Florida's Hispanic Workers Face High Fatality Rates
South Florida is proud of the major contributions made to its economic and cultural life made by the large Hispanic populations in Dade, Broward and Palm Beach Counties. I am proud to have represented many, many Hispanic workers at the law offices of Randy Zeldin. Recently, I represented a Latino gentleman from Mexico, who fell from a roof and sustained serious fractures and other injuries. In questioning this worker who spoke no English, it became apparent that he was untrained for the dangerous work he was asked to perform. Had the Employer made the effort, it is likely that his injuries could have been avoided.
I became curious about rates of injuries among Hispanic workers, who are often engaged in dangerous jobs. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the fatality rate for Hispanic employees was 5.0 per 100,000 workers, compared with 4.0 per 100,00 workers for the general population. Foreign born Hispanic workers have a much higher rate of death than even native-born Hispanic workers, based on data from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
The reasons for these high rates of injury and death among foreign born Hispanics are multiple. It is my observation from representing many foreign born Hispanic workers in South Florida, that these people labor in dangerous occupations such as construction and agriculture. An Administrator from the Occupational Health and Safety Administration ("OSHA"), Mr. Edwin Foulke Jr., at a meeting of the American Society of Safety Engineers in Las Vegas, believes that difficulties in communication and misinterpretation are big factors in higher injury rates.
The lesson to be learned is that foreign born persons, particularly Hispanics, make up a large percent of the unskilled workforce in South Florida and Palm Beach. These workers deserve supplemental handbooks and safety guidelines to make sure that they understand and can cope with the dangerous jobs they do to benefit our communities.
