New ILO-supported health and safety app welcomed by dockers’ unions

Dockers’ unions are welcoming the launch of a new safety app that helps teach workers how to identify and reduce hazards in ports.

Port workers who download the OSH Ports app and complete the short course can then take an assessment and receive an official completion certificate. The app is supported by the International Labour Organization’s International Training Centre (ILO-ITC), whose experts provided important contributions to its content.

The new occupational safety and health training app is funded by the ITF Seafarers’ Trust and is free to download. OSH Ports is available on the Google Play Store for Android devices. The content and curriculum of the app was developed with strong input from dockworkers themselves through ITF-affiliated unions, in addition to those of the ILO-ITC.

Paddy Crumlin, chair of the ITF Dockers’ Section, said:

“This is an app developed by dockers, for dockers backed up by expert technical advice. Because it’s been driven by workers, everything in there has been built from the ground up with a docker in mind.”

The app takes port workers through occupational health and safety fundamentals specific to the ports sector, covering how and why things go wrong in ports, identifying hazards and risks that may affect workers and their workmates, and best-practice guidance on how they can contribute to accident investigations. The app is available in both English and in Arabic.

Crumlin, who is also an ITF Seafarers’ Trust trustee, said the charity was being approached to help reduce the concerning number of preventable accidents and fatalities in ports. He said that the ITF Seafarers’ Trust and unions have been working together to reduce workplace accidents and deaths particularly in the Middle East and north Africa.

He said:

“Right now, it makes complete sense to roll out this important tool first to the Arab World. Dockers, seafarers and fishers in the region face deadly risks every day due to a lack of adequate investment in safety, and safety and health education.”

“While it’s up to the port owners, the governments, or the global operators who own the assets, to stump up the cash for safer equipment; what we can do as dockers’ unions is help educate our sisters and brothers to think safer, spot dangers, prevent accidents where they can, and speak up when they see fatal shortcuts being taken.”

Dockers' unions say they see the app as the first phase of a wider push to reduce accidents and fatalities at ports in accident hotspots such as the Arab World region.

Jessica Isbister from ILWU Canada and vice chair of the ITF Dockers’ Section Occupational Safety and Health Working Group, said:

“Every docker should use this app, complete the course and encourage your workmates to use it too. This is the first stage of our campaign to reduce accidents and fatalities in our industry in the Arab World. The next stage will be to identify leaders to undertake secondary training with industry experts to give them the knowledge and confidence to go back and make significant changes to improve the health and safety of their ports.”