New safety app for food industry

The Group Training Association of Victoria (GTAV) has developed a new app called the Safety First App to help new entrants to the workforce improve their understanding of OH&S.

GTAV’s new safety app brings technology-enabled features into the traditional OH&S documentation, in a bid to streamline it and ensure it is more site-specific.

The app provides instant feedback to apprentices, with links to further information and a “percentage completed” indicator that will highlight how much information each individual knows for each work site.

For employers, the app will provide a permanent compliance record for each employee on every worksite they attend, with the ability to produce electronic certificates of OH&S induction completion levels that can be emailed or sent as an SMS.

November and December are the deadliest months for workers and manufacturing, construction and transport, and the food and beverage industry, especially meat and meat product manufacturing, has the highest incidence of workplace accident in Australia, according to the GTAV.

Recent history has shown that inexperienced workers under 25 are especially prone to accident and are 18 per cent more likely to sustain a work injury than their older colleague, the organisation said.

“Now apprentices have the safety questions they should be able to answer right in their pocket,” said Gary Workman, executive director of GTAV.

“Our members employ 8500 apprentices and trainees across Victoria and are committed to ensuring their staff, particularly those that are on new worksites, or equipment and plant, have handy access to the safety information checklists they need.”

The app is available for download from Google Play and Apple iTunes Store.