According to a recent announcement from Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, OSHA will step up enforcement of worker training requirements, especially for non-English speaking workers.

Enhanced workplace safety for construction workers in the states of Texas and Louisiana is the goal of an alliance signed today at the National Action Summit for Latino Worker Health and Safety by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Consulate General of Mexico in Houston to promote safety and health rights in the workplace for Mexican and other Spanish-speaking workers.

A newly released report shows continued need for active engagement by employers and increased incentives for Limited English Proficiency (LEP) program participants. The U.S. Department of Labor announced the release of a report evaluating the outcomes of the Limited English Proficiency and Hispanic Worker Initiative project grants launched four years ago.

According to newly released Census data, the number of Americans age five and older who spoke a language other than English at home has more than doubled in the past three decades.

Each year, thousands of workers in the U.S. are injured or killed on the job as a result of preventable incidents, and Latino workers are killed and suffer work-related injuries at higher rates than all other workers.

At Home Builders Institute (HBI), we are aware that Hispanics have the highest construction workplace fatality rates caused in partly by a language barrier. We understand through our years of experience that workers with limited English proficiency are a danger on today’s multicultural construction projects.