PROVIDENCE — The caller said she’d gotten a piece of glass in her eye while working at her job. To Carolina Bernal, program director of the Institute for Labor Studies & Research in Cranston, the caller’s concerns typified those of many immigrant workers who don’t know how — or are too afraid — to pursue claims for job-related injuries.

“The company told her to come in the next day,” said Bernal. “So they sent a taxi to her house, and took her to work — just to have her sit there” in order to avoid paying workers’ compensation, Bernal alleged. “She even had a doctor’s note.”

This week, bolstered by new funds , the Immigrant Workers’ Rights Project, a coalition that includes the Institute for Labor Studies & Research, the Immigrants in Action Committee at St. Teresa Church in Olneyville, and Fuerza Laboral (Power of Workers), renewed efforts to inform immigrant workers about their right to pursue claims for job-related injuries, no matter their status in this country.

“Every worker has the right to a healthy, safe environment,” said Bernal. The coalition works at educating people who are often at the bottom of the economic totem pole. Juan Garcia of the Immigrants in Action Committee and several members of Fuerza Laboral also spoke at a meeting at St. Teresa Church.

Garcia said his committee worked with two men “who had injuries and didn’t know who to talk with.” Both workers injured themselves on the same machine: one cut his fingers and the other sustained cuts to the leg from shards of metal. According to the workers, Garcia said, “all the machines were always falling apart.”

The coalition directs people to a list of reputable lawyers, but does not recommend individual lawyers because of potential conflict of interest, Bernal said. Garcia reported that one of the workers contacted a lawyer and is pursuing a workers’ compensation claim.

The campaign became full time in January, Bernal said, through grants from a program within the Rhode Island Bar Association (the Interest on Lawyers Trust Account), and a renewed grant from the International Workers’ Compensation Foundation. Bernal credits the latter organization as “putting our project as a model for the whole country,” and the state Department of Labor and Training for working closely with the coalition.

The coalition’s most recent efforts include a brochure that provides basic information on who administers the Rhode Island Workers’ Compensation Court; how that system works; who is entitled to workers’ compensation; steps to take when injured on the job; and what workers’ compensation benefits include. It also provides contact information.

The pamphlet, available in Spanish, English, Khmer and Laotian, will be distributed in the next two weeks to community agencies, hospitals, stores and community events and festivals, and will soon be available online at www.rilaborinstitute.org.

Chief Judge George E. Healey Jr., of the Rhode Island Workers’ Compensation Court, works closely with the Immigrant Workers’ Rights Project.

In a phone interview this week, Healey said he has spoken at churches and advocacy agencies, to audiences that have ranged up to 450. At those meetings, he stresses that under Rhode Island law — and in many other states — injured workers have the right to workers’ compensation, no matter whether they are in the country legally or illegally.

“It’s not related to their immigration status,” said Healey. “I’m certainly not out there asking their immigration status. I tell them to document their injuries and don’t be afraid to come to court and protect your rights. They can trust us to be fair. I tell them, ‘I’m not guaranteeing you’ll win, but I promise you’ll be heard and we’ll be fair.’”

Healey added, “This is the same process generations of workers have gone through. They come here to gain a foothold, and it’s our job to help. They have the same rights as any other worker in the state.”

Healey also tries to help people understand, and feel more comfortable with, the court.

“We realized there was a tremendous disconnect between what court was available to do and what their perception was” of how the court could help them, said Healey.

He said, for instance, that it is the court’s job to judge credibility. One measure of that includes “firmness of a handshake, and making eye contact. But to other cultures, eye contact is sign of disrespect and a handshake is considered an insult. So if somebody walked into my office and didn’t offer a handshake or make eye contact I would think negatively,” unless educated otherwise.

“There’s an educational process going on and we’re just trying to be part of it,” Healey said. “Many people, particularly from Latin American countries, have a true mistrust … because their home governments are corrupt and are not there to serve. They come to us and they have a distrust of institutions. And then there’s a language barrier, and they don’t understand we’re there to serve them.”

The coalition works to change that, said Bernal. And it also tells employers it is their responsibility “to make sure every worker is insured. Stay out of trouble. Just do the right thing.”

For more information, call the Institute for Labor Studies at (401) 463-9900; the Immigrants in Action Committee at St. Teresa Church at (401) 831-7714; Fuerza Laboral (Power of Workers) in Central Falls at (401) 725-2700.

kziner@projo.com