State Supreme Court Says Immigration Status Should Not Have Been Raised in Lawsuit on Workplace Safety

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The P-I reports that the Washington State Supreme Court has found that a worker’s undocumented status should not be admitted as evidence in a case where a worker was injured on the job.

Alex Salas fell from scaffolding that was not up to code and he was severely injured. When his case was originally heard, the jury found the company negligent but they did not award Salas damages. Today the Washington Supreme Court found that allowing Sala’s immigration status to be part of the case may have the jury to be prejudiced. One California judge who worked on a similar case suggested that juries would view workplace injury as simply part of everyday risk of being an undocumented immigrant: [A jury would] “‘feel that anyone that comes into this fine country illegally, even for the motive of working (is) running the risk of getting injuries. . .That's (his) problem.’” But today the court has ruled that immigration status should not be raised in cases on workplace injury. The decision signals that employers are accountable for safety violations whether a worker is undocumented or not.

“Todays decision makes clear that all workers have the same rights to a safe workplace.  By ensuring that no group of workers gets second-class status, the Supreme Court has guaranteed a safe workplace for all of us who work for a living,” said Rebecca Smith of the National Employment Law Project in a press release from NWIRP, Legal Voice, LBAW, NELP and ACLU-WA. 

National Council of La Raza reports that Latinos have the highest rate of workplace fatalities every year and about 20 percent of deaths occur from falls like Salas’, which luckily did not result in death. Hispanic fatality rate is about 20 percent higher than whites and 18 percent higher than African-Americans. The fatality rate of Latinos in the U.S. is higher than many developing nations. Immigrants work in fields where occupational injuries are severely underreported and they work in disproportionately high risk jobs.

 Let’s applaud the Washington Supreme Court for taking a step towards making the workplace safer for all workers. Issues like making the workplace safer and upholding all workers' labor rights are just one reason why fixing our broken immigration system can’t wait.