Young workers, Latino workers, new entrants to the industry, and those working for small contractors have been found to be at a higher risk for an injury or fatality than the construction workforce as a whole.  Reaching these workers and their employers can be challenging because they are often unorganized and work on very small or isolated projects. Many work in the residential sector.

CPWR is engaging researchers and other concerned stakeholders through a series of roundtable discussions and projects to identify and overcome barriers to getting critical safety and health information, tools, and resources into the hands of these workers and their employers. This document, CPWR Resources on Latino Workers, and Small Businesses in the Construction industry provides quick access to CPWR developed and CPWR-funded resources available for each category.

The following research has been conducted and information compiled in support of this work:

Latino Workers

• Pilot-testing the Safety Climate Assessment Tool (S-CAT^sc) for Small Hispanic Construction Firms
• CPWR’s Latino Construction Worker Resource Collection
• Promoting adoption of fall prevention measures among Latino workers and residential contractors: Formative research findings. American Journal of Industrial Medicine, 58: 870–879
• 2007 Conference Report on Immigrant Workers in Construction – Labor Occupational Health Program and CPWR

Women in the Trades

• Women make up a small but important part of the construction workforce. One of the challenges facing women in the trades is finding personal protective equipment (PPE) that fits properly. This is a serious issue because PPE that does not fit properly will not adequately protect against occupational hazards and may increase the risk for illnesses, injuries and death. CPWR’s “Construction Personal Protective Equipment for the Female Workforce“ provides a quick reference to help women find PPE that fits and protects.

Small Contractors

• Using Mobile Phone Marketing Technology to Increase Safety Meeting Frequency among Small Residential Construction Companies
• CPWR Literature Review and Environmental Scan for Better Translation of Research to Practice in Residential Construction
• Reaching and Influencing Small Residential Contractors’ Safety and Health Practices

Additional Research & Resources:

• COVID-19 Webinar Series: Addressing COVID-19’s Health Disparities
  July 30, 2020
  Play Recording          Download Presentation           Additional Resources
• Overlapping Vulnerabilities: The Occupational Health and Safety of Young Immigrant Workers in Small Construction Firms
• Construction r2p Partnership Toolkit
• Differences in safety training among smaller and larger construction firms with non-native workers: Evidence of overlapping vulnerabilities
• Evaluation of toolbox safety training in construction: The impact of narratives
• Improving Occupational Safety and Health Among Mexican Immigrant Workers: A Binational Collaboration
• Immigration, Work, and Health: Anthropology and the Occupational Health of Labor Immigrants
• Safety & the Diverse Workforce: Lessons From NIOSH’s Work With Latino Immigrants