Race and migrant workers

In seeking to protect the health and safety of all workers, we know race is an important factor, particularly in terms of:

• differences in vulnerability
• the networks and communication channels
• language.

Improving communications

• HSE has launched and promotes a communications toolkit which is designed to help HSE staff identify diverse audiences, including migrant workers, and to provide practical advice on how best to communicate with them.
• HSE has also launched and promotes an equality impact assessment tool to mainstream diversity in our day-to-day work. It is designed to help staff identify and minimise any potential issues around equality.
• HSE has developed a migrant worker website providing advice and answers to some frequently asked questions.

Building the evidence base

• We are building our web pages so we can share research findings and examples of good practice.

Working together, sharing intelligence and good practice

HSE's External Diversity Team monitor progress against the diversity priorities and the annual action plan.

Important points to note

• There are no requirements in health and safety legislation for employers to ensure their staff are fluent in English. However, HSE recommends steps should be taken to ensure understanding of health and safety issues.
• The law requires that employers provide workers with comprehensible and relevant information about risks and about the procedures they need to follow to ensure they can work safely and without risk to health. This does not have to be in English.
• The employer may make special arrangements, which could include translation, using interpreters or replacing written notices with clearly understood symbols or diagrams.
• Any health and safety training provided must take into account the worker’s capabilities, including language skills.
• Workers who do not speak English may need to understand key words and commands relating to danger, eg 'Fire' and 'Stop'. Employers will need to ensure that this is communicated clearly and simply, and check understanding afterwards.
• Employers may wish to consider suitably tailored ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) provision for longer-term workers.
• There will be few situations where health and safety considerations alone justify not employing workers with poor or no English.

Useful links

• Equality and Human Rights Commission
  
• Equality and Human Rights Commission for Scotland
  
• Equality and Human Rights Commission for Wales
• Focus on ethnicity and identity paints a picture, based on the 2001 Census, of the ethnic groups in the UK today. It includes information on their characteristics, lifestyles and experiences, placing particular emphasis on comparing and contrasting the main groups.
• Directgov Race discrimination advice

Evidence and research

Here we outline existing research and provide links to view the full reports.

• RR221 - Review of the occupational health and safety of Britain's ethnic minorities
  This 2004 report sets out an evidence-based review on work-related health and safety issues relating to black and minority ethnic groups. UK South Asians have lower accident rates, while Black Caribbean workers rates are similar to the general population; Bangladeshi and Chinese workers report the lowest workplace injury rates in the UK. South Asian people exhibit higher levels of limiting long-term illness and self-reported poor health than the general population while Black Africans and Chinese report lower levels. Many of the recommendations are designed to improve the evidence base available.
• RR308 - Ethnicity, work characteristics, stress and health
  The purpose of this 2005 report was to investigate the prevalence of reported occupational stress and psychiatric disorders in Black Caribbean, Asian and white workers and to understand the reasons for differences in occupational stress between ethnic groups. Conclusion - the combination of racial discrimination with gender and ethnicity is powerfully influential in work stress.This makes particular groups (such as Black Caribbean women who have experienced racial discrimination) more likely to experience work stress. Tackling racial discrimination at work, by creating an inclusive, supportive and open workplace, would impact on work stress, and would in turn reduce the potential for psychological damage.
• Occupational health and safety issues in the Korean community
• The Korean Community in Kingston forms the largest population of Koreans outside South Korea. This 2006 HSL report provides an insight into levels of health and safety knowledge and practice amongst Korean businesses in Kingston to help identify methods of engaging and influencing these businesses. The findings of this project will form the evidence-base for future interventions with the Korean business population involving Kingston Local Authority and HSE, and can contribute to similar initiatives for other communities in other local authorities.
• Migrant workers in England and Wales: An assessment of migrant worker health and safety risks
  2006 research confirms the profile of migrant workers: in general they are often over-qualified for the work that they do and work long or antisocial hours in areas of work where there is no suitable local labour. They therefore represent an important component of the UK labour force. There is no current method of identifying whether there are any specific health and safety risks for migrant workers. So it is impossible to document, based on the available statistics, whether migrants are in a higher risk category than local workers. However, migrants are more likely to be working in sectors or occupations where there are existing health and safety concerns and that it is their status as new workers that may place them at added risk.