some safety training, which I can give
them,” she explained.
Morag said she’s noticed an increase
in the number of farm workers over the
past couple of years.
“There are more than I would have
seen a few years ago, and five seems
to be the magic number out there a lot
more now.”
Morag also stressed the owner cannot
be the safety representative, nor anyone
else associated with management.
“Typically, we wouldn’t even say it
could be the son or the daughter or wife;
we are really looking for it to be one of
the hired hands,” she explained.
Having an employee fill the safety
rep position better ensures workers
are more fairly represented, Morag
SAFETY
explained, and can often bring a fresh
perspective to any safety elements that
may have been overlooked.
“It’s really a way of giving workers a
voice because often workers are the people
who see the hazards, or know that when
they do that particular job, they feel
that element of risk attached to it. So it’s
possible they can unearth something
that someone who’s been doing it for 40
years or more no longer sees.”
Morag admits the process of
appointing and training a safety
representative may seem daunting to
some farmers, but it is something a
safety inspector would be looking for.
“If there are five or more people
working on a farm, they are certainly
going to ask who the safety representative
is. That could be an improvement
order in itself – to appoint a safety
representative – so we can get ahead of
the curve on that as well,” she said.
In addition to mandatory safety
records and documentation, inspectors
are also on the lookout for unsafe
conditions. That could include missing
guarding, unsafe electrical conditions,
unsafe handling of toxic chemicals, a
lack of control measures in place for
toxic gasses, or damaged ladders.
“Farmers may have old lathes or
presses that didn’t have a guard when
they were manufactured, but now
modern legislation requires guarding,”
she explained. “That one often catches
people off guard because it was okay
when Grandpa bought it, so it’s assumed >>
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Manitoba Farmers’ Voice § Fall 2019 § 31
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