Safety regulators target food manufacturing

WorkSafe Victoria has joined a trans-Tasman campaign to focus on the safety of labour hire workers in high-risk sectors of the food manufacturing industry.

Of specific focus will be the meat industry and the labour hire companies that place workers within it.

The inspections of both meat industry workplaces and labour hire firms will run from March to May.

"WorkSafe's task is to ensure the shared legal responsibilities of both parties are understood and appropriate safety standards are applied," WorkSafe executive director, John Merritt said.

"WorkSafe has been working closely with the labour hire and meat industries, however, a relatively high number of meat workers are still injured, and more severely, than direct employees."

The enforcement campaign will focus on:

• Familiarity of labour hire agents with the risks at host employer workplaces.
• Induction and task-specific training provided by agents and host employers.
• Appropriateness of placements of labour hire workers.
• Consultation between the labour hire company and the host employer.

Guidance material relating to the meat industry and the legal requirements of labour hire firms and host employers is available from the WorkSafe website.