HSE to improve safety in immigrant workers

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is recruiting outreach workers to help improve site safety among the Polish, Romanian and Indian construction communities.

The London-based outreach roles aim to increase workers' awareness of their health, safety and legal rights, including getting paid and securing safe accommodation.

The outreach post is a 12-month fixed-term appointment, which may be extended. Applicants need to be fluent speakers of Polish, Romanian or Gujarati, with excellent command of spoken and written English.

The HSE said ethnic groups were particularly vulnerable since their English is often poor. Polish, Romanian and Indian workers make up some of the largest among migrant workers.

Meanwhile, the HSE said that it had issued warnings on nearly half of sites visited in spot checks in Oldham and Rochdale yesterday (Wednesday).

It inspected 22 sites and issued eight enforcement notices to site managers who lacked basic health and safety procedures. The inspections are part of 1,500 site visits being conducted across the UK.

Eleven workers died, and a further 1600 suffered major injuries, or injuries requiring more than three days off work in the construction industry in London in 2007/08, the HSE said.