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WorkSafeBC

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Young workers need more training, orientation, and supervision

Young worker safety resources

Victoria, B.C., May 25, 2006 — As part of a provincial initiative, WorkSafeBC has joined with more than twenty employer partners to raise public awareness about young worker safety. Today’s lunch at Dunsmuir Lodge brings together Vancouver Island employers, training providers, unions and other stakeholders to focus on the specific training, orientation and supervision needed to give young workers a safe and healthy start to their careers.

According to WorkSafeBC, in 2004, 1,359 claims were accepted from young workers (aged 15 -24) on Vancouver Island; 15% of these as a result of working in restaurants. Other common industries where young workers are injured are supermarkets, retail and construction.

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 Betty Pirs, WorkSafeBC Executive Director, Prevention Services. “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 percent of the provincial labour force and thousands will be added by 2010. B.C.’s labour force is increasing at the rate of 3.4 percent 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 per-cent 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.

Reynold Hert, President and CEO, Western Forest Products, a speaker at the lunch will discuss his company’s attitude towards young worker safety. “We need to take the time to find and develop competent supervisors who understand the work and its risks, and who can empathize with young workers and, no less important, who will treat them as their own kids,” he says.

Other organizations participating in the initiative are: Capital Regional District, whose safety training program integrates practical and hands-on approaches; Catalyst Paper Corporation, where young workers are taught that doing the work and working safely are inseparable; and Farmer Construction Ltd., whose inherent safety concerns have carried over into their formal four-year apprenticeship program.

A kit of young worker safety resources 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.

For more information please contact:

Gladys Johnsen
Prevention Public Affairs Manager
WorkSafeBC
604 214-5441 or
toll-free in B.C. 1 888 621-7233, local 5441
Or cell 604 908-0876