Deterring Worker Complaints Worsens Workplace Safety: Evidence from Immigration Enforcement

Regulatory agencies overseeing the labor market often rely on worker complaints to guide their enforcement work. However, as the authors of this paper point out, if certain workers face barriers to complain, this system could result in misplaced and ineffective enforcement efforts and create disparities in working conditions. To investigate these connections, the authors examine how the introduction of the Secure Communities program—a localized immigration enforcement program—affected occupational safety and health. They found that the participation of counties in Secure Communities substantially reduced complaints to government safety regulators, resulting in a rise of injuries at workplaces with Hispanic workers.  In response to worker fear and reluctance to complain, employers disregarded worker safety regulations leading to a deterioration in workplace safety. The authors recommend that agencies develop ways to enable workers to make complaints in a way that is truly anonymous and hidden from their employers. Additionally, agencies could provide formal guarantees for immigrant workers that filing a complaint will not trigger an investigation into their immigration status.

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