Dive Brief:

• Young Hispanics who work for small construction firms face greater occupational safety and health challenges than employees in any other industry in the United States.

• That is the conclusion of a joint report by the American Society of Safety Engineers and the National Institute for Occupational Safety, which found “overlapping vulnerabilities” among Hispanic immigrants. Some of those vulnerabilities are an unfamiliarity with job-site risks; lack of awareness of safety procedures; insufficient job training; language barriers; and work styles that differ from those of their American co-workers and employers.

• The report said construction firms with fewer than 20 employees—which defines 90% of all construction companies—are most likely to hire young, uneducated immigrants, and are unlikely to employ occupational safety systems that might prevent on-the-job injuries and deaths. 

Dive Insight:

Hispanics were the only ethnic group to log an increase in workplace fatalities in 2013, the report said. Between 1992 and 2006, 5.9 Hispanic immigrant workers per 100,000 died on the job.

ASSE President Trish Ennis urged the industry to “take note of this report and work together to improve… safety conditions.”