IN late January Worksafe announced the introduction of a new Telehandler, or ‘TV’ licence for operation of a Telehandler with three tonne or greater capacity. 

Whilst there has been a fair bit of negative feedback from farmers, in essence this licence will actually simplify the licencing requirement. Currently to operate a telehandler with three tonne or more capacity, an operator should hold a WorkSafe High Risk Crane (CN) licence. This course is run over four-five days, you generally have to go to Melbourne to complete it, and it contains modules such as dogging and rigging that are completely unrelated to farm operations.

However, the new Occupational Health and Safety Amendment (Telehandlers) Regulations 2024 establish a new non-slewing telehandler high risk work licence (TV licence), which will give operators the choice to undertake training specific to the type of work they will perform.

Telehandlers with a capacity of under three tonnes are still treated as regular tractors, with no additional licencing required.

 The Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF) said the proposed telehandler licensing reforms flagged by WorkSafe Victoria is a step in the right direction but work still remains to ensure the mandatory training is accessible and affordable for Victorian farmers.

VFF Infrastructure and Transport chair Ryan Milgate said after years of consultation and hard work between industry and WorkSafe Victoria, the mandatory training is more relevant, but questions still remain over its cost and accessibility for farmers.

“There’s no question the training is now more appropriate to help keep farmers safe, but we’d like to see it become more accessible and affordable for farmers,” he said.

“We need to see the fine detail on the proposed reforms, because there still remains a lot of unanswered questions at the moment.”

“We are urging WorkSafe Victoria to move quickly to confirm the training providers and to ensure that the training can be delivered on farming properties across Victoria.”

“The move to introduce a three-day training requirement is only a marginal improvement on the expectation for operators to hold a slewing type crane license, which required four days training.”

“We know that financial and time costs are a major barrier in getting farming businesses to meet compliance requirements. We want to make sure these are kept within realistic limits.”

Mr Milgate also raised further questions around the timeframe of when these new mandatory requirements would come into force.

“As of 1 July 2024, we’re told these new requirements will become mandatory,” he said.

“The fact that there’s no trainers or training currently available to farmers is an obvious issue.

“We’ll be talking to WorkSafe Victoria about this and flagging a common-sensed based approach to enforcement in its early days”.