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The report discusses and presents the outputs of a Cooperative Agreement between The University of Texas School Health Science Center at Houston School of Public Health and the Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB) and the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) at the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). The primary purpose of the Agreement was to fund UTHealth School of Public Health partially and its in-county partners to collect and make publicly available a unique data set to study quantitatively certain issues related to employment, workplace conditions, occupational health, labor rights, and work-related violence in these Central American countries: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama.

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Key Takeaways

• Half of the survey participants did not have a formalized hiring agreement, many of them did not receive written pay stubs.
• When asked about the nature of their work: 67% of workers who participated in the survey reported performing repetitive movements at their job; 38.8% reported frequent use of equipment, including instruments, tools, or machines, that can cause injury; and 24.9% reported frequently performing job tasks that require working in an uncomfortable position.
• Researchers found that 28.4% of workers who participated in the survey reported having a poor understanding of their labor rights.
• Seven percent of survey respondents reported having a union at the worksite, and 15% reported having had evaluations, measurements, or controls of the possible health risks at their jobs.
• Survey participants reported feeling unsafe at home (15%), at work (20%), in the neighborhood (23%), and on route to work (24%).

Research Gaps

• The snapshot data provided by the 2018 Central American Survey of Working Conditions and Health (ECCTS) provide a benchmark for future surveys on health and working conditions in Central America. However, periodic rounds of the ECCTS, like this one, offer the opportunity to examine the status and change of working and employment conditions and potentially related health outcomes, which can lead to better policymaking. Also, the periodical repetition of the ECCTS could help identify opportunities for intervention or examining changes over time (e.g., labor agreements and regulations that may have an effect on the type and number of employment contracts; changes in social protection rights reflecting in job benefits). (page 165)

Citation

Gimeno Ruiz de Porras, D., Delclos, G. L., Oyer-Peterson, K. (n.d.). Southwest Center for Occupational and Environmental Health (SWCOEH) and The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) School of Public Health. Working Conditions and Health in Central America: Survey Report. Chief Evaluation Office, U.S. Department of Labor.

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The Department of Labor’s (DOL) Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) sponsors independent evaluations and research, primarily conducted by external, third-party contractors in accordance with the Department of Labor Evaluation Policy and CEO’s research development process.