Migrant Workforce is at Greater Risk of Accidents: HSE
A research shows that foreign construction workers are quite vulnerable to potentially dangerous working conditions. The survey names the Polish, Romanian, and the newly arrived Indian communities as those that are most susceptible to such risks.
In a bid to improve the scenario, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has recently launched a campaign to create awareness about on-site health and safety issues amongst the migrant construction workers based in London,
The new campaign begins by informing Polish workers about the role played by the HSE to educate the workers of their rights to a healthy and safe working environment.
The HSE’s Chief Inspector of Construction Philip White has said that the HSE was well aware of the need to provide health and safety information to immigrant construction workers. He revealed that specialist Polish outreach representatives have been employed to spread the message effectively to their communities. He added that reducing the risks for the most accident-prone or exploited workers will result in an obvious betterment in the working conditions for other employees.
The campaign was introduced after the findings of a research carried out by Synovate disclosed that migrant workers were the most vulnerable employees in the construction sector, as they had limited knowledge of the UK’s health and safety standards and many among them were not even aware of the HSE.
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To maximise the awareness levels of the construction workers, health and safety information has been published in Polish and other languages. Initiatives such as a dedicated phone line, an online microsite, distribution 30,000 wallet-sized cards printed in native languages, and an email address have been set up to support and inform workers.
