Health, Safety and Environment - International Labour Organization

Manual 6:HOW TO RATIFY & USE ILO CONVENTION NO. 184ON SAFETY & HEALTH IN AGRICULTUREEmployers’dutiesThere are many specific duties placed on employers by the Convention.The most important include:Risk assessmentThe employer must carefully assess all the risks agricultural workers maybe exposed to. This process is called risk assessment and has three stages:1. Identifying the hazard (the potential to cause harm)2. Assessing the risk (the likelihood that the harm from a particularhazard is realised)3. On the basis of the assessment, the employer should adopt preventiveand protective measures to ensure safety and health, and compliancewith health and safety standardsTraining and informationThe employer must ensure that agricultural workers are: trained provided with instructions and information that they understand supervisedStopping workThe employer must stop work immediately if there is serious and imminentdanger to workersGovernmentobligationsThe Convention imposes five key tasks upon governments:1. Develop and review a coherent national policy on safety and health inagriculture. They need to do this in consultation with employers andtrade unions2. Establish a competent authority to implement the policy and toenforce national laws and regulations on occupational safety andhealth in agriculture3. Specify employers and workers’ rights and duties4. Ensure that there is a system of inspection with adequate means foragricultural workplaces with provision for corrective measures andappropriate penalties5. Establish mechanisms for inter-sectoral co-ordination amongstauthoritiesThe standards in the Convention are very high and applying them in manycountries would almost certainly make a difference. And the first stage inapplying them is getting your government to agree to ratify the Convention.That is the subject of the next section.277 Health, Safety and EnvironmentA Series of Trade Union EducationManuals for Agricultural Workers