DOL Aims to Protect Health, Safety of Spanish-Speaking Workers

According to the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), a two-year alliance has begun between the agency’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) offices in Dallas and Fort Worth and the Dallas Mexican Consulate, in order to provide Spanish-speaking employers and workers in Northern Texas with information, guidance, and access to workers’ rights resources.

OSHA’s program partners with groups committed to worker safety and health in order to prevent workplace fatalities, injuries, and illnesses. These groups range anywhere from unions, consulates, and trade or professional organizations to businesses, faith- and community-based organizations, and educational institutions.

“OSHA’s alliance with the Mexican Consulate in Dallas will prevent many Spanish-speaking people working in North Texas from needless injuries or worse,” said Basil Singh, OSHA Dallas Area Director. “Every U.S. worker, regardless of their immigration status, has the right to a safe workplace and to receive information in their own language.”

The Texas alliance will provide workplace safety, health outreach, and training materials to the areas Mexican nationals, which includes construction and general industry employees and employers. The alliance will also help employers understand workers’ rights and employers’ responsibilities to protect the health and safety of workers under the Occupational Safety and Health Act.

The initiative, signed June 14, is run by OSHA’s Alliance Program and arrives around the same time that OSHA believes a cleaning woman died on the job because she was trained in English, which wasn’t her native language. For more information, see Pizza Manufacturer Faces Fines for Cleaner’s Death.

“Working with the Mexican Consulate in Dallas will help us reach out to many workers who we might not otherwise have access to,” said Timothy Minor, OSHA Fort Worth Area Director. “By breaking down the language barrier, we can help these workers understand the rights to be protected from needless harm.”