UL Workplace Safety and Health, a company that provides safety training and other human resource tools to employers, posted in late 2013 about the importance of safety training in the native language of the worker.
Teri Hale, who is Operations Manager of Professional Learning Services, wrote the following (this is an excerpt):
Misinterpretation can lead to lower productivity, lost revenue and more seriously, injury and loss of life. This is especially true in high-risk sectors such as manufacturing, oil and gas exploration, and construction. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) estimates that language barriers are a contributing factor in 25 percent of job-related accidents. Moreover, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that fatal injury rates were 69 percent higher for foreign-born Hispanic workers than for native-born Hispanic workers (who tend to have a better grasp of English).
In 2010, OSHA announced an initiative in which it directed compliance officers to observe whether employers provide employees safety training in a language they understand. Employers who fail to properly train their employees are subject to citations and penalties.
Author: Peter Rousmaniere
More on Pro Publica’s temp worker report: higher injury risk
Pro Publica also reported on the higher injury risk of temporary workers, as follows:
A ProPublica analysis of millions of workers’ compensation claims shows that in five states, representing more than a fifth of the U.S. population, temps face a significantly greater risk of getting injured on the job than permanent employees.
In California and Florida, two of the largest states, temps had about 50 percent greater risk of being injured on the job than non-temps. That risk was 36 percent higher in Massachusetts, 66 percent in Oregon and 72 percent in Minnesota.
These statistics understate the dangers faced by blue-collar temps like Davis. Nationwide, temps are far more likely to find jobs in dangerous occupations like manufacturing and warehousing. And their likelihood of injury grows dramatically.
In Florida, for example, temps in blue-collar workplaces were about six times as likely to be injured than permanent employees doing similar jobs.
The findings were particularly stark for severe injuries. In Florida, the data shows, temps were about twice as likely as regular employees to suffer crushing injuries, dislocations, lacerations, fractures and punctures. They were about three times as likely to suffer an amputation on the job in Florida and the three other states for which such records are available.
ProPublica interviewed more than 100 temp workers across the nation and reviewed more than 50 Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigations involving temp worker accidents.
The interviews and OSHA files revealed situations that occur over and over again: untrained laborers asphyxiated while cleaning the inside of chemical tanks, caught in heavy machinery such as food grinders and tire shredders, and afflicted by heat stroke after a long day on a garbage truck or roof.
The lightly regulated blue-collar temp world is one where workers are often sent to do dangerous jobs with little or no training. Where the company overseeing the work isn’t required to pay the medical bills if temps get hurt. And where, when temp workers do get injured on the job, the temp firm and the company fight with each other over who is responsible, sometimes even delaying emergency medical care while they sort it out.
Pro Publica’s investigation of temporary labor: Raiteros
Pro Publica took aim during 2013 at the low wage temp industry. It reported that “Across America, temporary work has become a mainstay of the economy, leading to the proliferation of what researchers have begun to call “temp towns.” They are often dense Latino neighborhoods teeming with temp agencies. Or they are cities where it has become nearly impossible even for whites and African-Americans with vocational training to find factory and warehouse work without first being directed to a temp firm.
“In June, the Labor Department reported that the nation had more temp workers than ever before: 2.7 million. Overall, almost one-fifth of the total job growth since the recession ended in mid-2009 has been in the temp sector, federal data shows.”
It investigated labor brokers (raiteros) in Chicago:
Immigrant labor brokers known as raiteros have helped create a system where temp agencies and their corporate clients benefit from cheap, just-in-time labor. Raiteros don’t just drive workers to their jobs. They also recruit the workers, decide who works and doesn’t and distribute paychecks, making them unofficial agents of the temp firms.
But the temp agencies don’t pay the raiteros. [A state law forbad that practice years ago.] Instead, it’s the low-wage workers who pay them, ostensibly for transportation. Those fees, together with unpaid waiting times, depress workers’ pay well below the minimum wage.
Continue reading Pro Publica’s investigation of temporary labor: Raiteros
Most of construction fall fatalities in New York are foreign-born workers
The Center for Popular Democracy reports that:
Our review of 2003-2011 OSHA investigations of construction site accidents involving a fatal fall from an elevation revealed that Latinos and immigrants are disproportionately killed in fall accidents.
In 60% of the OSHA-investigated fall from an elevation fatalities in New York State, the worker was Latino and/or immigrant, disproportionately high for their participation in construction work.
In New York City, 74% of fatal falls were Latino and/or immigrant.
Narrowing further, 88% of fatal falls in Queens and 87% in Brooklyn involved Latinos and/or immigrants.
