The HSE has teamed up with the Polish embassy to ensure better protection for those from the east European nation working on UK construction sites — despite the fact that numbers of both are showing signs of a sharp decline.
Since the accession of several east European nations to the EU in 2004 the number of foreign nationals coming to the UK to work in the construction industry has increased significantly. According to the HSE, the single largest group of migrant workers is from Poland, accounting for around 2 per cent of the 2.3 million-strong construction-industry workforce in this country.
However, Robert Rusiecki, First Counsellor to the Polish Embassy, acknowledged that the influx of new arrivals from Poland “peaked in late 2007”, and recent media reports have suggested that half of those who have come from eastern Europe to the UK to work since 2004 have now gone home.
Speaking at an event at the Polish embassy in London yesterday (28 January), the HSE’s chief inspector of construction, Stephen Williams, said it is essential to ensure that migrant workers have the same protection under health and safety legislation as everyone else, and that their particular vulnerabilities are identified and addressed.
Chief among the concerns are: the language barrier, which can mean many foreign workers don’t fully understand safety standards, procedures and instructions; exploitation by unscrupulous employers in the form of low pay, long hours, and high-risk activities; and a lack of experience among the workers themselves — up to 30 per cent had not worked in construction before they arrived in the UK.
In response, the HSE has worked with stakeholders including unions, industry associations and the migrant communities themselves to ensure that many construction safety publications are translated, and outreach work has been undertaken within the communities to raise awareness. Williams also emphasised the role played by “tougher legislation”, such as CDM 2007, and high-profile awareness campaigns, such as ‘Shattered Lives’ and ‘Asbestos: The Hidden Killer’.
He conceded, however, that fear plays a significant part in compromising the health and safety of migrant workers, as many of them won’t complain about poor standards or treatment, in case they lose their job. But it is not the HSE’s role to check on workers’ legal or employment status, he pointed out, and it does not pass on any information about individuals to other agencies. He said: “My message to Polish and other migrant construction workers in Britain is that if conditions are poor where you work, and your health and safety is at risk as a result, you should have no fear in contacting the HSE to report it.”
Construction industry UCATT said this was unlikely to ease the worries of migrant workers about coming forward, particularly now when the industry is slowing down and jobs are become more scarce. A spokesperson told SHP: “There is a huge amount of ignorance, fear and uncertainty. The priority in protecting all vulnerable workers has got to be through increased inspection and enforcement action.”
Williams acknowledged that, in an ideal world, “there would be an inspector on every site” but with some 200,000 active sites at any one time, “inspection by conventional means is impossible. We are therefore seeking a range of ways to influence the industry.”
He also disagreed that the industry is in a downturn, claiming that there are still “an awful lot of active sites” around the UK, and that “predictions are for a continuing, relatively buoyant construction industry”.
Asked whether this was the right time to be expending precious resources on an apparently dwindling target group when there are many other categories of vulnerable worker equally in need of attention, he emphasised that the HSE’s efforts are directed at protecting all vulnerable workers, including young people, and older employees.
Robert Rusiecki suggested that the scale of the ‘outflow’ of migrant workers from Britain has been overemphasised. He said: “There is still a large percentage of Polish workers here and I don’t think the construction industry will decline so much that we can afford to ignore them. London 2012, for example, is a real challenge and we will need to support both employers and their workers.”
The IOSH Construction Group welcomed the efforts to get the message that it’s “an equal playing field” across to migrant workers. Said chair, John Lacey: “We have reached a plateau now, in terms of fatalities in construction, so we do need to look at different ways of doing things. It will be interesting to see how the current DWP enquiry into the industry unfolds, and what action is taken on the basis of it.”
Lacey agreed that, despite reports of foreign workers returning home, there are many who have elected to stay, and they must not be overlooked. He said: “The Interconstruct 09 conference taking place in Edinburgh in May has ‘health and safety in a multicultural industry’ as its theme, and will also be focusing on challenges faced by the construction industry in the current economic climate.”
