Complete your first week on the slaughter floor

What is going on

It is your first week at Southern Cross. You have been hired as a process worker and will start at the trimming station on the beef floor once your induction is complete. The People and Safety Manager has sent you the induction pack and expects you to understand the hygiene rules for entering a production area, how to handle and steel a knife safely, what personal protective equipment your station requires and how to report a hazard. On your walk through the plant you noticed ice on the cold store floor near door 3 and a worker carrying an unsheathed knife between stations. Your leading hand will sign off your entry checklist on Thursday.

Your brief

Show that you can enter a production area hygienically, follow safe work policies and procedures, handle a knife safely and report the hazards you saw, using the plant's documents and the incident register.

Work through it

You do not need to do it all. Doing a few of these will show you what the work is like. Your ticks and notes stay on this device.

• Read the Occupational Health and Safety Policy and list the eight principal hazards and one control for each in your own words.
• Read the Knife Safety, Sharpening and Personal Protective Equipment Procedure and write the personal protective equipment list for a trimming station operator.
• Complete an Incident and Hazard Report Form for the ice near cold store door 3 and enter it as a new record in the Incident and Hazard Register.
• Complete a second Incident and Hazard Report Form for the unsheathed knife you saw carried between stations, describing what happened without blaming anyone.
• Write the hygiene steps you must follow to enter the slaughter floor, including boot wash, hand wash, sanitiser, hairnet and clean whites, in the correct order.
• Using the Toolbox Talk Record Template, prepare a five minute talk on steeling technique that your leading hand can deliver to the new starter group.
• Check the Training and Competency Matrix and identify which competencies you must hold before you can work alone at the trimming station.

What someone in this role would produce

• Hazard and control list from the Occupational Health and Safety Policy
• Two completed Incident and Hazard Report Forms and matching register entries
• Written production area entry hygiene sequence
• Completed Toolbox Talk Record on steeling technique