Cover Story Sidebar 3: Should equipment training become mandatory for farmers?

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

In many industrial sectors, equipment training is mandatory and, in some instances, licensing may even be required. Not so for farmers. Nor is there an age restriction on who can operate the equipment.

In contrast, there are laws prohibiting children from being on a construction site and the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA) requires that farmers ensure their employees are trained on the equipment they operate.

Should equipment training and even perhaps licensing become mandatory for farmers?
Dean Anderson, president of the Farm Safety Association, is torn on the issue. "There definitely is an argument to require it," he says. Yet to turn around and say someone driving a tractor for 50 years now needs a license, "I'm not sure I'm fully in support of that type of legislation."

On the other hand, requiring someone younger or who is just entering the industry to obtain licensing is something Anderson could see happening.

"It definitely means someone has to go out and get some training," he notes.

Wayne De L'Orme, co-ordinator of the Ministry of Labour's industrial program, says that construction contractors working on their own are similarly not covered by the legislation and, like farmers, they are not necessarily covered by the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board either. Nevertheless, he says that there has recently been a big push in that sector to ensure that supervisors are trained and equipment operators are licensed.

Obtaining safety or equipment operation training can be harder to achieve on the farm, though. As a small business with limited resources and doing the work yourself, "where do you get the training, and how do you get the time or the money to go out to do it?" he asks, observing that a farmer can't just "walk across the street and pick it up."

So what supports do exist? De L'Orme sees the Farm Safety Association as an important resource for the farm community. The Internet has also become a key way to obtain information, he adds.

Specific associations are also concentrating on safety solutions. De L'Orme notes, for example, that a mushroom growers association is looking at ways to prevent falls while a similar association for chicken catchers is working on designing a safety device to prevent them from falling.

For equipment training, Anderson suggests that the best trainer "on the idiosyncrasies of equipment is the person who sold it to you," and the next best is someone who has competently used similar equipment in the past.

He explains that, while his association can train the farmer about the risks around equipment, it doesn't offer training in operating it. He also stresses that equipment operation is workplace specific, which means that obtaining training on how to operate the equipment isn't enough in itself. The operator must also be trained in how to operate it safely within the specific farm environment. BF