Workers Speak Out at OSHA's First Workers’ Voice Summit

Engagement of Workers and Advocates as Collaborators With OSHA

At the current staffing level, it would take OSHA 190 years to inspect every workplace in its jurisdiction. ² OSHA is lacking a great deal of information regarding conditions that workers experience. It has not earned the trust needed for workers to feel confident reporting dangers, which hinders enforcement. Actively encouraging worker collaboration would tap into the critical first-hand knowledge workers have and give OSHA access to the experience and relationships of COSH and other worker organizations. This would help OSHA coordinate with the Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor, as well as state labor agencies, to maximize the impact of legal protections.

Protection for Workers From Being Silenced due to Immigration Status

Too often employers use workers’ immigration status and desperate need to earn a living to exploit them for free or cheap labor. Employers seek to maximize profits by cutting corners on worker safety and worker pay. They take advantage of workers’ precarious immigration status and their fear of retaliation or deportation. When any worker is unable to speak up about dangerous conditions, it puts all workers at risk of injury, illness, and death. National COSH and its labor partners have been advocating for OSHA to support workers with temporary legal status, so they can speak up and participate fully in labor investigations. OSHA regional staff, state plan officials, and worker advocates need to be well informed about how to make the best use of these tools to ensure that workers who need to be protected can gain access to them. This demand was presented at the Workers’ Voice Summit. Less than three months later, DOL responded by providing OSHA with the authority to provide non-immigrant visas that allow victims of specific crimes (in this case violations of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970) to help law enforcement (in this case OSHA) to detect, investigate and prosecute crimes without fear of retaliation based on their immigration status. ³

Enabling Workers’ Full Participation in Workplace Investigations and Enforcement Proceedings

“Too many construction workers are dropped off at the workplace with no safety information,” said Mayra Molina, a painter and worker leader from MassCOSH. “I work in construction and I see this all the time. We don’t want to see this conversation just on paper, but we need action.” Workers should be regarded as integral to OSHA investigations because they are on the front lines and, often, the reporters of potential OSHA violations. In order for an investigation to be effective, OSHA needs to put steps in place that fully engage workers in the process. In addition, OSHA should empower workers to conduct ongoing safety and health monitoring at their workplaces. Workers should be aware of their right to speak off-site in a safe community setting in their own language with what support they need, including the presence of a union representative if the workplace is unionized. They have the right to select a representative to participate in the inspection walk-through, providing more depth to the investigation and sending a message that it is safe to speak to OSHA. Additionally, workers should be consulted regarding the viability of potential resolution of the hazards, including inserting language in the citation that reflects the priorities of the workers and creates opportunities for them to speak up in the future without fear of retaliation.

Protections for Temporary Workers

Temporary workers—particularly those supplied to an employer by an outside agency—are at greater risk of injury or death than permanent workers. In factories, warehouses, and other locations, temporary workers are often assigned dangerous semi-skilled or unskilled work, but provided with little or no training. When a temporary worker is injured on the job, the temp agency and employer may argue over which entity is responsible for workers’ compensation. In many cases, the temp agency is ultimately responsible, enabling host employers to avoid repercussions for their lack of workplace safety. ⁴ Similarly, employers don’t make it clear to temporary workers who is responsible for their safety or how to report dangerous workplace conditions. To strengthen protections for temporary workers, National COSH and partners developed recommendations ⁵ for procedures that address the particular concerns of temporary workers, such as obtaining a roster of all workers employed during a serious incident or investigation to monitor whether they were dismissed after the event.

Collaboration with state and federal agencies to maximize worker protections on issues such as wage theft, safe working conditions during disaster clean-ups, and more.

“Workers have too little power, employers have too much,” said Oscar Londoño, co-executive director of We Count, a National COSH affiliate based in South Florida. “We need more worker engagement, more worker voices at the table with the Department of Labor.”

As multiple state and federal agencies are involved in ensuring worker safety and health, coordination is essential to maximize impact. OSHA should take advantage of existing systems across the federal government to protect workers from threats to their health and safety. Agencies that conduct surveillance, such as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and state and local health departments, can provide information contributing to OSHA priority setting. Agencies that investigate workplaces for labor trafficking or wage and hour violations, such as the Department of Labor and state and local labor departments, may be able to identify employers who are also violating safety and health laws.