Posted By Mike Charleston
I have an Agency employer telling me that construction labour rates in SE England are becoming so cheap that he must do everything possible to pare down his prices. This is in order to stay competitive against large personnel agencies in situations where construction clients do not discern between competent labour and others.

The employer feels the need to recruit whoever claims experience and will work, regardless of background (migrant labour is the most obvious target); will have to insist that new recruits provide PPE on start-up (so that he does not subsidise other sites by supplying PPE to an operative and then finding that the operative is never seen again); and plans to operate PAYE but lay off the operatives whenever there is a gap in site needs.

As an Adviser to the company I am obviously unsettled by this approach but have seen a previously compliant company (in terms of H&S) lose market share and I must express sympathy with the situation. There is no doubt that what the employer wants to do now is no more than what his competitors have been doing for some time.

Have others experienced similar situations? If so, what advice can you offer with respect to:

- Effective selection/recruitment (different nationalities and a variable grasp of the English language) - anybody got an initial screening questionnaire?

- Site Inductions (again, grasp of spoken and written English PLUS awareness of H&S issues) - anybody got tests for language competency; examples of how you deal with multi-cultural workforces on construction sites?

- Initial insistence on operatives providing their own boots, hat and high viz (what reasoning can make this legal, since many do it in this marketplace)?

- Any additional concerns when assessing risks (additional hazards; where the language/cultural differences need particular attention)?

Sorry if this looks long-winded but there are some real headaches in this and I would appreciate your views.

Mike

Posted By Karen Todd
Mike,

I have encountered this.

I was on a site where there was a Portuguese man working as a roofer. I noticed someone shout something to him and he did not respond. They then shouted his name and beckoned him over and he then came over. They assured me his English was good, I thought I would see for myself.

I asked him how long he had been in Northern Ireland to which he replied "Two". I asked him did he mean two years to which he said, "Yes". Another chap explained he was doing an English course at the tech so I said, "I hear you are doing English at the tech" to which he said, "Yes". I said, "On which day?" to which he replied, "Yes". I then said, "How long does the class last?" to which he said, "Yes".

Basically he was answering yes to every question without understanding a word I was saying. I felt he was a liability and was worried for his own safety also - if someone was to shout a warning to him he would not understand.

I also came across a whole squad of Portuguese form workers at a site, managed by a person from Northern Ireland. I asked him about training slinging & banksman training because there was a tower crane on the site that they used to get bundles of rebar to them. The foreman explained that those who spoke good English had been trained in slinging etc and only those persons were allowed to sling. I asked how people knew who was authorised and who was not. He pointed to a photo on the wall. From the photo, I would not have been able to identify those who had been trained and those who were not - some looked so similar.

In a meat processing plant I was in, they had a squad of Portuguese workers who were managed by a Portuguese supervisor. Managers dealt directly with the Portuguese supervisor (whose English was excellent) and he then conveyed instructions & trained his workers. Managers at the factory also were taking evening classes in Portuguese and they knew a missionary who was Portuguese, so they brought him in every so often to chat to the Portuguese workers to see how they were really getting on and what their understanding of processes and procedures were.

Regards,

Karen

Posted By Karen Todd
Mike,

The system in the meat plant seemed to work well.

I was a consultant at the time and I did make the man who had hired the formworkers (the company owner) and the firm with the Portuguese roofer aware of my grave concerns, warn of the consequences, etc. etc.

As you say though, my hands were very much tied and I did as much as I could to highlight the risks to these foreign workers, the risks that they caused to others, etc. but nothing really changed.

The Portuguese roofer was always under direct supervision, but the squad of form workers really did concern me.

Regards,

Karen