Hi All, working in the construction industry now presents more and more challenges. One that seems to be poppings its head up (well i'm thinking of it), is the amount of different nationalities that are working on building sites. Now most of these guys will sit and the TBT or while a MSRA is being read or even at a training presentation. They will then sign the attendance sheet , which as far as i know could mean nothing or very little to them. Is anybody else expierencing or come across this? What i am thinking of doing, for the nationalities that we have on site, putting a disclaimer at the bottom of the attendance for ' If do not understand any content of this training, tool box talk or presentation, then please raise this to your supervisor', this would of course being in a few languages. The supervisor would then have to be able to speak good english (which most do).... any thoughts or suggestions on how to go about this?

Why stop at writing the disclaimer in different tongues, why not the full presentation? Sure it will cost a bit more but will give a better diffence should an accident happen. Imagine an inspectors responce to just a disclaimer!! Also i have had our legal department give an opinion on disclaimers and they are of the opinion that they will only give a limited defence in court.

There could be 3 or 4 languages. Also the fact that we have numerous presentations and tool box talks etc that this would meanhiring full time translater(s) to covert all our documents/trainings into the relevant languages. Is this being reasonable practisable?

If a recipient of training or Safety briefs, etc cannot understand what is being said it is not their fault or responsibility. Should an incident occur you may well find any Inspector reaching the same conclusion. Would you accept them not being present for the brief? If they can't understand it then they may as well not be there. If the information is deemed important anough to be passed on, then it should be important enough to make sure everyone understands it. A disclaimer such as you put it would in fact only highlight that you are aware of language issues but have done nothing to counteract them, making your position worse IMO! I would say that you either need to provide a written translation or provide adequate interpretation for those who understanding of English is not sufficient.

Paul-B Whilst I applaud the workers willing to help you, you are in the same position as the original poster. Unless the person translating writes down what they are saying and you have it independently audited (perhaps on a sampling basis) you have no proof they are even talking about the same subject as the toolbox talk. When said translator leaves the job, you have no records of what was discussed. Cynical I know - but I am just suggesting that having the toolbox talk translated too (and verified as being relevant) might be a good idea. We are not talking lots of money here - there are usually local groups within the community that would be able to make sensible suggestions. If you have two translators available by some good luck, getting the second to confirm on the TBT sheet that all was covered might be even better.

On a previous contract that I worked on with some East Eurpoeans the ganger understood good english and he translated to the rest of the gang. On my current contract English is contractually the language that should be used and not had a problem as non-UK nationals understand English. The disclaimer seems a bit OTT, backside covering and not very practical. It reminds me of 'for those watching in black and white...' :-)

I've been working with refugee and migrant workers for over 8 years now. Main issue I find is that their 'leader' can usually communicate in English and get the information to the gang, but don't ever do anything in a written format without checking that they can read English, it is a whole new topic. H&S language and terminology is often adjudged at an educational level 3 (A level equivilent) but how many UK english speaking workers can communicate at level 3? To top this off I would have to say never forget it is not the worker's responsibility to understand it is the employers responsibility to make sure they understand..