Working with

This year, Pomewest has been facilitating and encouraging pome growers to engage with Worksafe with their Orchard Inspection Project. Worksafe representatives were invited to present at our recent industry engagement dinners in Donnybrook, Manjimup and the Perth Hills.

The driver behind the project is to enable orchardists to protect themselves and their workers with high class, safe work practices and environments. The other benefits of being involved in the project is that growers and farm managers will be able to meet with inspectors at a time that is convenient and suitable to prepare
for routine visits and any possible surprise situations that could interrupt production activities.

Senior Inspector Gary Delamotte reported to us that many orchardists had volunteered for a visit, and most have been very receptive and in compliance with the checklist.

At the start of this collaboration the Pomewest Committee asked Worksafe to provide it with some data on lost time for injuries and diseases for the Apple & Pear, Stone and Citrus Fruit industries. Essentially the data was collected by information provided on workers’ compensation claims collected by WorkCover WA in 2019 and has been.

revised back to 2000–01. It is important to be aware of the issues when interpreting claims statistics taking into account inconsistencies and omissions — caution needs to be exercised when using workers’ compensation payments as data as it will not reflect injured workers who are not reimbursed by the workers compensation authority. 

During the combined nine year period from 2009–10 to 2017–18p:
• LTI/Ds where one or more days/shifts was lost from work as a result of a workplace incident (LTI/Ds 1+ days/ shifts lost) accounted for 70% of total injury and disease claims lodged (see Table 1).

• Of the 163 LTI/Ds 1+ days/shifts lost, 74% were classified as serious (LTI/ Ds 5+ days/shifts lost) and 23% were classified at severe cases (LTI/Ds 60+ days/shifts lost).
• A 38% reduction was recorded in total injury/disease claims and a 32% reduction in LTI/Ds 1+ days/shifts lost.
• There have been no work-related traumatic injury fatalities recorded in these industries.

The mechanism of incident subgroup of Falls from a height account for the largest proportion (23%) of LTI/Ds (1+ days/shifts lost) during the period from 2009–10 to 2017–18p (see Table 2).
• The number of Falls from a height LTI/Ds reduced from 10 incidents in 2009–10 to seven in 2017–18p.
• Less than five LTI/Ds (1+ days/shifts lost) was recorded per year between 2010–11 and 2016–17.
• The breakdown agency of injury classifications associated with multiple Falls from a height LTI/Ds (1+ days/shifts lost) during the reporting period were (in order of magnitude) Ladders (24 LTI/Ds), Tractors, agricultural or otherwise, Power hoists and Vegetation.