This paper will discuss the manner in which a safety and health outreach training program for Hispanic workers, particularly day laborers in construction and general industry, was established and managed in the past two years. This program is based on the successful work done by OSHA's Parsippany area office in alliance with many non-profit organizations and faith-based organizations in collaboration with many volunteer safety and health professionals from the public, private and institutional sectors.
These alliances with faith-based organizations and community service centers throughout New York and New Jersey made possible the delivery of all training sessions to Hispanic workers in their native tongue. The training provided included the OSHA 10-hour safety and health course certification of all attendees from the construction and general industry sectors, carried out in 10-hour day sessions at a minimum or no cost for the attendees.
The Hispanic workforce is in a disadvantage when it comes to safety and health in their workplace. There could be several important factors that might play a role in this issue. Language, culture, and discrimination are just some factors that can adversely affect Hispanic employees in their workplace. Ruttenberg et al (2004) indicated, in a study done on Hispanic construction workers, that language is a substantial barrier to safety and health for Hispanic construction workers in the United States. One of the workers indicated that, "When safety procedures are explained, I don't understand."
The number of Hispanic workers continues to increase steadily. NIOSH (2004) indicates that Hispanic workers accounted for 10.9% of the 135 million workers in 2001. Additionally, the BLS projects that Hispanics will make up 30.3 million of the nation's workforce by the year 2010.
Of concern is the rising number of fatalities in the Hispanic workforce. Furthermore, rates for Hispanic fatalities have increased as opposed to fatality rates of other ethnicities. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS, 2004) reports that the number of Hispanic fatalities for the year 2004 has increased compared to the previous two years. This increase comes after a steady decline since 2001. The Worker Health Chartbook for 2004 (NIOSH, 2004) further elaborates the data covering the years from 1992–2002 by indicating that, "Most fatalities (4239 or 55.2%) affect workers aged 25–44 and occur among male workers (94%). Work as operators, fabricators and laborers accounted for the most fatalities (41.4% or 3128)."
This data is of enormous concern since it indicates that not enough is being done to decrease these numbers. The graph below shows the number of fatalities for Hispanic workers from the year 1992 to the year 2004.
Figure: Number of fatal work injuries involving Hispanic or Latino workers, 1992–2004 (available in full paper)
The Parsippany Area Office (PAO) of OSHA has initiative alliances that address the safety and health training needs of the Hispanic workforce. Of special interest are subgroups of this set that include day laborers.
