Texas Chemical Council
Contractor Safety Subcommittee

Owner’s Guidelines for Non-English Speaking Contractors

Often owner companies are faced with utilizing contract companies that have non-English speaking employees.In the Gulf Coast region many of the contract employees speak Spanish only.These guidelines are intended to be the minimum suggested requirements to ensure the safety of non-English speaking contract employees on an owner’s facility.Otherwise, the owner should not allow non-English speaking contractors to work in their facility.

Suggested Minimum Requirements

  1. Owner site safety orientations and testing as well as toolbox safety meeting materials should be available in Spanish.
  2. Any site safety pamphlets should also be available in Spanish.
  3. The ratio of non-English speaking to English speaking employees should never exceed 4:1 in a work crew.
  4. At least one member of each work crew and the work crew supervisor must be bilingual. One of these employees shall remain at all times with the crew.
  5. The contractor safety representative should be bilingual.
  6. All radio communications should be in English.

Further Suggestions

  1. Utilize bilingual hazard signage.
  2. Announce plant alarms in English and Spanish.
  3. Identify “bilingual employees” in each group with different colored hard hat/clothing etc. to facilitate identification for emergency communications.
  4. Advise your plant employees and other contractors working at the facility that you have non-English speaking work crews and where they are working.