Compliance blitz on Riverina businesses as heat ramps up on harvest

SafeWork NSW officers were at Junee on Friday as part of a compliance blitz on grain receival businesses during this year's harvest.

As part of the latest blitz, inspectors will focus on various work health and safety priorities at businesses across the region, looking at vehicles and machinery, forklift operation and prevention of falls.

Officers will also inspect chemical safety, confined spaces, providing adequate facilities - including staff amenities - and look at how businesses manage worker fatigue - with a no-tolerance approach.

SafeWork NSW Riverina Murray manager David Jones visited Junee with Wagga-based SafeWork NSW inspector Steve Dale as part of the blitz.

Mr Jones said in the last week and a half they had already inspected 21 sites and issued a "number of [improvement] notices" in the process.

"These notices [point out] things that need to be addressed by employers," he said.

Fortunately, he said no fines or worse had been issued as yet, and he said the goal of the blitz was to identify issues before they got to that stage.

"We're just trying to work with the industry to ensure everyone gets home safe [at the end of the day]," he said.

"That's what we really want to happen."

Mr Dale has been working with Junee-based grain, fertiliser and transport business Hanlon Enterprises in recent months and said the business was an example of what the latest blitz will target.

"The business has silos, moving plants, weigh bridge and sampling," he said.

"We're looking at all employers with those sorts of equipment and infrastructure and at ways that they can [conduct their work] safely."

Mr Dale has worked with Hanlon "in the past year" and "formed a good relationship to ensure all their workers go home safe and healthy at the end of every day".

"That's a human right - people should be able to go to work with their health and safety insured - and that's my motivation for this job," he said.

Managing director of Hanlon Enterprises Josh Hanlon said the business had been very busy during the current harvest.

"Harvest will be 70 to 80 per cent done now," Mr Hanlon said.

He said a really busy day would see up to 100 trucks pass through the business.

"We took in between 2400 and 2500 tonne per day the last two days," he said on Friday.

The business employs about 24 regular staff and takes on an extra 10 to 20 workers for harvest.

Mr Hanlon - who has been working with SafeWork for the past 10 years - said it's important to have clear safety standards.

"I want everyone to go home safely [at the end of each day]," he said.

"These [SafeWork] guys help you do that job, as opposed to just trying to regulate."

Mr Hanlon said SafeWork staff provide "tips and procedures to follow, rather than just pushing the obligation on you to come up with the process yourself".

Head of SafeWork NSW Trent Curtin said the compliance body understood the end of the year brought an increased sense of urgency at agricultural plants across the state, but he said this was "not an excuse for employers to forget the responsibilities they have to their workers".

"Twenty-four people have tragically lost their lives working on farms or doing work associated with farming in NSW since 2022. SafeWork NSW's targeted compliance program is about working with agricultural businesses and workers to push this number down to zero," Mr Curtin said.

"The work seasonal workers provide to the agricultural sector is invaluable and we must ensure these workers are operating in the safest environment possible."