Health and Safety

Health and safety does not need to be complicated – you can make it simple and practical to meet the needs of your business. Think about risk before doing tasks.

You can prevent many of the injuries and much of the ill-health that take people away from work by planning to manage risk. Each injury or illness means people can’t work, whether it’s for an hour, a day, or permanently. This impacts on the productivity of farms and orchards, and on your ability to enjoy the lifestyle offered by living and working in the horticulture industry.

What needs to happen to make your operation healthy and safe?

Everyone be responsible

Health and safety does not happen without the boss and everyone else getting in behind it.

Everyone get involved

The more people involved in managing risk, the more likely the risk will be managed. More people making a farm healthy and safe will mean fewer people will get injured or sick.

Keep at it

Managing risk is not about documents and manuals. It’s about thinking and talking about risks and doing what needs to be done to stay healthy and safe every day.

Stay vigilant

Farms change from day-to-day. So do the risks. Make sure everyone on farm knows about the risks on your farm, how they can change with the time of day, the season of the year, or a person’s emotional or physical state.

Enhancing safety and wellbeing in horticulture

The project to enhance safety and wellbeing in horticulture has reached its first milestone, with the release of a report that delves into what happens in horticulture workplaces.

Keep safe, keep growing

This essential resource gives practical tips on how to be healthy and safe in horticulture. Keep safe, keep growing was co-developed by HortNZ, Worksafe and ACC to prevent injuries in the industry.

This video demonstrates worker-led health and safety problem solving with teams from the Pacific Islands. This pilot shares the experiences of workers and managers from horticulture businesses within New Zealand.