Cuts to federal funding could lead to fewer Occupational Safety and Health Administration inspectors and scaled-back regulations.
The Department of Government Efficiency's cuts could endanger migrant workers, a legal expert told Newsweek.Samuel Pond, a founding and managing partner of Pond Lehocky Giordano, said migrants already faced higher risks of workplace injury, and looming DOGE cuts could threaten their safety further.
Newsweek has contacted the Department of Labor for comment via email.Why It MattersDOGE, led by billionaire tech CEO Elon Musk, has been tasked with cutting the federal workforce and reducing government spending. An aggressive push to slash federal funding could lead to fewer Occupational Safety and Health Administration inspectors and a scaled-back set of regulations, which could translate to weaker enforcement and potentially increase workplace risks.According to a public database maintained by OSHA, Musk's SpaceX, Tesla and the Boring Company are involved in more than 50 active workplace health and safety cases initiated by the agency in the past five years. OSHA, which is part of the Department of Labor, has had DOGE operatives working within its jurisdiction.What To Know'Many of the employers that hire migrants have historically been the worst offenders of safety regulations and lack safety programs or don't even have basic safety measures in place,' Pond said.'At the state level, if funding for labor and industry departments loses federal funding, many employers will not even carry workers' comp insurance since there is no enforcement,' he continued, adding, 'Cleary, cuts in OSHA would have an effect.'According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2023, the construction industry experienced 1,075 fatal work injuries, resulting in a fatal injury rate of 9.6 per 100,000 full-time equivalent workers. This rate is significantly higher than the national average of 3.5 per 100,000 FTEs across all industries.Immigrant workers play a key role in the U.S. construction industry, representing about 25 percent of the construction workforce nationally.According to an AFL-CIO report released last April, there has been a rise in workplace fatalities among Latino workers. In 2022, 1,248 Latino workers died on the job, a 44 percent increase compared to 2003. The report noted that 60 percent of the Latino workers who lost their lives were immigrants.The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that 727 foreign-born Hispanic or Latino workers died from work-related injuries in 2021. This group represented 14 percent of all workplace deaths, despite comprising 8.2 percent of the workforce.Last month, as part of a sweeping $577 million rollback, DOGE dismantled international labor rights programs under the Bureau of International Labor Affairs that had helped fight child labor and uphold labor standards in foreign supply chains.What People Are SayingSamuel Pond, a founding and managing partner of Pond Lehocky Giordano, told Newsweek: 'We have clearly seen it in the behavior of migrant workers; claims have dropped significantly, and they are afraid to appear in court to protect their benefits. They have due process rights, but fear has had them abandon them enforcing those rights.'What Happens NextDOGE is expected to make further cuts to the federal government and the Department of Labor.
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