Occupational health and safety (OHS)

“Safety is not proven by the absence of reported injuries where no one can report them. ”

Occupational health and safety is often visible through personal protective equipment, warning signs and training records. These are useful controls and poor definitions of safety. A worker can be fully trained and equipped while the job still exposes them to unnecessary danger. Prevention begins with the work system, not with asking the individual to absorb its hazards more carefully.

In 2022, the International Labour Conference recognised a safe and healthy working environment as a fundamental principle and right at work. ILO Convention No. 184 applies that principle to agriculture, calling for the prevention of accidents and injury to health by eliminating, minimising or controlling hazards in the working environment.

Agriculture combines chemical, biological, physical, ergonomic and psychosocial hazards. Pesticides, dust, animals, machinery, vehicles, heat, noise, repetitive movement, sharp tools, long hours and isolated work can interact. Seasonal pressure and piece-rate payment may encourage speed, skipped breaks or unsafe lifting.

Informal and family workers may be absent from employment records while performing the same hazardous tasks.

The hierarchy of controls provides a practical discipline. Eliminate the hazard where possible. Substitute a safer material or method. Use engineering controls to separate people from danger. Apply administrative controls such as procedures, scheduling and training. Use personal protective equipment for remaining risk.

Programmes often begin at the bottom because PPE is visible and easy to distribute, leaving the source of the hazard unchanged.

Pesticide safety shows the problem. Gloves and masks may be inappropriate for tropical heat, unavailable in the correct size or reused beyond their protective life. Labels may not be understood. Containers may be stored in homes or reused. A credible programme considers whether the chemical is necessary, whether a less hazardous alternative exists, how it is mixed and applied, and how equipment and waste are managed.

Heat is increasingly important as climate changes. Work-rest schedules, shade, drinking water, acclimatisation and task timing can reduce risk, but productivity targets must change with them. Telling workers to hydrate while maintaining an output requirement that prevents breaks is not a functioning control.

Reporting systems create another blind spot. Injury rates may fall because work is safer, because temporary workers are excluded, or because people fear losing employment. Near misses, symptoms, exposure monitoring, worker observations and independent health surveillance provide leading evidence. Confidentiality is essential where reporting could trigger retaliation.

Worker participation is not an optional communication exercise. Workers understand tasks, shortcuts, equipment failures and exposure patterns that managers may not see. They need information, training, representation and the ability to remove themselves from imminent and serious danger without unjust consequences. Contractors and labour brokers should be included in the same system.

Health effects may appear long after exposure. Hearing loss, respiratory disease, musculoskeletal damage and chronic pesticide effects are easily missed by short audits. Medical surveillance should be risk-based, confidential and connected to prevention, not used to screen out affected workers.

The discipline is to examine whether hazards are being removed and controlled at source. Training delivered, PPE distributed and days without recorded injury are outputs or partial indicators. Safety outcomes are reduced exposure, safer work design, early detection, effective reporting and a culture in which people can stop dangerous work.

Practical application

Map tasks and workers, including seasonal, migrant, family and contracted labour. Assess hazards with worker participation and apply the hierarchy of controls. Review production targets, payment systems, heat, transport, housing and emergency response as parts of the work system.

Use leading indicators such as completed corrective actions, exposure reduction, near-miss learning and worker-raised improvements alongside injury data. Provide confidential reporting, health surveillance and remedy. Verify that PPE is suitable, available and the final control rather than the programme's first response.

Why it matters

Work sustains livelihoods only if it does not damage life and health. Agricultural supply chains carry significant hazards that can remain invisible because work is informal, dispersed and seasonal. Prevention protects a fundamental right and reduces costs that are otherwise carried by workers, families and public systems.

Common misconception

Occupational safety is often reduced to training and PPE. Those controls matter, but the strongest prevention changes the material, machine, process, schedule or target that creates the hazard. The worker should not be the primary barrier between a dangerous system and injury.

Connections

Decent work places safety alongside rights, pay, protection and dialogue. Climate adaptation affects heat and work organisation. Access to inputs includes safe chemical choice and information, while due diligence extends responsibility through contractors and supply chains.

A question worth asking

Which serious hazard in your value chain is being eliminated or engineered out, rather than managed mainly through worker behaviour and protective equipment?

Selected references

International Labour Organization. 2001. Safety and Health in Agriculture Convention, 2001 (No. 184). International Labour Organization. 1981. Occupational Safety and Health Convention, 1981 (No. 155). International Labour Organization. 2022. ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, amended. International Labour Organization. 2011. Safety and Health in Agriculture: ILO Code of Practice.

International Labour Organization and World Health Organization. 2021. WHO/ILO Joint Estimates of the Work-related Burden of Disease and Injury, 2000-2016.

IV Markets & Assurance The terms through which organisations define requirements, preserve claims and create confidence in markets and supply chains.