NEW ORLEANS – Illegal immigrants helping to rebuild this shattered city are working in hazardous conditions without protective gear and earning far less than their legal counterparts, a study says.

Nearly one-third of the illegal immigrants interviewed by researchers reported working with harmful substances and in dangerous conditions, while 19% said they were not given any protective equipment, according to the study by professors at Tulane University and the University of California at Berkeley.

Illegal immigrants also were paid significantly less – if at all – earning on average $10 an hour, compared with $16.50 for documented workers, the study said.

“What is fundamentally unfair is these are workers who have responded to a national priority to rebuild this city and yet whose rights are being violated,” the director of Berkeley’s International Human Rights Law Clinic and one of the study’s co-authors, Laurel Fletcher, said.

Under federal labor law, illegal immigrants are afforded the same health and safety protections as documented workers. And regardless of their legal status, laborers can sue most employers under the Fair Labor Standards Act for violation of the minimum wage law and overtime regulations, according to the researchers.