OSHA Helps Builders Communicate With Hispanic Workers About Safety - 9/27/2004 - Real Estate Education Training Schools Conferences

OSHA Web Site Helps English-Speaking Builders Communicate With Hispanic Workers About Safety

The 17.5 million Hispanics in the U.S. workforce have been a particular focus of OSHA because they have accounted for a disproportionate number of job-related deaths, injuries and illnesses in recent years. For the first time in seven years, those numbers started coming down in 2002, but the government still considers them too high. Construction is one of the industries in which Hispanic workers are most concentrated.

The site contains links to OSHA en Espanõl, as well as Spanish-language dictionaries, online compliance assistance tools, fact sheets, posters, publications, public service announcements, toll-free telephone assistance, training grant information and training videos.

Links also provide information in Spanish on Hispanic/English-as-a-second-language coordinators, employer and employee rights and responsibilities and OSHA cooperative programs.

Additionally, OSHA has developed a Spanish language eTool, which is an interactive Web-based training tool that addresses the "big-four" hazards on construction sites — electrical incidents (e.g., overhead power lines, power tools and cords, outlets, temporary wiring); falls (floors, platforms, roofs); struck-by (falling objects, vehicles); and trenching and excavatioin (caught-in/between). These hazards cause 90% of the injuries and fatalities in the construction industry.

OSHA has documented successes in the construction industry from outreach programs that provide bi-lingual communication and safety training for Hispanic workers.

Torcon, Inc., a general building contractor in New Jersey, was able to decrease injuries at its job sites by stepping up its efforts to communicate with its Spanish-speaking workers, OSHA reports.

On job sites where there are Hispanic workers, Torcon requires contractor supervisors to be bi-lingual, eliminating the need for interpreters. Site safety orientation is conducted in both English and Spanish, reports OSHA, and the written orientation materials are in both languages.

English and Spanish versions of health and safety posters and emergency evacuation procedures are also provided under the Torcon program. Safety training videos are produced in both languages, and the company requires its contractors to conduct weekly bilingual tool box safety talks with workers.

NAHB has worked with OSHA to provide its members and others in the residential construction industry with information, training opportunities and guidance that will help them protect the health and safety of their employees. To learn more about this comprehensive alliance, click here.

For information on the many OSHA standards that apply to the residential construction industry, hazards in home building and their solutions, and developing and implementing a safety program, click here.