The Cooperative Farms has made the first tentative steps towards reversing the agriculture sector’s lamentable health and safety record. The group has secured a deal to provide workers on its farms with MobiCare technology, a phone conversion kit which includes a panic button function.

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The deal was secured in response to the high level of at-work injuries and fatalities blighting the agriculture sector. As farm work often involves working alone in remote locations and potentially dangerous conditions, farming unions and health and safety leaders have consistently said that more provision needs to be taken to ensure workers’ safety.

According to the Health and Safety Executive, nearly 1,000 serious injuries of people working alone took place on farms between 2010 and 2011. The sector has the highest rate of injury at work of any UK industry.

Argyll Lone Worker Solutions will provide Co-operative Farms with 80 special devices which have a built in ‘panic button’ in addition to other features. It also features an ap that allows workers to flag any higher risk situations they encounter.

If workers encounter a problem, pressing the panic button will alert a centre operating 24 hours a day, which then alerts the appropriate emergency service.

Although the move is being hailed as a step in the right direction, concerns have been raised about the technology’s reliance on mobile phone signal which is unreliable at best in the remotest parts of the UK.

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