Free online interactive risk assessment app launched

Minister Helena Dalli launches a new Online interactive Risk Assessment application for small organisations and businesses

Social Dialogue Minister Helena Dalli (Photo: Ray Attard)
Social Dialogue Minister Helena Dalli (Photo: Ray Attard)

Social Dialogue Minister Helena Dalli launched an online interactive risk assessment program (OiRA) at a conference at Le Meridien hotel earlier today.

Speaking to the various stakeholders and journalists at the event, Dalli said that the health and safety of people at their workplace is essential to workers and employers alike.

“I am sure that protecting workers is at the core of every employers’ work ethic, but I am also aware that running the necessary risk assessments and introducing safety measures is a costly process,” Dalli said.

She explained that the OiRA had taken these realities into account and that it had been developed by the Occupational Health and Safety Authority in collaboration with the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work.

“OiRA is a simple, free tool that can be used by small companies to carry out an online risk assessment,” Dalli said, adding that the online application could be downloaded on tablets and smart phones as well and that it would also provide users with possibilities on how to make the necessary changes for a safer environment.

Referring to an earlier debate about the language of the app, Dalli said that although it was currently available only in Maltese, discussions would begin around making it available in English as well.

She explained that the tool is in fact a pilot project which focused on small companies given their importance in modern society and the fact that they often have issues like a lack of resources to contend with.

“The need for further risk assessment was highlighted in the European community strategy on health and safety at work 2002-2012, which calls for further development of simple tools to facilitate risk assessment,” Dalli said adding that this tool would help in reducing accidents at the work-place and also the vast amounts of administration work risk assessments would normally require.

“There is both a financial and a human aspect to this issue and every fatality or accident at the workplace is cause for concern,” she said quoting an NSO statistic which showed that there had been 39 work-place fatalities between 2007 and 2014.

Dalli also said that high levels of safety at work also led to workers being more productive as they felt better looked after.

The project, which had been partially funded by the EU, was so far focusing on possible accidents in the office, but it would develop according to the results achieved by the pilot project.