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November-December 2021

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36 PalletCentral • November-December 2021 palletcentral.com O SHA is back with a bang in the Biden administration, issuing press releases about significant cases in return to "public shaming" of employers and rolling out new emphasis programs, in addition to the agency's rulemaking activities on COVID-19. One area of concern for OSHA is Hispanic worker safety and health, a return to this outreach and enforcement area mirroring the Obama administration's efforts. In many cases, Hispanic workers may be in the workplace as "gig" workers – through staffing agencies or as day laborers – and get subpar training, direction and mentoring, compared with permanent, English-speaking workers. While overall workplace fatalities have dropped 20 percent in the past decade, deaths on the job among Hispanic workers have risen almost 35 percent during the same period. Over 1,000 Hispanic or Latino workers died on the job in 2019 – the highest number since 1992. A recent report by the AFL-CIO, Death on the Job: e Toll of Neglect" (2020) found that Latino workers had a fatality rate of 3.7 per 100,000 workers, higher than the national average, and deaths among all Latino workers increased in 2018 over the previous year, and 67 percent of Latino workers who died on the job that year were born outside of the United States. COVID-19 took a disproportionately high toll as well on Hispanic workers, many of whom were declared "essential workers" in protein plants or on the front lines in health care. A study in March 2021 found that Hispanics and Latinos are 1.7 times more likely to contract COVID-19 than their non-Hispanic white counterparts, are 4.1 times more likely to be hospitalized, and 2.8 times more likely to die from COVID-19. Vulnerable workers such as Hispanic employees may fear raising safety concerns on the job, such as being assigned more dangerous work, and may be unaware of their work refusal rights under the OSH Act. To address this deadly trend, OSHA has taken a multi-pronged approach to improving safety and health for, and providing outreach and assistance to, the Hispanic community. e basic precept with OSHA is that all workers deserve equal protection from health and safety hazards, and comparable training – in a language and vocabulary that the worker can understand. If Spanish is used to give work directions or converse in the workplace, training should also be done in that language. If handbooks are in English only, a Spanish-speaking worker who does not read English cannot sign a receipt attesting to understanding of the rules and regulations within – this can lead to both OSHA and EEOC issues. OSHA's outreach include compliance tools, programs and training resources to help both employers of Spanish-speaking workers and the workers themselves. ere are Hispanic-related webpages on the www.osha.gov site, as well as links to myriad training materials and videos that have been translated into Spanish for use in the workplace. While many of these tools are geared toward construction workers, there are also resources for manufacturing and other general industry worksites. e OSHA Resource Center Loan Program offers over 35 video titles in Spanish on a variety of subjects including electrical safety, lockout/tagout, and PPE, another free service for employers and for Hispanic worker training centers. OSHA's mandatory posters are available in both English and Spanish (and must be visible to workers in the worksite). Other publications such SAFETY By Adele L. Abrams, Esq., CMSP Hispanic Workers & OSHA Do You Speak Safety?

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