1. Widen the variety of OSH teaching materials (spoken and written) in the native languages of
blue-collar foreign workers.
Although government agencies are making an all-out effort to reduce workplace accidents and
train blue-collar foreign workers in OSH, they also propose disseminating written and spoken teaching
materials in foreign languages to the parties concerned. It is obvious that small and medium-sized
Taiwanese enterprises do not spend enough time on developing, and indeed are not competent
to develop, teaching materials that suit the nature of their businesses because they seldom have
full-time employees who handle labor safety and health issues. A majority of small and medium-sized
enterprises therefore expect the government to offer ready-made teaching materials for OSH training
of blue-collar foreign workers in Taiwan. Given limited human, property, and financial resources, it is
impossible for the government to provide every business with tailor-made, industry-specific teaching
materials in the blue-collar foreign workers’ native languages. Consequently, the authorities concerned are advised to phase in a complete set of OSH teaching materials in other languages. The schedule
for releasing these materials should be determined by how serious particular occupational accidents
suffered by blue-collar foreign workers are, and how many such workers are hired in each industry.
2. Determine the qualifications for translators in blue-collar foreign workers’ OSH
training programs.
According to Article 16 of Regulations for Occupational Safety and Health Education and
Training [11], all employers shall give a newly hired or incumbent worker the required safety/health
training before assigning him/her to a different job.
Currently, most OSH training programs for blue-collar foreign workers in Taiwan are conducted by
qualified instructors in Mandarin, with on-site interpretation and assistance offered by persons fluent in
the workers’ native languages (e.g., employees of manpower agencies or immigrants’ spouses), which
is noticeably different from the OSH training programs for native workers. Because blue-collar foreign
workers in Taiwan receive almost all workplace safety and health information through translators,
whether or not those workers understand the workplace safety and health rules depends on the
translators assisting the instructors. Unfortunately, Taiwan’s lack of regulations concerning the
qualifications of translators in blue-collar foreign workers’ OSH training programs makes it uncertain
whether the translators can correctly convey the professional instructions as given by a qualified
instructor, whether the blue-collar foreign workers can effectively understand the training content,
and whether there is a gap between the instructions given and perceived. Moreover, the language
barriers often make blue-collar foreign workers unwilling to raise questions about safety and health
problems on job sites during training sessions—hence the difficulty in obtaining workplace safety and
health information. To ensure all blue-collar foreign workers in Taiwan receive OSH education in a
correct and professional manner, it is advised that a set of qualification criteria be introduced for the
translators of such training programs. That way, blue-collar foreign workers will be further assured of
workplace safety in Taiwan.
3. Regulate the longer hours of blue-collar foreign workers’ OSH training programs.
According to the Regulations for Occupational Safety and Health Education and Training [11],
a newly hired or incumbent worker shall receive vocational training of no fewer than three hours before
being assigned a different job. As stated earlier, blue-collar foreign workers in Taiwan currently receive
OSH training mostly from qualified instructors in Mandarin, with on-site interpretation or assistance
offered by persons fluent in the workers’ native languages (e.g., employees of manpower agencies or
immigrant spouses). The time taken up by translation means that foreign blue-collar workers receive
fewer than the required three hours of OSH training. Because foreign workers’ unfamiliarity with
Taiwanese languages makes them more accident-prone, it is advisable that such workers receive longer
hours of OSH training, not fewer hours than native Taiwanese workers.