86% of Latino and/or immigrant fatalities from a fall from an elevation in New York were working for a non-union employer.
In 2011 focus groups, Latino construction workers reported fearing retaliation as a key deterrent to raising concerns about safety.
Its report, Fatal Inequality: Workplace Safety Eludes Construction Workers of Color, is available on its website.
A free guide to immigrant worker safety and health
With generous support from Concentra and Broadspire, I authored Work Safe: An Employer’s Guide to Safety and Health in a Diversified Workforce. This first of its kind guide is a very accessible source of practical advice on special techniques in worker safety training, medical treatment issues, hiring and using interpreters and other topics. It includes an extensive guide to free online resources on occupational safety organized by key occupations of foreign-born workers.
The Guide includes simple, brief introductions to workers compensation and to work safety regulation in the U.S., in English and Spanish. They can be translated into other languages.
The Guide grants the reader wide discretion on copying and using portions of the guide.
Lazarus – like resurrection of immigration reform?
Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post noted yesterday that House Speaker Boehner has hired Rebecca Tallent, a seasoned advisor to Republicans on immigration reform. The hire signals a possible decision by Congressional Republicans to push immigration reform – defying report that reform was dead going into 2014.
Tallent came from The Bipartisan Policy Center, where she was director of immigration policy and coordinated the publication of several pro-reform reports, such as this one on the economic benefits of immigration reform.
Rubin writes:
Although it is an election year, 2014 may afford a better opportunity than previously imagined for accomplishing something on the immigration front. The Dems and White House are more desperate than ever for some achievement, and their fear the Senate may flip in Nov. 2014 should encourage some flexibility. Meanwhile, the House right wing is not the force it was before the shutdown, while the speaker’s popularity has grown among his troops.
A final factor may play a role in pushing immigration reform to the fore. Center-right business leaders and groups, who mostly favor comprehensive immigration reform as an economic boost, are plainly alarmed about the 2014 election and have entered the fray both to unseat hard-line gadflies like Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) and bolster mainstream Republicans like Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). That gives reform-minded lawmakers some confidence they will get cover in 2014 if they take some political heat for backing immigration reform. It also may persuade GOP skeptics to take another look at the polls, which generally show immigration reform including an earned path to citizenship to be popular, even among Republicans.
We need joint workforce planning with Mexico
RAND just came out with a nuanced analysis of how the American and Mexican labor markets are so intertwined that we need to set up mechanisms for joint planning for migrant workers throughout their entire labor life cycle. The dimensions of the issue include migration, job security, and retirement benefits.
There are some great images including a map of the origin of Mexican migrants to the U.S.
Its study smashes some myths, as here:
The stereotypical perception of Mexican immigrants is that they come from the lowest rungs of Mexican society. In fact, Mexican immigrants in the United States are more likely to have completed eight to nine years of education than those remaining in Mexico, and less likely to have completed either fewer years of education or college. In other words, the least educated and the most educated are less likely to migrate to the United States.
RAND concludes:
A binational organization that promotes a better understanding of migration flows coupled with a bilateral social security agreement for legal migrant workers would serve as cornerstones for building solid immigration and labor policies that could benefit both the U.S. and Mexican populations. These two initiatives could also inaugurate a longer-term collaboration between the two countries that, as geographic neighbors, must jointly find solutions to promote the well-being of their people
Business and Labor Leaders send letter to Washington
Open Letter to President Obama, Speaker Boehner, and Members of Congress:
New York is a great world city, thanks in large part to the steady stream of immigrants who make up almost 40% of our current population, own more than a third of our small businesses, and keep our diverse neighborhoods thriving. Unfortunately, restrictive U.S. immigration policies have reduced the net flow of global talent into our city by 32% in the last decade and forced many foreign-born New Yorkers to either leave or live in the shadows.
Continued delays on comprehensive immigration reform will have dire economic consequences.
Right now, there is an opportunity to fix our nation’s broken immigration system if you, our leaders in Washington D.C., can reach agreement on a fair and balanced approach to reform. We are convinced that this will benefit America’s workers and employers alike and have immediate and substantial economic benefits for our entire country.
Business and labor certainly do not agree on every issue, but we are united in urging you to reach agreement on comprehensive immigration reform, including the following provisions:
· A broad pathway to citizenship for more than 11 million undocumented immigrants who already reside in our country, so long as they have been responsible and contributing members of their community.
· Talented, young “dreamers”—aspiring citizens who were brought here as children—should have all the educational opportunities and benefits enjoyed by other young Americans.
· A flexible system of allocating work visas and green cards on the basis of a regular assessment of labor market demands.
