Labour Protection Council discusses the issue of safety in agriculture

On 9 September 2008, on an away session in Sobkowo, Świętokrzyskie province, the Labour Protection Council discussed the issue of occupational safety and health in agriculture. The session, chaired by Ms. Izabela Katarzyna Mrzygłocka, was also attended by the Chief Labour Inspector Tadeusz Jan Zając and his deputy, Roman Giedrojć. Participants of the meeting visited a farm awarded in the contest for a safe farmstead.

National Labour Inspectorate, apart from inspection and supervision activities

in agricultural plants hiring workers, has paid much attention to preventive undertakings on private farms. The issue was discussed by Mr. Roman Giedrojć who underlined it as the only possible form of NLI’s activity in private farming in the context of lack of legal provisions authorizing inspection and supervision of working conditions. Thanks to an awareness raising campaign conducted by the inspectorate for years targeting farmers and their families, cases of assigning hazardous and harmful tasks to children become marginalized.

In villages, attention is also paid to the need of providing children with care during intensified field works.

As results from the inspections carried out by labour inspectors, most agricultural plants, especially leased ones and with dominating plant production, concentrate their investment efforts mainly on purchasing modern and efficient tractors and machinery. The costs of purchase, counted in hundreds of thousands PLN, leads to neglecting of expenditures on renovation works and modernization of inventory and warehouse premises, frequently a couple of dozens years old. Old and exploited equipment is still used

in works with animal production and general farm work. Due to this fact, there is no visible improvement in safety of workers both in this type of works as well as plant production. Lack of or very low level of OSH trainings for employers is also a reason for underestimating and neglecting by them of working conditions problem in agricultural plants.

In turn, lack of knowledge on hazards in everyday agricultural work or neglecting them and insufficient knowledge of ways of preventing dangers, resulting from poor education, leads to low level of occupational health and safety in private farming. These circumstances are also attributed to poor economic condition of most, especially small, farms. It cannot, however, be an excuse for neglecting the quality of work, carelessness in behaviour, resisting innovation and longstanding negligence. In view of the labour inspectorate, accident ratios in this branch of economy indicate a pressing need for developing multi-direction consultancy and educational activities in the field of safety and protection of health among private farmers, carried out by various institutions and partners.

During the discussion, emphasis was placed on intensification of educational activities carried out by various entities in rural environment with the aim to increase farmers’ awareness concerning hazards on farms. There was a debate about the need to broadly educate children from rural areas with the help of schools and also to train teachers from schools in rural areas in the field of OSH. The aforementioned issue has also been emphasized by the Chief Labour Inspector Tadeusz Jan Zając who pointed to a significant role of local authorities as teachers’ employers in motivating them to participate in such trainings and in cooperating with NLI and Agricultural Social Insurance Fund in conducting educational activities.

After the meeting had ended, its participants visited a private farm owned by Mirosław Marek in Potok Mały – winner of the county level contest „Beautiful, safe and environment-friendly farm”. Members of Labour Protection Council became familiar with the character and course of agricultural production conducted there as well as measures used by the farmer in order to secure occupational health and safety.