Legal Injured foreign worker awarded damages due to inadequate safety training

[thomas]

A Vietnamese man in his 40s has been awarded 10.3 million JPY (USD 68,000) in compensation after a severe workplace injury. An Osaka court ruled that his employer, a metalworking company, was negligent in failing to provide safety training in his native language. The man, who had worked at the company for nearly a year, suffered a severe finger injury in January 2015 after failing to understand Japanese safety instructions.

The presiding judge said the company failed to provide safety training in a language the man could understand, adding that this contributed significantly to the accident. The ruling said the plaintiff was unable to read Japanese and could barely speak it, yet all safety training materials were in Japanese. Additionally, the court said the machine's safety device key was inadequately managed. In conclusion, the court said the accident could have been prevented if the company had trained the man properly on how to work safely.

Foreign worker wins payout for injury after poor safety training | The Asahi Shimbun: Breaking News, Japan News and Analysis