· Allowance for foreign students to stay in the U.S. when they earn advanced degrees in subjects where the U.S. has a skills shortage.
Jobs in science, technology, engineering and math (“STEM” fields) are growing three times faster than other jobs in our economy, and we need to tap global labor pools to fill them. Other countries are attracting great entrepreneurs who build successful companies and create jobs through their aggressive immigration policies—the type of talent that the U.S. once welcomed but now turns away.
Employers and organized labor were once on different sides of these issues, but we have come to understand that to grow jobs at home, we need to welcome job creators and workers from all over the world.
Leaders in Washington, D.C. promised action on immigration reform after the last Presidential election, but a year has gone by and it never happened. It is inexcusable to move this issue into the 2014 election year, when politics will again intrude on the country’s best interests. We urge you to enact practical and humane immigration reforms now.
Signed,
Stuart Appelbaum, President, Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU, UFCW)
Candace K. Beinecke, Chair, First Eagle Fund & Chair, Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP
Philippe P. Dauman, President and CEO, Viacom Inc.
Laurence D. Fink, Chairman & CEO, BlackRock, Inc.
Alan H. Fishman, Chairman, Ladder Capital Finance LLC
George Gresham, President, 1199SEIU
George Miranda, President, Teamster Joint Council 16
Michael Mulgrew, President, United Federation of Teachers
Harry Nespoli, Chairman, Municipal Labor Committee; President, Uniformed Sanitationmen’s Association
Steven Roth, Chairman, Vornado Realty Trust
Kevin Ryan, Chairman & Founder, Gilt Groupe
Jerry I. Speyer, Chairman & Co-CEO, Tishman Speyer
Mortimer B. Zuckerman, Chairman and CEO, Boston Properties
An end to draconian state laws that target undocumenteds?
The Migration Policy Institute reports on a settlement between the state of Alabama and plaintiffs who had tied up the implementation of HB 56, enacted in 2011 to crack down on undocumented persons. Plaintiffs prevented the law from being enforced through a suit in federal court and a federal Court of Appeals decision to enjoin the state from enforcing the law. The Supreme Court declined in April 2013 to review the decision. The state threw in the towel, signing a settlement on October 29. The text of the settlement is here.
This settlement might blow the winds out of the sails of those trying to pass draconian, anti- undocumented worker statutes. The Alabama statute was the most far-reaching such law. Per the MPI, Arizona led the charge in 2010 by enacting SB 1070, which served as the blueprint for this forceful new activism toward unauthorized immigrants, rooted in the idea of “attrition through enforcement.” Five states — Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, South Carolina, and Utah — quickly followed Arizona’s example in 2011.
The MPI says that under the settlement, Alabama state officials agreed to block components of HB 56 that would have:
Required K-12 public schools to collect information about the immigration status of their students
Made it a criminal offense for noncitizens to fail to carry their alien registration documents
Made it a crime for unauthorized immigrants to solicit work
Made it a criminal offense to offer a ride or rent housing to an unauthorized immigrant
Infringed on the ability of individuals to contract with an unauthorized immigrant.
In addition to agreeing to block these provisions, the state will pay organizations that brought the lawsuit — including the Southern Poverty Law Center, American Civil Liberties Union, National Immigration Law Center, and Mexican American Legal and Education Defense Fund — $350,000 for attorney fees and expenses incurred in the litigation.
The MPI goes on to say that in the months leading up to the Alabama settlement, federal courts have been inhospitable to state omnibus immigration enforcement laws.
Does lack of English cause work injuries?
Common sense suggests that Limited English Proficiency among the 15 million or so immigrant workers who work in average or about average risky jobs contributes to the rate of injury. It’s impossible to document this because so many injuries sustained by immigrant workers, and undocumented workers especially, go un-reported.
A study looked national survey data and reported a close correlation between LEP and working in higher injury risk jobs.
“Our results indicate that differences in observable characteristics, such as English ability and education, play important roles in the tendency of immigrants to work in riskier jobs. Workers’ ability to speak English is inversely related to their industry injury and fatality rates, indicating that immigrants who speak English fluently work in safer jobs. The CDC (2008) attributed the high number of work-related deaths among foreign-born Hispanics in part to inadequate knowledge of safety hazards and inadequate training and supervision of workers, which are often exacerbated by language and literacy problems. Our findings bolster such calls for more safety training in languages other than English (National Research Council 2003).”
Source:
Do Immigrants Work in Riskier Jobs? Orrenius P et al. Demography. 2009 August; 46(3): 535–551. Found at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2831347/