Protecting migrant workers
December 1st 2007

Managing the health and safety of workers whose first language is not English can present some challenges. With an estimated 23 000 migrant workers among its workforce, in 2004 the food and drinks industry joined forces to produce some guidance for employers on this issue. The resulting document, "Working Safely in a Multicultural Food and Drink Industry," is now regularly updated and has proved invaluable to employers in the industry, explains Naeema Choudry of Eversheds LLP

Employers have an obligation under the relevant health and safety legislation to provide all of their workers with information, training and supervision in an understandable form irrespective of their literacy, mother tongue or national origins.

There is some anecdotal evidence to suggest that many migrant workers are not able to communicate in English and have to rely on colleagues to relay important health and safety messages. These colleagues themselves may have limited English language abilities which may make training and communication difficult in the working environment.

Also of concern to employers is that if questioned by the Health and Safety Executive they may find it difficult to demonstrate that any training or instruction provided to workers has been understood.

While much attention may be given to migrant workers it is important to bear in mind that even the indigenous population has differing literacy skills and their needs should be borne in mind when complying with health and safety legislation.

In addition, the law requires that employers should not discriminate against workers (this would include employees, agency workers and casual workers) on a variety of grounds including race, colour, nationality, ethnic or national origins or religion. Accordingly, simply stating that workers should have a certain standard of English, for example, GCSE English, may expose an employer to a claim for discrimination and potentially unlimited compensation unless the employer can show that such a requirement was justified in particular circumstances. It should be remembered that a claim for discrimination can be brought at any stage of the employment relationship including recruitment.

Accordingly, if an employer makes assumptions about an individual's language abilities and turns a migrant worker down for employment it could be exposed to a claim.

Basic information checks At the same time the immigration rules set out the specific circumstances under which migrant workers may undertake paid employment in the UK. This legislation requires employers to carry out basic document checks of all its workers to ensure that they have permission to work in the UK. A failure to do could expose employers and managers to fines of up to £5,000 if it subsequently transpires that they have been employing illegal workers.

These rules are set to become more stringent in 2008.

Separate rules apply to the employment of workers from some East European countries such as Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic.