Language Barrier Kills Workers, OSHA Says

By Daniel Hays

NU Online News Service, Aug 20, 11:00 a.m. EST, Orlando, Fla.?The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is finding that workplace deaths are on the increase among Hispanics because of language difficulties, a federal official said yesterday.

The remarks by R. Davis Layne, dep-uty assistant secretary of labor for OSHA, came at the opening of the Workers' Compensation Educational Conference here sponsored by the Florida Workers' Compensation Institute with National Underwriter and the Risk and Insurance Management Society, Inc.

Mr. Layne's mention of fatalities was made as he outlined current plans OSHA has to fulfill its mission of reducing injury and illness in the workplace.

The agency, he said, "finds language barriers have a significant impact" as a cause of workplace fatalities.

OSHA, he explained, is working to address the needs of Hispanic workers because it has found "fatalities for Hispanic workers are on the increase, primarily as the result of falls."

He said that OSHA plans to collect information about language problems for Hispanics in the workplace.

Mr. Layne gave no statistics on the amount of workplace fatalities, but he did say the 2000 workplace injury rate was the lowest on record.

He said the agency is planning to in-crease the number of workplace in-spections in the coming year, and that OSHA boss, Assistant Secretary of Labor John Henshaw has been working to "whittle down" regulatory activity and fo-cus on workable solutions.

Mr. Layne told the industry group, which has more than 7,000 participants at the conference, that "workplace safety needs a culture of change. Working together we can accomplish that."

The activities of OSHA, he said, should be viewed as a value-added process for business.

The agency has plans to issue ergonomic guidelines for long term care facilities followed by guidelines for poultry processing and retail grocery operations, Mr. Layne explained.

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Language Barrier Kills Workers, OSHA Says

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