Posted By David Haddon There has been a considerable increase in the use of agency staff at the warehouse where I work due to its impending closure. Many of the workers supplied have a very poor grasp of the English language. It is patently obvious that many of them do not understand the SSoW that we brief upon induction. Should the SSoW (and signage) be in their native language? Neither is "reasonably practicable" if you consider the costs involved vs. the impending closure, probable length of service, turnover of staff and the number of languages involved. The best suggestions I can offer you is to ensure adequate supervision (perhaps buddy up with his translator?) after completing a specific risk assessment to identify any hazards to him (perhaps consider him as a vulnerable worker due to the language barrier). When you sign this off, get the signatures from both him and the interpreter, and I think you will be as covered as you can be.

Posted By james mackie Allan we had a large amount of non english speaking labour on site. I have now introduced a non english speaking (NES) induction where the sub contractor has to supply an interpruter to translate the induction. They also had to supply a supervisor who could speak the parent language and english. If the supervisor doesn't turn up they don't work. This all came about because a HSE inspector visited a site and the NES employee couldn't tell him if his hard hat went on his head, hand or foot. The inspector then dug deeper and asked to see risk assessments and method statements from the sub contractor. The NES employee had signed off to say he understood the method statement. The HSE inspector asked the supervisor how he communicated the method statement in Russian. He didn't or couldn't. Can you see the potential pit you may fall into if you allow NES to work without someone to communicate (and supervise) in their own language? We have gone one stage further and introduced a 10 question simple test to confirm that all employees on site can understand and communicate health and safety information. You can't stop a competent employee who doesn't speak english working for you, but you must make sure that he is aware of the relevant health and safety information and others are not affected by this. This is NOT racism, it is duty of care to employees and others who may be effected by our undertakings.