Farm Safety Improves Through 'Incremental Gain', Says Birkett
Improving health and safety is about incremental gain rather than a sudden decision, says Leeston farmer and Federated Farmers health and safety spokesman David Birkett.
DairyNZ and Federated Farmers drew up the accord following consultations with key government and industry partners.
Federated Farmers Employment spokesperson and Manawatu dairy farmer, Andrew Hoggard says accord aims to help dairy farmers lift the overall performance of the industry in employment standards and people management.
"What it comes down to is that the dairy industry wants to set itself a goal to achieve quality work environments through helping farmers implement good people management practises," says Hoggard.
"We are faced with attracting a further 8,300 qualified workers to the dairy industry by 2025. To do that we have to show prospective and existing industry participants that dairy farming is an attractive, exciting industry that offers a good work-life balance and the opportunity for significant career advancement."
"The Quality Workplace Accord is the signatories' commitment to support the industry as it advances to reach optimum employment practices, to attract quality people to the industry. This is what we, the industry, need to show the industry's 12,000 diverse business units how to get better results from their recruitment and retention.
"By making their work environments stand out from the array of other options presented to talented people, farm employers will be able to pick the cream of the crop."
The Dairy Industry Strategy 2013-2020, developed and signed by Dairy NZ and Federated Farmers, among other industry players, makes the attraction and retention a central theme - vital to the success of the dairy industry.
"We know that the long term labour shortage that faces the dairy industry cannot be met from the traditional sources of rural New Zealand. But before we go out and appeal to those who may not be familiar with the farming landscape, we need to make sure we've got the work environment to back it up."
The final Quality Workplace Accord will be available to dairy farmers on Federated Farmers' and Dairy NZs' websites this May.
Quality Workplace Accord
What is it about?
• Setting our industry targets and commitments around quality work environments, compliance of legal workplace requirements and staff wellbeing.
• Setting out what the industry is doing on the ground to ensure quality work environments.
• Deciding who's responsible for contributing actions towards each target.
• Specifying the framework for reporting the industry's progress against targets.
When will it be launched? May 2015.
