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Young workers need more training, orientation, and supervision
Young worker safety resources
- Alcan (PDF 20kb)
- Canfor (PDF 61kb)
- Celtic Reforestation (PDF 22kb)
- West Fraser Timber (PDF 29kb)
- Construction fact sheet (PDF 300kb)
- Forestry fact sheet (PDF 214kb)
- Hospitality fact sheet (PDF 300kb)
- Manufacturing fact sheet (PDF 214kb)
- Retail fact sheet (PDF 214kb)
- B.C. regional notice of incidents involving young workers (PDF 63kb)
- Young worker claim hierarchy tree - Prince George (PDF 40kb)
- Young worker provincial overview 2004 (PDF 109kb)
- Young worker backgrounder (PDF 59kb)
- Preventing violence, robbery, and theft (PDF 1mb)
- Violence in the workplace
Prince George, B.C., May 16, 2006 — As part of a provincial initiative, WorkSafeBC has joined with more than twenty employer partners to raise public awareness about young worker safety at work. Today's lunch at the Civic Centre brings together local employers, training providers, unions and other stakeholders to focus on the specific training, orientation and supervision that they need.
According to WorkSafeBC, in 2004, 473 claims were accepted from young workers (aged 15-24) in the Prince George region; 13% of these as a result of working in restaurants, 7% from tree planting or cone picking and 6% were injured in sawmills.
In 2005, 11 young B.C. workers died on the job, 151 were seriously injured and more than 9,000 were injured.
At this time of year, thousands of young workers aged 15-24 will enter a new workplace or start a job for the first time — and some of them will be seriously injured or permanently disabled.
“As a community, we all have a part to play in the safety of young workers," said Vincent Russell, WorkSafeBC Director of Industry and Labour Services, today to an audience of employers, industry and labour representatives, workers and community leaders. “New and young workers deserve our attention and we all should feel a sense of responsibility for their safety — particularly when they are in very vulnerable situations such as working alone.”
B.C.'s 310,000 young workers make up 14.9 per cent of the provincial labour force and thousands are expected to be added by 2010. B.C.'s labour force is increasing at the rate of 3.4 per cent annually; but the young worker component is growing by 8.3 percent annually.
While the injury rate for young workers is more than twice that of the overall population, there has been a 33 percent reduction since 1995. While the injury rate has decreased significantly, the number of serious injuries has been trending upward in the past five years — from 114 in 2001 to 151 in 2005. In 2005 one–third of those serious injuries (including amputations, serious fractures and head or spine injuries) occurred in the manufacturing sector.
Paulo Danesin, Team Leader, Occupational Health and Safety, Northwood Pulp Mill said, “It's important for our summer students to understand that their safety is important to this company so it's a large part of the training they receive.”
Brian O'Rourke, Health and Safety Director of the USWU Local 1 - 242 spoke of the risks and hazards young workers face on a daily basis and said, “Young workers, in particular, need to understand how to exercise their workplace rights.”
Other companies who are participating in the launch are Celtic Reforestation; a company that believes safety and production are equally important, West Fraser Mills Ltd., where concentrated supervision is the key to good health and safety training and Alcan's Kitimat plant where the joint health and safety committee's motto is “No task is so important or so urgent that you can't take the time to do it safely.”
A kit of young worker safety resources and the manual will be available to those attending the lunch and will be available at www.worksafebc.com.
WorkSafeBC is an independent provincial statutory agency governed by a Board of Directors that serves nearly two million workers and about 179,000 employers. WorkSafeBC was born out of a compromise between B.C.’s workers and employers in 1917 where workers gave up the right to sue their employers and fellow workers for injuries on the job in return for a no-fault insurance program fully paid for by employers. The organization is committed to safe and healthy workplaces and to providing return-to-work rehabilitation and legislated compensation benefits.
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For more information please contact: |
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Gladys Johnsen
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