TRADE UNION NEWS

November 2000

While the Rural, Agricultural and Allied Workers (RAAW) union welcomes the fall in farm fatalities, from 57 to 44, last year, it stresses that more still needs to be done in order to make agriculture safer and, in particular, to end child deaths on British farms.

While the fatality rate in the industry is the lowest since 1993-94, with the 12 deaths of employees being the lowest since 1986-87, agriculture still tops the industrial league in terms of the number killed in the workplace. Additionally, National Secretary Barry Leathwood warns against viewing one year’s figures as part of a long-term trend towards better safety standards. He claims that: "Dramatic changes from year to year, such as between 1995-96 and 1996-97, means that the industry must still be on the alert until we see a downward pattern in the number of deaths over several years".

With regard to child deaths, these include the four-year-old daughter of a farmer in Wales who fell from the bucket of a tractor’s fore-end loader and who was run over by the vehicle which was being driven by her father. In another accident, a three-year-old boy was run over by a materials handler being reversed by his father in a cattle shed. Overall, transport accidents accounted for almost a third of all fatalities. The other main causes being: animals, falls and being struck by moving or falling objects.

The majority of the fatalities, 33 out of 44, took place on mixed farms, where a variety of farming activities give rise to a variety of hazards. According to Barry Leathwood, "much more needs to be done… and that includes more worker involvement, increased use of roving safety representatives and an increase in inspector time from the Health and Safety Executive".

From the prevention of injury perspective, the Health and Safety Executive have published a free leaflet Manual Handling Solutions for Farms which provides advice and examples illustrating how manual handling risks can be reduced. With back, neck and limb disorders being the most common types of ill-health in agriculture, it being estimated that 80% of those involved in farming suffer from these effects, the publication offers much needed practical solutions. According to RAAW, the current law on manual handling has been in place for over seven years and too many farmers have delayed acting for too long.

Both the Transport and General Workers union (T&G) and its agricultural section (RAAW) are concerned over the number of serious injuries that are currently going unreported. According to the T&G, thousands of accidents go unreported every year. One of the areas in which under-reporting is rife, being the agricultural sector. The union argue that: "Because many people in that sector work with heavy machinery in isolated conditions, they often don’t report even serious injuries… We know of country doctors who have been called out to attend seriously infected self-dressed wounds".

According to UNISON, a civilian clerk with the Metropolitan Police has won almost £400,000 for back injuries suffered as a result of her employer’s failure to carry out a manual handling risk assessment or to provide her with training in manual handling.

The clerk had to collect a weekly delivery of stationery, carry it across a yard, and either up three flights of stairs to a store room, or down to the basement. There was no trolley and there were no lifts provided. Although most packages were 11kg boxes of photocopying paper, some items weighed over 40kg. Handling such stationery took her up to 2 hours per day. Additionally, the store room was overcrowded and untidy, which made it difficult to move items without having to twist awkwardly.

Apparently, on one occasion, she had to collect stationery from another police station by making repeated trips on the underground, placing the boxes on the ground every so often to rest. Although she had requested the use of a car, this was refused. The clerk suffered occasional backache and complained about her lifting duties, only to be told to ask a police officer to help. This proved to be unrealistic, because she lacked the authority to instruct them to help and they proved unwilling to help voluntarily.

In October 1994 she had to repeatedly move a heavy box in the store room, twisting awkwardly because of the lack of space. Her back started to hurt and she could not get out of bed the next day. Despite extensive medical treatment, she has been unable to work since and, although only aged 28, it is unlikely that she will ever work again.

The judge noted that frequent carrying of even modest loads, especially where there are space constraints, can pose a significant risk which must be reduced. Further, he held that she should have been given: manual handling training, a manual handling system which provided physical assistance, a trolley, an improved store room, and transport on the day she had to collect stationery from another police station. The argument put forward by the Metropolitan Police that she could have made the loads lighter was dismissed, because "common sense is not a substitute for training and instruction and will not warn of risks that are not readily apparent".

On a related topic, UNISON point out that every year 300,000 people suffer the agony of back pain as a result of a manual handling incident. Among home carers, for example, manual handling is the most common cause of injury at work. The union, therefore, suggests that Safer Handling of People in the Community, the publication produced by the national charity BackCare, should be required reading for every manager in the home care sector.

According to a recent TUC survey, over a third of young workers do not get health and safety training even though employers are legally obliged to provide it. This is a worrying finding, particular as a recent Norwich Union Risk Services survey identified that 4 out of 5 small concerns were unsafe with regard to young workers and work experience placements. According to the TUC survey, part-time young workers are even less likely to receive health and safety training,

The inexperience of young workers make them more vulnerable to peer group pressure, which can promote bad practice, and they therefore need closer supervision. Union safety representatives can also play important roles and act as mentors to young workers. It is disappointing that recent studies identify such lack of controls given the increasing amount of legislation applying to the health and safety of young workers. It is an area in which self-regulation may be failing and a return to more prescriptive legislation may be required. With regard to work experience, the lack of funding of employers taking work experience placements undoubtedly restricts the effectiveness of the checks being carried out by training organisers and this is an area which the Government would do well to review. If employers received funding for accepting work experience placements, then higher safety standards could be insisted upon. Whereas; as long as the system remains voluntary, organisers have to go "cap in hand" to employers in order to find a sufficient number of placements.

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Mike Everley