Worker safety often is a difficult mandate even in ideal circumstances. Between compliance with rules set by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), proper wet-floor and hazard signs, and efficient and ergonomic cleaning procedures, the average building service contractor has his or her hands full.

Compounding this difficulty, however, is when a BSC is faced with a diverse workforce. Most contractors employ at least some workers with limited English proficiency, or with visual or hearing impairments. These cleaners must be trained on safe work practices — but how do you do so when communication is difficult?

Rich Fairfax, director of enforcement programs for the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), says employers need to provide training and convey information in a manner and means in which the employees can comprehend. However, OSHA standards do not mandate the exact training procedures, so it’s up to BSCs to figure out the best way for them to train their diverse workforce.

“It really depends on the situation,” says Fairfax. “I’ve seen companies use sign language, bilingual materials, pictures, Braille — I’ve even seen one safety program that’s in comic-book form.”

During an OSHA workplace visit, an inspector will be looking to see if the training is effective, and that employees understand things such as chemical hazards, bloodborne-pathogen procedures and how to use personal protective equipment.

Language barriers Possibly the most common impediment to communication is language. Many cleaning workers are immigrants, with limited or no English proficiency. Dick Anderson, corporate safety director for Mitch Murch’s Maintenance Management (MMMM) in St. Louis, suggests providing bi- or multi-lingual training and safety materials. Most MMMM materials, including handbooks, films and newsletters, are printed in English and in Spanish; Anderson estimates 9 percent of his company’s workers speak Spanish natively, and while many of them understand some English, they’re more comfortable communicating in their first language.

However, Anderson says that a small, but growing, number of his workers speak languages other than English and Spanish.

“Whenever we hire someone who doesn’t speak English well, we try to hire a supervisor who also knows that language,” he says. “We’re getting employees from Vietnam and Bosnia. However, most of these employees are, to some degree, bilingual.”

If a company offers multi-lingual training, Fairfax says it’s also a good idea to offer Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) in multiple languages as well. However, OSHA doesn’t explicitly require this, so long as employees can readily access and understand the information when they need it.

Another possible communication barrier arises when employees have hearing disabilities. Deaf and hard-of-hearing employees are becoming more common in cleaning operations, as state and non-profit agencies contract with companies to provide employment for this population.

To accommodate hearing difficulties, many BSCs use pictures or books, rather than verbal communication, for training. Since the majority of safety and cleaning procedures can be conveyed visually, training deaf workers isn’t too much different from training hearing workers, Anderson points out.

“We’ve had deaf people on our staff for a long time,” says Anderson. “We haven’t had a lot of problems. I know some people use text phones; one supervisor just writes things down. In one account, a customer has learned a little sign language, to be able to communicate with the cleaner.”

CAUTION: WET FLOORS
The yellow wet-floor sign is possibly the most recognizable safety device in the cleaning industry, says Russ Kendzior, founder and executive director of the National Floor Safety Institute in Southlake, Texas. They’re often printed with caution messages in up to three languages, and include an image of a person slipping, to help communicate the hazard.

"The international standard for caution is yellow," he explains. "All around the world, if you see yellow, it means be careful."

However, manufacturers in the United States are beginning to make wet-floor signs in other colors, such as pink or green. Kendzior advises BSCs to stick to the standard.

"If someone from another country sees pink, they may think it’s an advertisement," he says.

Another problem with the signs is that cleaners and property managers, fearing a slip-and-fall lawsuit, leave the signs up all the time.

"Don’t use the signs unless the floor is actually wet," he says. "These signs are one of the most abused safety devices. A lot of property owners don’t want to get sued. The problem is that they turn it into a crying-wolf issue."

People tend to ignore the signs if they’re there all the time, and end up slipping anyway. Also, he says, OSHA can cite BSCs if there is no hazard and a sign is still present.

Still, even when properly used, caution signs only work if people can see them. To address this, several manufacturers are coming out with "talking" safety signs that can detect a person and relay a message to warn of the hazard. The signs can be programmed with custom messages, and the range set so that the speech only is triggered when someone walks nearby, Kenzidor adds.




POSTED ON: 11/1/2004