Since the beginning of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, almost 2.5 million refugees from Ukraine have crossed the border with Poland, according to the Border Guard. While for some of them our country is only a stop before further travel, most refugees of working age will want to work in Poland. It is the employer’s responsibility to provide them with safe and hygienic working conditions. The challenge is, m.in, the language barrier.

It should be noted that before the outbreak of the war, many people from Ukraine were already working in Polish. According to data from the Ministry of Family and Social Policy, in 2021 alone, 325,000 work permits were issued to Ukrainians. It was the largest group among all foreigners applying for legal work in Poland last year. Since the end of February, almost 2.5 million people have already come to Polish in connection with the hostilities carried out on the territory of Ukraine, and this number is still growing. The basis for staying on the territory of the Republic of Poland and the rules of employment of these people are regulated in the Act of 12 March 2022 on assistance to Ukrainian citizens in connection with armed conflict on the territory of this country. It assumes a fast track to obtaining the legal right of residence and work for citizens of Ukraine. And although the regulations on residence and work have been simplified, the employer’s obligation to provide all employees, regardless of nationality, with safe and hygienic working conditions – has not changed.

In 2018, the Safe at Work Coalition examined the security situation of Ukrainians working in Poland. Although we cannot relate the results directly to the current situation, the results of the survey give us a good starting point for considering the current situation and indicate good practices that employers should introduce. And so, according to the report, 18 percent of respondents had suffered an accident at work in the two years before the survey was conducted, which is a fairly high rate. At the same time, 71 percent. Ukrainians believed that they know the rules of safety at the workplace, and only 45 percent – the rights of employees in Poland. There is no doubt, therefore, that employers should pay attention to the education of their employees from Ukraine, by providing them with appropriate materials, but also practical and understandable training.

It is worth considering that due to the widespread mobilization in Ukraine, among the refugees there are mainly women and children. From the employee point of view, this means that we can expect an increase in employment in industries such as gastronomy and hospitality, trade, cleaning services or „beauty”. Of course, in each of them, appropriate ohs training of the employee is required before he starts work. While this might seem like an obvious issue – the report „Occupational safety in Poland 2018” showed that only 44 percent of employees from Ukraine received OHS training, including only 54 percent discussing the procedure in the event of an accident. Among people who did not undergo such training, they most often pointed to it as a reason not organized by the employer (67 percent) and the language barrier (27 percent).

One of the biggest OSH challenges faced by an employer employing foreign-language employees is always language. Health and safety training, occupational risk assessment and all documents with which a foreign-language employee is acquainted must be conducted, available in a language understandable to that employee. And although the regulations do not explicitly specify in which language training for foreigners is to be conducted, it is logical that in order for OHS training to be effective, the language must be understandable to participants. The OSH training market is rapidly adapting to the demand due to the current situation, the number of OHS training offers conducted in Ukrainian has increased.

Undoubtedly, employers who want to employ people from Ukraine should translate into Ukrainian OSH instructions, occupational risk assessment and other OSH documents with which employees are familiarized. And although, as in the case of OHS training, the regulations do not explicitly specify that these documents must be translated, it is particularly important because they are documents that the employee uses not only at the beginning of employment, but throughout the entire working time. I think that while employers know that they must ensure appropriate health and safety conditions for people from Ukraine, there is still a lot of room for improvement in terms of the language in which OHS training should be conducted and the translation of OHS documents.

Source: https://kadry.infor.pl/bhp/bezpieczenstwo-pracy/5447847,BHP-pracownik-z-Ukrainy.html

Projekt otrzymał dofinansowanie z Norwegii poprzez Fundusze Norweskie 2014-2021, w ramach programu „Dialog społeczny – godna praca”.