As a Global News investigation shines a spotlight on construction safety in Nova Scotia, workers say fear is a factor in their silence on hazards that sometimes put their lives at risk.

It’s a workplace culture in which tattletales are ostracized and whistleblowers are blacklisted, sources explain, in the second of a three-part series on construction industry compliance and enforcement of health and safety rules in the province.

“If someone complains about safety, they’ll find another reason to fire you, so you do your job or you lose your job,” said a project supervisor in the Halifax area, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

If his identity is revealed, he told Global News, he would face “complete loss of employment.” He suspects his company has already lost thousands of dollars in contracts because he insists on work safely and that increases his project costs.

But there’s always someone else willing to do what he won’t, he added, which allows a quiet practice of putting workers at risk for higher profit to flourish in Nova Scotia.

Another source, a commercial construction manager with two decades of experience in the trades, described the province’s commercial construction industry as “the Wild West.” He too said he’d been fired for raising safety concerns and insisting on purchasing equipment that meets provincial health and safety standards.

“The grey area is where a lot of people take advantage of it too,” he said, describing his own experience bringing safety at work.

This worker also requested anonymity to protect his livelihood.

Brad Smith, executive director of the Mainland Nova Scotia Building Trades, confirmed that while unionized workers have more job security both on and off site, it’s not unheard of elsewhere in the industry for workers to pay a price for insisting on safety.

Keep reading and watch the news video on Global News