North East Faces Polish Health And Safety Issues, Warns Lawyer
Health and Safety Issues For Polish Workers
29/02/2008
There are serious health and safety issues affecting Polish workers in the north east, according to a leading industrial injury expert.
The warning came from Roger Maddocks, partner and industrial injury expert at law firm Irwin Mitchell, who said Polish workers were often unaware of the protection that the UK’s legal framework gave them and were frequently unsure what steps to take in the event of an accident.
Mr Maddocks, speaking at an Irwin Mitchell-hosted seminar, said Polish migrants in the area found themselves exploited and not benefiting fully from the protection to which all workers in the UK are entitled.
He said: "In the majority of cases, Polish people working here are male, aged under 40 and are employed in manual work - for which they are often over qualified - commonly in construction or factory work, or in kitchens, cleaning or warehouses.
"They are often in poorly-paid, non-unionised workplaces where statistically they are much more likely to be involved in accidents.
"We have seen and dealt with cases where Polish people have been horribly injured but not known where to turn. They may find themselves without an income, feeling confused and intimidated by the legal system.
"It is imperative that community groups, local authorities, business groups and the professional services pull together to ensure the right advice is being given."
Mr Maddocks was joined at the Irwin Mitchell-hosted event by academic Ian Fitzgerald, from the School of the Built Environment at Northumbria University, who said the lack of readily-available information for Poles in the north east was preventing them from integrating as effectively as they could.
Mr Fitzgerald said better information and support is needed for Polish workers to integrate properly into the communities and workplaces where they are based.
He added: "Polish people are arriving in the UK and helping to improve our economy. They often fill jobs that are below their current qualifications and are sometimes hard-to-fill – there is a real potential to harness these latent skills to improve the north east economy.
"The north east is becoming more cosmopolitan with the introduction of other nationalities into our region. However, some of these are arriving into sometimes terrible living, social and working conditions as they are simply not armed with the information they need to do anything about it.
"The Government must step in and take measures to ensure the flow of information and resources is for the right people and at the right times."
From the seminar
Download the Power Point presentation here >
(You can download a free viewer for this file here)
