Changing construction contractors attitudes and safety practices to improve safety climate for hispanic construction workers

Background: Hispanic construction workers are disproportionately impacted by work-related injuries and illnesses. We used a community-based participatory research process to better understanding and address this problem. A community-university-labor partnership, “Protección en Construcción (PenC): Lawrence Latino Safety Partnership” was established in Lawrence, MA to research ways to prevent falls and silica dust exposure affecting Latino construction workers. PenC created the Leaders in Safe Construction (LISC) training program to provide small, mainly residential contractors with skills, knowledge and motivation to improve conditions on their worksites. Methods: Surveys and focus groups indicated that safety climate problems, including pressure to work fast and lack of effective communication, contributed hazardous conditions. We developed a 5-hour Construction Supervisor training to improve safety climate and reduce injuries by promoting safety leadership among contractors and supervisors. A pre-post training evaluation was used to measure changes in participants' knowledge as well as a follow up survey to explore changes on attitudes and safety practices. Results: Close to 100 participants, mainly contractors and field supervisors were trained in English and Spanish. Evaluation scores improved 26% on average post-training. The three-six month follow-up survey showed significant impact in contractors' attitudes toward safety leadership, fall prevention activities on site, and ability to communicate with Hispanic workers. Conclusion: Construction safety interventions aimed at improving contractor leadership on safety may lead to better safety climate for all workers and help mitigate the factors that disproportionately impact Hispanic construction workers.