Latino day laborers (LDL) experience a disproportionately high rate of on-the-job injuries and fatalities compared with other workers in the U.S. The typical LDL is male, foreign-born, living below the poverty level and Spanish monolingual. In Texas, where most construction workers are LDL, 89 construction workers died on the job in 2010 - a rate of one death every 4 days. Some studies suggest that their injury rate may in fact be 3 to 4 times higher. Safety programs recommended for LDL have had limited success increasing their safety at work, partly because they do not consider the pressing needs confronted by these workers. These programs may have missed a critical component of injury prevention by failing to address psychosocial stressors that emerge from harsh living conditions and economic inequalities which amplify LDL risk for injury at work. Until safety programs are created to help LDL negotiate the hazards they face at work in the context of the psychosocial factors that amplify their risk, it will not be possible to effectively reduce the unacceptably hig risk LDL face of being injured or dying on the job. We are joining forces with our community partners to form a Community Advisory Board (CAB) consisting of day labor leaders, university-based researchers, and community-based and employer organizations to address this question: How can LDL increase their ability to effectively cope with the psychosocial factors that put them at increased risk of unintended injury at work? This study has the following aims: (1) Identify intervention priorities using a corner-based needs assessment to document occupational and psychosocial risk and protective factors that increase LDL risk for injury. (2) With the CAB, jointly design a culturally responsive and context appropriate OSHA 10-based safety intervention that also addresses psychosocial risks to reduce LDL injuries. (3) Collaboratively pilot a corner-level intervention and conduct an evaluation to assess the safety program's feasibility and acceptability as determined by the extent to which we can recruit, retain and follow-up LDL over the course of the study. Mitigating safety risks among LDL is an urgent public health priority to reduce unintended injuries, an area of research interest at the national Institute of Minority Health Disparities.
This study will develop an intervention to increase safety practices among Latino day laborers. A needs assessment survey with this population will lead to modifications of the OSHA10 (a program recommended for Latino workers) based on priorities to target psychosocial factors that amplify risky conditions at work. The pilot test of his intervention will allow us to establish its feasibility and acceptability, as determined by the extnt to which we can recruit, retain and follow-up day laborers over the course of the study
