The construction-related death of a Tooele man - originally from El Salvador - has opened up new insights on the issue related to the safety of Hispanic immigrant workers.

Tooele resident Francisco Antonio Alaman-Renderoz, 45, fell 25 to 35 feet while putting in a fireplace wall during construction of a private cabin in Brighton on April 2. The U.S. Occupational and Health Administration is investigating his death.

According to the OSHA, fall protection such as a safety line, a harness or a railing must be used if the construction worker is more than 6 feet off the ground.

Alaman-Renderoz, at the time of the fall, was not wearing any safety equipment.

Construction-related deaths are frequent among Hispanic workers in Utah. According to the U.S. Labor Department, there were 6,300 injuries and 1,180 deaths during construction and extraction jobs in the United States in 2005.

"Hispanics are getting injured more than anyone else, partly because they work in one of the most dangerous jobs," said Greg Summerhays from the Workers Compensation Fund, an insurance company that deals with accident policies for employers.

Summerhays said the safety trainings for Hispanics are not working as effectively as they should.

From 1992 to 2002 there was an 11 percent decrease in fatal work accidents in the general population, but in the same time range, there was a 46 percent increase on deaths among foreign-born workers.

"Training on safety is not being communicated properly,"

Summerhays said. "We are finding ways to protect them more."

According to the Pew Hispanic Center, Hispanic workers, especially those who have recently arrived are a vital part of the construction industry.

Employment in the construction industry grew by 559,000 workers in 2006. Hispanic workers, mainly foreign born, were responsible for nearly two-thirds of the increase in this industry employment.

The construction industry employed 2.9 million Hispanic workers in 2006, which accounts for 25 percent of the total employment of 11.8 million workers in the construction sector.

Tony Yapias, an activist with Proyecto Latino de Utah, said employers are the ones who should be blamed for these deaths.

"They just want to get things done and they don't appropriately enforce their safety rules," Yapias said. "There are many more cases of accidents or deaths of undocumented workers that go unreported that nobody knows about."



Copyright Brigham Young University 9 Apr 2007