What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You

Sometimes, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requirements are not easy to understand; but this one is perfectly clear. If an employee does not speak or understand English, or has limited vocabulary in the English language, the employer must provide safety information and training in a language the employee can understand.

“I’ve seen employers meet this responsibility in a number of ways to provide non-English-speaking staff with appropriate and effective safety and human resources training,” says Bill Hooker, PDRMA Training Programs Supervisor. “It’s important to create safety policies and have resources available for your bilingual staff.”

Some PDRMA members post signs and training aids in another language and conduct jobsite observations to ensure everyone follows correct safety procedures. Other agencies hire bilingual supervisory staff that can conduct basic training courses in a second language. Newly hired non-English-speaking staff is sometimes partnered with a bilingual veteran employee who can train the new employee while conveying the agency’s commitment to safety.

“While those steps can often fulfill the OSHA requirement and your training needs, you might need an external training program to present the necessary safety and human resources topics,” explains Hooker. “The Latino Worker Safety Center (LWSC) is an example of an outside vendor that can help fulfill that need for you.”

OSHA provided the funding to form LWSC, which is dedicated to teaching safety and human resources classes in Arabic, Cantonese, English, Polish and Spanish.

“Spanish is our specialty,” says Dan Ramir, LWSC Executive Director, “and we have a full range of OSHA compliant safety training for general industry and construction.” LWSC has training facilities in Hillside, Ill., Madison, Wis., and St. Paul, Minn. “All of our instructors are trained safety professionals and bilingual.”

In addition to classes held at LWSC locations, the organization can provide instructors on-site — depending on your geographic location — if you have 10 to 20 employees attending. If on-site training is a priority for you, but you don’t have a large enough staff for a class, check with other PDRMA members in your area to see if you can pool financial and staff resources to bring the training to a convenient location.

Currently, through an OSHA grant, LWSC is offering a Fall Prevention Training class in Spanish for free. The four-hour course addresses fall prevention related to ladders, scaffolding, harness and railings. “Space is very limited in these classes, and we do pre-screen candidates to ensure they qualify and will attend the training,” explains Ramir. “If you have employees who would benefit from this class, please contact us to learn more about the details and class availability.”

Among classes offered by LWSC are:

• Confined Space Safety.
• Electrical Safety.
• Fork Lift Safety.
• Hazard Communication GHS.
• Managing Cultural Differences.
• Scaffold Safety.
• Stairways and Ladders.