As was mentioned in a previous post, the Hispanic community continues to grow and the risk of workplace incidents, injuries and deaths among Hispanics has been rising. The U.S. Department of Labor has been taking its own steps to try to help Hispanic workers who are seeking jobs or are currently  in the U.S. workforce in providing various information  so workers are informed about their options and the labor rules and regulations in the United States. Similar efforts are made in Cnada as well.

[Image courtesy of romana klee from Flickr via a Creative Commons license]English is a very important language in international business, but there is a fair percentage of the workforce that does not speak English at all – especialy workers from Latin American countries. And these workers, due to language barriers, are often at higher risk of workplace incidents or injuries. Bilingual education, therefore, is a vital necessity.

The big challenge for Hispanic workers is the language barrier. Even as English is a prominent worldwide language, it is not always easily understood by those in Hispanic countries of Central and South America because it is not spoken or written extensively outside of the school system. That language barrier can be a barrier to safety for many of these foreign workers if companies do not take the necessary steps to educate these workers in their native languages so they can better understand the safety program, protocols and procedures that will help ensure safety. While taking a passive approach and presenting some Spanish-language materials to workers is helpful, there is a way to be more proactive, and that is by having bilingual safety professionals conduct outreach about the importance of worker safety among Spanish speakers.

How vital is this work? The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed that in 2013, about 13 Hispanic or Latino workers were killed in on-site workplace incidents every six days, or about 65 per month. That rate is higher than the national average among all U.S. workers. And there seems to be a reasonable likelihood that a lack of education and proper training was at least a reason behind all of the fatalities. And this is not education or training in general, but the lack of it in Spanish.

The ASSE is putting together such an initiative through its Bilingual Spokespeople Bureau. These 11 bilingual ASSE members travel around and speak to various audiences and the Spanish-speaking media about workplace safety and the importance of understanding the safety protocols and regulations in an American or Canadian workplace as an outreach plan to ensure safety of all workers regardless of their cultural or lingal background.

“We will become the voice that can help overcome the language barrier between employers and the Latino workforce,” said Jose Velasquez, one of the ASSE members who is a part of the Bilingual Bureau. For more information, you can check out the January 2015 issue of ProfessionalSafety magazine or visit www.asse.org.