Top leaders of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) have detailed new and upcoming enforcement efforts to protect “vulnerable workers” (i.e., immigrant, minority, female, and lower-paid) who may be more vulnerable to workplace hazards.
In his opening remarks to the American Bar Association’s Workplace and Occupational Safety and Health Law Committee, Assistant Secretary of Labor Doug Parker, a former California-OSHA Labor Commissioner who now leads OSHA, said a recent summit with worker advocates led him to conclude the agency must connect workplace hazards with social factors underlying injuries and illnesses for specific demographic communities. Comparing data from 2021 to 2021, Parker noted that Latino workers experienced the highest rate of workplace fatalities and African American worker fatalities reached an all-time high while being “steered into the dirtiest, most hazardous jobs.” He also noted personal protective equipment (PPE) often is designed to fit male workers, excluding female workers from safe work. He additionally observed that the undocumented immigrant workers often refuse to report workplace hazards to OSHA for fear of deportation.
The agency has taken specific steps to address social factors that Parker identified as root causes of injuries and illnesses and the underreporting of serious incidents. For example, on February 13, 2023, former Labor Secretary Marty Walsh signed a memorandum granting OSHA compliance officers authority...
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