With the labour migration situation in Europe worsening by the day, the health, safety and protection of legal migrant workers in the UK can be easily overlooked. That’s why the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) have released a new set of guidelines, which offers advice on how to treat your migrant workers fairly and get guidance on who is responsible for their health and safety, how to carry out a risk assessment to reduce risks to your employees, and what types of training you need to provide. Let’s take a look.
What is a Migrant Worker
According to the HSE, a migrant worker can be defined as somebody who “is or has been working in Great Britain in the last 12 months” and has come to the UK from a foreign country to work within the last 5 years. According to an Oxford University Report , the number of foreign-born people of working age in the UK doubled from 2.9 million in 1993 to more than 6 million in 2013.
The share of foreign-born workers in the UK increased from 7.2% in 1993 to 15.7% in 2013.
Migrants, generally work within low-skilled positions, according to the report, with a majority working within food manufacturing.
The Stats
According to the HSE, eight out of 16 accidents happened in the first ten days of a worker arriving on site, with half on the very first day!. Worryingly, only five of the 16 migrant workers killed, were “known to have have even limited experience of the UK construction industry.” Furthermore, according to a 2006 HSE report, migrants are more likely to be working in sectors where “there are existing health and safety concerns” and their status as new workers may “place them at added risk.” By now, you have a pretty clear image of the risks migrant workers face on a daily basis, so let’s take a look at the compliance steps you need to take when employing migrant workers.
Who is Responsible for Health and Safety?
According to the HSE, there is no “simple answer” to this. The responsibility will be determined by the relationship between the “labour providers” (the HSE refer to these as the “person or company” who provides workers to a third party). However, the HSE state that if it is the case that a supplier is used, the business and the supplier have a “shared responsibility to protect their health and safety, regardless of which one is the employer.”
Carry Out A Risk Assessment
According to the HSE, you are legally required to look at the risks associated with your employees work. This will involve a “careful examination” of what could harm your workers and should be compared to the existing precautions you have taken to protect your migrant workers. Again, the rules are quite different depending on if you’re a labour user, or a labour provider. According to the HSE, Labour users should:
Labour Users
- Carry out a risk assessment of the “tasks the worker will be expected to undertake”.
- Ensure “the control measures identified” within your assessment “are effective” and are in place and continuously maintained.
- And that all information is passed onto your “labour provider(s).
Labour Provider
Ensure that “your clients have carried out risk assessments”.
Make an agreement around who will “check the implementation and maintenance” of the various control measures, such as providing any protective clothing and associated gear.
Provide Training
Again, the what training you provide varies for labour providers and labour users, but roughly speaking they have a lot of similarities. It’s not included within the HSE document, but it would significantly reduce your costs and improve your efficiency if you conducted your training within our online platform, you can read more about that here. But first, as we said, the requirements are different, and the HSE have outlined a number of key points.
Labour Providers
- Be aware of the type of orientation and job training the labour user is providing.
- Agree with the labour user “how, when and by whom training will be provided”.
- Can your workers speak English? Good. Be sure to relate this.Labour Users
- Provide orientation training, or related vocational training
- Provide “relevant information” regarding the “risks to which they may be exposed” and the “precautions they will need to take”.
- Some of your workers may have language issues, you need to consider this.
- Make sure your migrant workers receive health and safety training
- Make sure your workers are supervised
- Make sure workers know how to “raise concerns about their health and safety” and are fully informed on “emergency arrangements or procedures.”
Make Sure Protection and Health and Safety is considered
According to the HSE, you should also ensure that any machinery, vehicles, lifting equipment, ladders, elevated work platforms or other work equipment are appropriately looked after. The guide also states that you should provide protective equipment to your migrant workers, without a cost, provide suitable toilet facilities, eyesight tests if the worker is computer based, and that all of the above measures are being maintained continuously.
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