A ‘temporary worker’ or ‘temporary employment’ refers to an employment situation where the working arrangement is limited to a certain period of time.
Temporary workers are a fundamental part of the agricultural industry, which often relies on temporary staff throughout the year, either seasonally for fruit picking or on a regular basis such as bird catching.
Due to the current situation with the Covid 19 virus, it has been reported that there is a shortage of temporary workers who would normally be experienced in a variety of farm–based skills. Therefore, farm managers and agencies are seeking staff from groups such as students, employees who maybe on zero hours, or even workers who have recently been made unemployed such as those from the leisure and hospitality industries.
There are no restrictions to who you can or cannot recruit as a temporary worker, but due to the shortage of the regular experienced temporary workers, there is more chance that the current temporary worker recruited will be less experienced working within the farming industry, which has its own risks and challenges.
It is the duty of the business owner and farm managers to provide or ensure that adequate health and safety has been implemented for all those working on their premises. Although, if appointing an agency to provide staff, both parties, (the farm management and the agency) have a joint responsibility. The farm manager must ensure that the temporary workers are:
- Inducted
- Provided with instruction and or on–job training
- Provided with specific risk assessments or safe working procedures
- Provided with any appropriate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) that maybe required for the task(s)
The agency is required to provide their staff with basic PPE, such as safety boots, if required by the farm manager on the account agreement.
Inductions:
Inductions must be provided before any works commence. When taking on new temporary employees, time must be allocated to carry out the farm induction, the farm walk over, and any on-the–job training. This must be completed before the employees are allowed to start any work.
Ensure that all new temporary staff complete the CXCS Temporary Employee form, which also includes a medical questionnaire.
The medical questionnaire will establish the employees’ current health and medical situation. For instance, identifying any back problem so that the member of staff can avoid heavy lifting. This will help with task/job allocation.
The health questionnaire will also highlight any medical conditions such as asthma or allergies which may otherwise go unreported.
By reading and signing the induction checklist, the temporary employee is stating that they are aware of the farm rules and have been inducted.
On-the–Job Training:
Training on the job can be the easiest way of introducing a work procedure to new employees. In saying that, it must be considered that some of the new employees may not have the knowledge or skill set of those who have worked in the agricultural industry for some time. They may have never been in a working environment where there are large vehicles operating such as tractors or telehandlers. These points must be considered when allocating tasks to new temporary employees.
When providing on-the-job training, the key safety features must be identified and explained to the new starters, e.g. the location of the emergency stop button (E stops), if they are working on equipment such as a conveyor belt.
Once the training has been provided, the farm management must still provide supervision until the employee is deemed competent on that task. Training or re-training must be provided to all new starters or trained employees if there is a change in the procedure, or they are relocated to a new process area. It is important to get the temporary staff to sign to say that they have received training or instruction, and that they understand the task on which they have been trained.
As with anything to do with health and safety, we must produce evidence to show the enforcement agencies that policies and procedures have been provided.
Personal Protective Equipment:
Under the Health and Safety at Work act 1974, those employing temporary staff direct, or through an agency, are responsible to ensure that they have the following:
- A safe system of work
- A safe place of work
- Safe equipment, plant and machinery
This includes where engineering controls and safe systems of work have already been applied; some hazards might remain; therefore, you must ensure that temporary staff are provided with adequate personal protective equipment (PPE). This may include rubber gloves, dust masks or task specific PPE.
It must be considered that if the temporary staff have not worked in the farming industry before, there is a good chance that they will not know how to use or wear PPE, such as dust masks. In that case, the duty holder must ensure that all temporary staff receive adequate training or instruction on the use of PPE. We cannot assume that everyone knows how to wear a face mask or other personal protective equipment.
Following these key points will assist you to safely introduce temporary staff to your business.
This will help you to:
- identify any medical or health issues with temporary staff
- have a signed document that states the temporary employee has received an induction
- provide written evidence to the enforcement agencies that you have provided adequate training and instruction for procedures and specific tasks, and
- show you have provided the required PPE with instruction on how to use it
All of this will go towards safeguarding the temporary employees and your business.
