we were talking about before. I was wondering if you could help us unpack what a high risk work licence actually means in the Code and how farmers can translate that onto farm and ensure that their staff are actually covered when it comes to those licences.

Well there's certain types of plant on farm there that you require a high-risk work licence for, even if it is just inside your property, you still require a licence for that. So anything to do with a forklift you require a high-risk work licence. But one of the other things is you can get attachments to Manitous and that type of loader, and when you put a mast on that piece of a plant and you put a set of forklift tines on it then becomes a forklift in our world and we want to ensure those people license to do that job as well.

And the beauty of some of this plant is it's got so many features, attachments that you can have on there, sometimes you can fall into that category that you do require a high risk work licence.

Best not to try and cut corners then.

No, no, no, look and with like same deal on our website there's a lot of information available on there. We've also got a phone number where you can ring up and ask somebody for assistance and give you guidance around about what you may need for licensing around that.

And I always go back to talking about somebody's bought a new tractor and they might be $250,000, $400,000 and you're going to hand your keys over to that tractor for somebody to operate and potentially drive it and roll it or put it into power lines.

So that's a really expensive piece of plant on your farm, we want to look after that, we also look after the operator as well.

The safety fundamental of doing some basic training and keeping some records around that. Like I say, the Code does help there in trying to identify what you need to know.

I say a lot of the time we go to jobs where people have had accidents on farm and the same thing we see all the time is like the manufacturer's handbook has got so much information but it's still wrapped in plastic and sitting behind the seat of the piece of plant, you know, so.

It gives you lot of help there to begin with.

And the good thing about you guys developing those training courses and getting those RTOs that are suitable for doing the training on there, it sort of breaks down that barrier of fear that, we haven't done the right thing.

And they know that you guys are really supporting that.

And they can see from us that we're trying to support by giving a good document to work with. And like I say, we've got some other resources there on our website to help there, we've also got the IPAM program to help develop that.

So Mark, how can we address the upskilling and training such a culturally diverse workforce in terms of the Code and ensuring that workers are not just given the opportunity to train and be safe but that they comprehend it when English skills might be an issue?

Yeah, look, we do see that commonly, especially with a lot of backpackers in the workforce, labour hire from other countries around the Pacific region.

So for you as a farmer, employing people there, English is not their first language or their literacy skills are fairly low, yeah, like I say, how do we prove that those people are confident and you're confident with that.

And if you do have a lot of those people in your workplace, we'll come back to basically just photographs and a safe work procedure and the do's and don'ts and some of that stuff.

So, using that basic language and the photography side of things. We've got some translate applications on our phones these days which helps a heck of a lot.

Like I say, it mightn't be anyone that's from another country but it also could be people with low literacy levels as well.

You know, you really, I'll show you and then you show me, making sure that you actually understand how these things work and so we can have a conversation and the same deal there, they mightn't be able to read a procedure but they can demonstrate by showing me how to work it, then the same deal there, I can sign it on their behalf and so they've demonstrated to operate safely to me.

One thing you mentioned earlier there too is regular toolbox talks and depends on what the activity is and obviously on farm it can change daily so we might be ploughing on here today, we might be harvesting there tomorrow. So when those situations change, it's having those toolbox talks and what hazards we've got on farm when we're operating plant, so making sure everyone's kept up to date.

And that it's in the diary.

It's in the diary, yep.

Well thanks so much, Mark.

This has been really helpful.

Yeah, thanks for your time too, Jasmin.

It's been good to catch up.

Pleasure.

Follow the link below to find a great conversation between some familiar faces in the agriculture sector as they step through the key areas of the Code, share their real life experiences and provide direction on where to find more information to help make sure you and your workers come home safe at the end of the day.