Safety at Work for Migrant Workers

London's construction industry is made up of a significant proportion of migrant workers, and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), has acknowledged them as a particularly vulnerable group within it.

This is due to the following:

• They can suffer from poor English;
• Can lack an understanding of UK health and safety standards;
• They may lack an awareness of employment rights, and experience or skills;
• They are often open to exploitation by unscrupulous employers;
• Can face serious problems in regards to poor accommodation, unpaid wages and grievances relating to their employment rights.

Taking the above into consideration, under these circumstances, poor health and safety standards at work can become a low priority.

Subsequently, the HSE is now recruiting outreach workers to work alongside the inspectors and Compliance Officers. This is to increase the HSE's interaction with migrant workers in construction, some of the largest groups coming from Poland, Romania and India.

These workers' awareness to their rights in relation to health and safety at work are to be improved by the outreach roles, which will be based in London. The jobs will include visits to construction sites, liaisons with the immigrant community organisations, local authorities, faith communities, further education colleges, trade union and employers, and organising events, and developing links, networks and partnerships.

In addition to promoting migrant workers safety, this month, HSE inspectors are visiting London construction sites to ensure that site operators are not putting their workers - or the public - at risk of injury or death.

In 2007/08, London's construction industry suffered from the death of 11 workers with 1,600 suffering major injuries, or injuries which require more than 3 days off work. In this same period, one member of the public was killed, with 36 people injured as a result of incidents involving construction sites. The HSE inspectors are targeting principal contractors to observe how they are managing safe working at height, good order on site, and risks associated with exposure to asbestos.

If safety lapses are found, the HSE has warned that contractors can expect strong enforcement action. A similar initiative was carried out in February 2007, and of the 162 sites inspected in London, enforcement action was taken in 55 cases.

One in Five Construction Sites Fail Health and Safety Checks

Recent figures revealed that one in five construction sites failed health and safety checks during the latest national inspection initiative carried out by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).
Inspectors from Britain's workplace regulator visited 1,759 refurbishment sites during March and checked on how 2,145 contractors were complying with health and safety regulations.
Sufficent serious risks were discovered on 348 sites to warrant enforcement action being taken - either stopping work immediately or ordering improvements to be made. Almost five hundred enforcement notices were issued.

The HSE said that improvements had been witnessed by its inspectors in certain parts of the country since last year - when inspectors had to take enforcement action on 30% of the sites visited.

Phillip White, HSE's new Chief Inspector of Construction, said:

"This inspection initiative was well publicised and for our inspectors to still find this level of disregard for basic health and safety standards on refurbishment sites is disappointing.
"While any improvement has to be welcomed, our inspectors still found practices so far below the acceptable standard that they felt it necessary to take enforcement action on one in five sites. This is still very worrying."

Unsafe work at height practices remain a huge concern. As in the previous initiative, over half of the enforcement action taken this time was as a result of dangerous work at height, which last year (2007/08) led to the death of 34 construction workers.

Last year (2007/08) over half (52%) of the workers who died on construction sites worked in the refurbishment, repair and maintenance sector.

During the inspection initiative, HSE inspectors looked at whether:

• Jobs that involved working at height had been identified and properly planned to ensure that appropriate precautions were in place.
• Equipment was correctly installed/assembled, inspected and maintained and used properly.
• Sites were well organised to avoid trips and falls
• Walkways and stairs were free from obstructions
• Work areas were clear on unnecessary materials and waste
• The risks associated with exposure to asbestos were managed and carried out correctly
• The work force were made aware of risk control measures