Time to Prioritize Safety
The beginning of the year is a time to set new priorities and reflect on how to do things better. This is a great time to re-evaluate safety in the workplace, we are nor talking about just the COVID-19 virus but also very essential safetly measures such as wearing a helmet at construction sites, wearing a seat bealth while operating work vehicles, or being mindfull of weight restriction on vehicle or our own body. 2020 and 2021 came to a close with a very unsettling statis of increasing fatal work injuries for Hispanic or Latino workers. Safety at worksites are really hard to measure in settings where Hispanics or Latinos work given many workers tend to keep such incidents secret for the fear of retribution or even deportations, however it is very hard to hide fatalities at work and these are on the rise indicating that accidents that do not result in fatalities are going grossly underreported.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics there were more than a 1,000 fatalities reported in 2019 and 2020 where the victims were Hispanics or Latinos, this number is up from 800 in 2016 and keeps rising as the need for essential workers which are more than half Hispanics or Latinos keeps rising with the on-gong labor shortage. Our recommendation is to re-familiarize yourself with OSHA and reassess security measures in the workplace. The University of Maine School of Law has a very good summary of what Hispanics and Latinos regardless or documentation status should expect with regards with safety in the workplace. https://mainelaw.maine.edu/public-service/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/RHRC-workers-rights-SPANISH.pdf
