3. Gathering information for OSH education/training:
Most blue-collar foreign workers receive in their home countries training from manpower agencies
in occupational skills, but not OSH knowledge (C-1). It is even possible that some such workers never received any training at all (C-2). When a blue-collar foreign worker arrives in Taiwan, the
manpower agency will help the employer offer education/training programs pertaining to both job
performance and OSH. Because potential occupational accidents vary among businesses, manpower
agencies, as “co-trainers” with the hiring businesses, are expected to discuss with the latter the
potential occupational accidents linked to the job openings, their causes, and the other important
information before recruiting (C-3), in order to expedite the preparation of education/training materials.
The authorities may also compile a standard version of industry-specific OSH education/training
materials with a focus on the highly probable accidents and incorporate the required occupational
skills into those OSH materials [8]. That way, the manpower agencies can follow a set of well-defined
rules, knowing how to prepare for, implement, and promote an OSH education/training program.
4. Assistance in OSH education/training for blue-collar foreign workers:
(a) Sources of OSH teaching materials
Every newly recruited blue-collar foreign worker is required to receive OSH education/training
from the hiring business immediately after coming on board (D-1). Generally speaking, OSH
education/training materials may be compiled by the hiring businesses, provided by the CLA,
or edited by manpower agencies using information they have collected (D-2). Because the manpower
agencies currently rely heavily on government information for such materials, the agencies may
unwittingly provide blue-collar foreign workers with outdated information (D-3), leaving the OSH
training ineffective. Therefore it is imperative that a manpower agency ensure the validity of training
materials when supporting a hiring business’ OSH training efforts.
(b) In-plant services
Although some hiring businesses give their new recruits access to senior workers’ guidance (E-1),
some hire manpower agencies to offer round-the-clock, in-plant services (E-2). Such in-plant services,
whether they are provided by senior laborers or manpower agencies, invariably take the form of
on-site instructions offered in accordance with the nature of tasks (E-3). After all, only through on-site
testing can the employer ensure that a blue-collar foreign worker really knows how to perform tasks
correctly (E-4). The interpreter acts as an assistant/adviser during OSH education/training sessions
(E-5) who answers questions or resolves the doubts of blue-collar foreign workers. With the help of
interpreters, a business may add bilingual warning signs to the machinery and thus protect blue-collar
foreign workers (E-6).
(c) Interpreting services as part of the OSH training program
The manpower agencies’ interpreting services are performed mostly by foreign spouses of native
Taiwanese citizens, in addition to a few students who grew up in the blue-collar foreign workers’
countries. The interpreters’ serious lack in OSH-relevant expertise (F-1) is attributed to the unavailable
training at the manpower agencies, and most interpreters do nothing more than literally translating
what the instructor says into English (F-2). Interpreters’ poor comprehension of OSH instructions may
cause biased communication or even send the wrong message (F-3). Meanwhile, most businesses
implement OSH training through oral instructions (F-4), which fails to give blue-collar foreign workers
a realistic sense of potential occupational accidents (F-5). In fact, most workers do not know how
serious a disaster or injury is until it occurs. Research shows that an unequivocal understanding
of workplace threats is necessary to raise workers’ awareness of OSH, and videos showing images
of real disaster scenes make it easier for blue-collar foreign workers to grasp the consequences of
occupational accidents (F-6). When complemented by the interpreting service, such videos become
powerful warnings that prevent biased communication.
Another problem arising from the education/training process is that interpreters have poor
comprehension of the instructions and may not understand how language usages differ among
regions, including the workers’ home countries (F-7) and Taiwan. Because a Taiwanese technical term could mean something totally different in another language, an interpreting service rendered
solely on the basis of Taiwanese employers’ terminology may cause misunderstandings, rather than
conveying the intended messages (F-8), or even lead to accidents. Consequently, manpower agencies
must require their interpreters to accomplish tasks with greater accuracy, regardless of the blue-collar
foreign workers’ language skills (F-9). In