Fatality Rates Rise for Hispanic Workers

Workplace fatalities have increased sharply for Latino and immigrant workers, according to the AFL-CIO. Fatal injuries among Latino workers increased by 7% during 2005, with 990 fatalities among this group of workers, the highest number ever reported.

Hispanics are among the fastest-growing segments of the U.S. workforce (1). In 2006, an estimated 19.6 million workers in the United States were Hispanic, 56% of whom were foreign born, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). They are young workers, with a median age of 35, as opposed to the general population, with a median age of 42, according to the BLS.

The total number of fatal workplace injuries in the United States was 5,840, an increase from the year before.  On average, 16 workers were fatally injured and another 11,200 workers were injured or made ill each day in 2006. These statistics do not include deaths from occupational diseases, which claim the lives of an estimated 50,000 to 60,000 more workers each year.

Fatality rates rise

The fatality rate among Hispanic workers in 2006 was 25% higher than the fatal injury rate for all U.S. workers.  Since 1992, when data was first collected in the BLS Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, the number of fatalities among Latino workers has increased by 86%, from 533 fatal injuries in 1992 to 990 deaths in 2006.  Among foreign-born workers, job fatalities have increased by 63%, from 635 to 1,035 deaths.

The construction sector had the largest number of fatal work injuries (1,239, up from 1,192 in 2005), followed by transportation and warehousing (860), and agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting (655).  In the construction sector, there was a gap between Hispanic and non-Hispanic workers.  In 2005, the death rate for Hispanic construction workers was 12.4/100,000 full time workers compared to 10.5/100,000 non-Hispanic construction workers.

Inspection challenges

A related challenge is staffing levels at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). The AFL-CIO reports that in order to inspect each workplace once, it would take federal OSHA 133 years with its current number of inspectors.  The current level of federal and state OSHA inspectors provides one inspector for every 63,913 workers.  This compares to a benchmark of one labor inspector for every 10,000 workers recommended by the International Labor Organization for industrialized countries.

“The rate in which Hispanic workers are dying on the job is a national tragedy. Employers must stop exploiting Hispanic workers and dramatically improve workplace safety, and the government must do more to hold employers accountable,” says AFL-CIO President John Sweeney.

Additional efforts are needed to reduce the risk for death among Hispanic workers because of projected increases in their employment, involvement in work with high risk for injury, susceptibility to miscommunication caused by language differences, and other potential risks associated with culture and economic status.