Do I Need a Work, Health & Safety Policy?

Ultimately yes…..but it’s not the priority item in my opinion!

Although the word ‘policy’ is only mentioned in the Regulations as specifically required for mining and major hazard facilities. A policy is really the rule book that gives direction to workers of what’s expected of them.

Every business has a variety of basic duties under the Law, that together, are to provide management and direction that maintains the safety of those at the workplace,…….. aka policies & procedures ….or rules!

To explain what a policy is, I like this definition by Sydney University:

What is Policy – Sydney University

In recent years I’ve been using a basic policy and commitment document that was established by Farmsafe and the Australian Centre for Agricultural Health & Safety. I’ve made a few adjustments to it and have added comments to further explain each element of it.

For most farms, this safety journey will be a ‘work in progress’. There will be some items that you do not yet have implemented on your farm. That’s okay! But make this commitment to gradually improve your farm safety arrangements.

Don’t get hung up on a Policy, it’s much more important to buy a guard for your auger than spend time obsessing over paperwork perfection. A more formal policy can evolve over time as you work through each element of your farm safety implementation journey.

Updated version 4 now includes policy for the ‘Chain of Responsibility’.

• Work Health and Safety Plan – Business Name – Version 4

1. Download this document and make it your own
2. I don’t recommend you remove anything other than minor changes that make it more relevant to your operation
3. Read it and if there is something you want to question, drop me an email
4. Using ‘find and replace’ in Word, find ‘Farm Business Name’ and replace with the name of your business
5. Remove my comments & highlights before printing
6. Print and ring bind into booklet form (or staple it, your choice)
7. Have all management & regular workers within the business read and sign to pledge their commitment to safety improvement
8. This ‘policy’ should now form a part of your Induction procedure for new workers