University of Georgia researchers said they hope to implement a grant this month to train Hispanic landscape workers and their employers to communicate more effectively.
In September the Occupational Safety and Health Administration awarded a $105,000 Susan Harwood Training Grant to the University to help train safety and landscape management to non-English speaking Hispanics working in the green industry, which includes greenhouses, nurseries and landscaping.
Alfredo Martinez, assistant professor of plant pathology, said the University's College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CAES) formed the Hispanic Specialists Group, which has been training Hispanic workers in Georgia for the past two years with limited resources.
The grant will help train workers more comprehensively, Martinez said.
The Georgia Agribusiness Council asked CAES to train the workers, and the college was asked to provide them with cultural education – the ways in which workers can learn to adapt to U.S. customs in order to be more productive.
The landscape industry's backbone work force is Hispanic, Martinez said, with 70 to 75 percent who have Hispanic backgrounds.
Most of the employers are English-speaking landscaping company owners who cannot communicate with their employees, he said.
With the new program, Safety in the Workplace: Educating Hispanic Landscape Workers, the group now will have money to develop higher quality materials and methods of training.
Mel Garber, associate dean of extension in CAES is one of the supporters of the grant and facilitators of the Hispanic Specialists Group.
"(The grant) is a product of assessing the state and the changing demographics of Hispanics," he said. "They're the fastest growing group in the state ... they're also a major portion of our agricultural commodities."
Jorge Atiles, associate dean for outreach and extension in the College of Family and Consumer Sciences, said this is the first time Georgia has received funding for training Hispanic landscape workers.
"I'm just very proud that we have this opportunity to improve the quality of life of our work force around the state," Atiles said.