News
You are here: Home : News : Foreign Workers Face Greater Risk
Welcome to Health and Safety Direct
Health and Safety Direct provides a professional cost effective service spanning every area of the Health and Safety and Corporate risk exposure. Are you safe? Find out by clicking here
Foreign Workers Face Greater Risk
6th Sep, 2006 to 6th Dec, 2006
Stephen Williams, the HSE’s chief inspector of construction, has given the first indication of public concern at the HSE about the risks being run by foreign nationals on UK construction sites. Speaking at the annual Working Well Together/HSE Health and Safety Awards at the London Hilton in June, he indicated that an analysis of the latest statistics had revealed that foreign nationals had suffered a disproportionate number of fatal and major injuries. These included five fatal accidents to Polish workers in one year.
IOSH past president and Construction SG committee member John Lacey was a sponsor of the event through his Lincsafe consultancy. The audience of 800 industry leaders and senior health and safety professionals included IOSH president Neil Budworth, past president Lawrence Waterman, president-elect Lisa Fowlie, and Construction News editor Bryan Toone.
Bryan comments: “Foreign nationals are an essential part of the construction workforce. So how do we cope? We should use the many skills that these workers bring with them. At my company we already employ linguists in clerical and security positions and we are putting workers who are fluent in English through the Managing safely in construction course so that they are equipped to take on supervisory roles.”