Posted By david lycett
I know this has been discussed before but i have recently taken on job where there are 10 or so polish workers. Their English is very limited and i have been to hse website were there are very few leaflets or tools to help me.I would imagine there are lot of you out in the same position and i would appreciate any ideas,comments to point me in the right direction on this one

Posted By Glyn Atkinson
We have 35 Polish workers on our third production line, and employ a translator / administrator to ensure that they have full translation on all safety paperwrork, induction, H&S policy, manual handling, COSHH assessments.

Their training records are signed in both English and Polish, and we have evening classes for speaking English as a voluntary two nights per week learning facility.

Those who wanted to move across from agency to full time company employee have to gain a reasonable standard of English understanding to be able to work from technical drawings and to take instructions directly from supervision rather than through a translator.

The translator is now mostly used for higher technical translations and inductions for agency new starters as required.

We have found that the more that the company puts in is responded by good output and quality work from the Polish workers.

Their sickness and absence rates are the envy of the other production lines and is proving to be cost effective by the non use of part time agency staff to replace those missing.

Their skill levels are high and they want to learn and progress in this style of manufacturing.

NB - We have managed to have a Polish translated manual handling booklet put onto the Scriptographic range of training booklets, so that is ready to use now.