Abstract

The application of occupational health and safety (OHS) legislation in the dairy industry varies throughout the world. Generally there is no specific OHS legislation that applies to the dairy industry and mostly in countries the current OHS legislation applies to all workplaces with specific guidelines that apply to agricultural industries. The main difference between countries is in the application of OHS legislation specifically in relation to the size of the farms. In the USA, the OHS legislation, and therefore enforcement, does not, in most cases, apply to farms with less than 11 employees, whereas in other countries there is no minimum number of employees and in some cases such as the United Kingdom and Australia it covers all people who work on the farm. The other area of difference is in the use and publication of guidelines for the industry; some countries have a wide range of guidelines whereas other counties have few. Generally, this relates to the jurisdiction of the OHS legislation, which in several countries is not at a national level such as USA, Canada, and Australia. The main principal of OHS legislation is that all workplaces, including dairy farms, should be a safe and healthy place to work, and does not vary significantly between the countries reviewed even those with prescriptive legislation.

Keywords

Dairy industry; OHS legislation; risk-based legislation

Published in

Journal of Agromedicine
2013, Volume: 18, number: 3, pages: 210-218
Publisher: TAYLOR & FRANCIS INC

SLU Authors

• Lundqvist, Peter

  • Department of People and Society, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG8 Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all


UKÄ Subject classification

Law (excluding Law and Society)
Environmental Health and Occupational Health
Health Care Service and Management, Health Policy and Services and Health Economy


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/1059924X.2013.796902

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/53194