Yorkshire Faces Polish Health And Safety Issues, Warns Lawyer
Polish Worker Safety
25/06/2008
There are serious health and safety issues affecting Polish workers in the Yorkshire region, according to a leading industrial injury expert.
The warning comes from Ian Bailey, partner and industrial injury expert at law firm Irwin Mitchell in Leeds, who says Polish workers are often unaware of the protection that the UK’s legal framework give them and are frequently unsure what steps to take in the event of an accident.
Polish migrants in the area can find themselves exploited and not benefiting fully from the protection to which all workers in the UK are entitled.
Mr Bailey will this month be speaking along side Ian Fitzgerald a leading academic into issues facing migrant workers, from Northumbria University, at a 'Polish Migrants as UK Citizens' seminar. The free event will be hosted by Irwin Mitchell at their offices between 6 and 8pm on Thursday 26th June 2008, in a bid to highlight the need for more accessible information for those that travel to the UK from Poland to work.
Ian Bailey says: "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 – or commonly in construction or factory work, or in kitchens, cleaning or in 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."
Ian Fitzgerald, from the School of the Built Environment at Northumbria University goes on to say: "The lack of readily-available information for Poles in Yorkshire is preventing them from effectively integrating as well as they could.
"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 Yorkshire economy.
"This area 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."