Labor, organizational, and regulatory conditions as psychosocial stressors among Latino/a immigrant workers in Baltimore

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES: Psychological and social demands are increasingly recognized as workplace stressors, along with physical and environmental hazards. To explore this comprehensive set of threats in Baltimore's Latino worker community, we performed an exploratory qualitative study through a community-academic partnership.

METHODS: Four focus groups with workers (n=18) and key informant interviews with community leaders (n=9) were conducted with tools developed in a collaboration between academic and community partners. Using thematic analysis to explore Latino/a immigrants' jobs, awareness of work hazards, and illnesses and injuries from work, we strongly considered psychosocial factors and their influence on behaviors such as injury reporting, care seeking, and taking preventative actions. The leaders were also asked about the political climate toward workers in Baltimore.

RESULTS: Approximately half of the participants were women and two-thirds had less than nine years of education. Similarly, two-thirds lived below the U.S. federal poverty guidelines. In addition to physical and chemical hazards, stressors noted by participants included: uneven enforcement of OSHA laws for temporary workers and smaller work sites; inaccessibility of information regarding workers' rights; and limited means to encourage reporting. Consequences included threats of physical, economic and sexual abuse, and overall anxiety. Leaders stressed the importance of community alliances and coalitions of diverse organizations to empower Latinos to proactively engage in occupational safety and health efforts.

CONCLUSION: We identified legal, economic, and cultural constraints that constitute psychosocial risk factors for Latino/a workers. Approaches to ameliorating these risks may lie in the improvement of labor, organizational and regulatory conditions.