Hi,

This topic may have been discussed within the forum before, however i could not find any reference to it.

Due to  the current labour situation, the company i work for is struggling to employ staff to meet operatioanl demand. The Agencies we use to recruit personnel have an influx of personnel from Bulgaria, and other Easter Europena countries. We are an equal opportunities employer and welcome foreign works. We have around 8 currently that speak very good English - no problems with training, risk assessments, work instructions etc.

Unfortunately, some of the personnel on the books of the agency speak very little English, whilst we are willing to assist with learning English, we have concerns with what we have to do as a business to ensure we comply with the Law; from a H&S perspective.

The same health and safety law applies to overseas workers as to the GB workforce, and everyone at work, including employers and workers, has responsibilities under it. For example, does this mean that we have to provide translated work instructions, risk assessments, signage etc? Does anyone have experience of this matter, if so, would you mind sharing your experience and offering any advice please?

Thank you all

Take it as given the agencies ensuring these staff have appropriate Right to Work?

Signage - typically this would be pictograms, if you have added a lot of verbage then you will need translations (be careful to ascertain if they understand the pictogram).

Work Instructions / Training - need to be in a language they understand.

You do not need every English document translated but make sure the important parts are communicated e.g. why you are asking them to wear hearing protection.

Be careful to translate and disseminate any instruction updates (found one instruction dated 2018 with its supposed translation dated 2010).

Beware of relying upon translations by other staff (unless you speak the language) we had one supervisor who failed to grasp a concept, was too proud to seek clarification being team leader and spent the next two years wrongly instructing new starters which only came to light when there was a serious near miss.