Rotorua agricultural workers are too scared to voice concerns about poor health and safety practices, making many farms unsafe, the Council of Trade Unions warns.
Figures released to The Daily Post from the Business, Innovation and Employment Ministry show Rotorua agricultural workers suffered 26 serious workplace accidents in the
past five years, of which one was fatal.
Nationally, more than 1760 serious agricultural accidents occurred since 2008 - 75 resulting in death.
The sector has one of the highest accident rates in New Zealand, with manufacturing, forestry and construction.
CTU president Helen Kelly said farm owners made too many excuses when it came to employee health and safety.
"They want to talk about training and they want to talk about culture and they want to talk about drugs.
"But nobody wants to really investigate what are the working conditions of these workers and do they have a voice?"
Ms Kelly said New Zealand's agriculture accident rate would not change until workers were given proper support, and felt comfortable raising concerns about unsafe working conditions.
Four years ago, 15-year-old Quentin Allan Leslie Kivell died from serious injuries after a hay bale rolled on him on farmland at Maniatutu Rd, near Okere Falls.
He was assisting on the family farm when the bale, estimated to have weighed between 200kg-400kg, fell on him.
However, New Zealand's farming body argues that many farmers are doing their best during difficult financial times.
Rotorua and Taupo provincial president Neil Heather was surprised to hear the CTU had received negative feedback from workers regarding health and safety protocols.
All farms which employed workers had health and safety plans, he said.
"If there's concerns about it then they should approach the owner and have those issues addressed."
The sheep and beef farmer said working with animals was particularly risky.
"If you're dealing with bulls, you'd probably be at a bigger risk than if you were [working] with dairy cows.
"As far as beef cows go, at calving time when a cow has calved, her natural instinct is to protect that calf.
"That can be a factor in getting hurt," Mr Heather said. Federated Farmers health and safety spokeswoman Jeanette Maxwell said farmers had been "under a huge amount of stress in the last wee while - albeit financial and other off-farm stresses".
Some farmers weren't employing workers to save costs. However, reduced staff numbers often contributed to "three-thirty-itis" mistakes, Mrs Maxwell said.
Ona de Rooy, MBIE general manager health and safety operations, said most serious and fatal accidents in the agriculture sector involved vehicles.
Nearly 60 per cent of fatalities since 2008 involved farm vehicles, such as tractors and quad bikes.
Farm vehicles were also involved in nearly one-third of all serious harm agricultural accidents during this period.
Ms de Rooy said an increase in the number of reported serious and fatal agriculture sector injuries in the past two years - from 336 in 2011 to 420 last year - was likely because of better awareness of health and safety protocols among farmers.
"However, there are still too many people being hurt and killed on New Zealand farms and it will take time for safety behaviours to change to help reduce this unacceptable toll."
Agricultural serious harm notifications:
Rotorua
Serious Injuries
Fatalities
- Source: MBIE