Enabling youth to advocate for workplace safety

Chin, Peter; DeLuca, Christopher; Poth, Cheryl; Chadwick, Ingrid C.; Hutchinson, Nancy L.; Munby, Hugh

doi:10.1016/j.ssci.2010.01.009

Cited by 33 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…For instance, in the province of British Columbia between 2005 and 2009, the average injury rate (per 100 workers) for young workers was 3.18 (males=4.68 and females= 1.68) compared to 2.94 for adult workers (WorkSafe (Manitoba), 2011). Some provincial governments in Canada have attempted to address young worker injuries by incorporating occupational safety education into high school curricula (Chin et al, 2010;Power & Baqee, 2010). Almost all provincial governments have developed complementary 'social marketing campaigns' for youth (Loughlin & Frone, 2004).…”

Section: Teenage Employment and Occupational Safetymentioning

confidence: 99%

Waiting for safety: Responses by young Canadian workers to unsafe work

Tucker

Turner

2013

Journal of Safety Research

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Section: Teenage Employment and Occupational Safetymentioning

confidence: 99%

Waiting for safety: Responses by young Canadian workers to unsafe work

Tucker

Turner

2013

Journal of Safety Research

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“…Injury and death among young workers is at an alarmingly high rate [20]. It was extrapolated that one in 23 young employees experience injury in the workplace in British Columbia and each week five of them are disabled permanently by workplace incidents [20].…”

Section: Health and Safety Of Young Workersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Health And Safety Of Migrant And Young Workers: Towards A Conceptual Model Of Safety Education For International Students In South Australia

Thamrin¹,

Pisaniello²,

Guerin³

2017

Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Education, Science, and Technology (ICEST 2017)

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Abstract-Despite the possibility of major under-reporting, young workers are over-represented in injury statistics. Among this group are international students, who constitute a significant and rising proportion of young migrant workers. International students may be at greater risk for occupational injury than their domestic peers because of cultural issues, language barriers, financial pressures and the nature of the work available to them. They represent a vulnerable segment of the workforce. Therefore, there is a need to better understand their risk profile and develop educational interventions to reduce risk.

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“…There is weak but conflicting evidence that education reduces workplace injuries (D'Arcy et al, 2011;Tullar et al, 2010;Waehrer and Miller, 2009;Bell and Grushecky, 2006;Burke et al, 2005;Dong et al, 2004;Kinn et al, 2000). Large numbers of new and young workers do not receive health and safety training (Smith and Mustard, 2007;Breslin et al, 2003) and the training they do receive focuses on imparting knowledge rather than developing self-advocacy skills (Chin et al, 2010;Shearn, 2006;Blair et al, 2004). Laberge et al (2014) note that OHS training for young workers often ignores how the context in which the OHS instruction takes place differs from the context in which work occurs, including the conflict between work demands and safety rules.…”

Section: Child Labour In Developed Countriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…When faced with evidence of employment illegality (Barnetson, 2009a(Barnetson, , 2010, legislators mocked the research rather than examining it (Alberta, 2011a) and subsequently argued in favour of further loosening the rules (Alberta, 2014). Government workplace safety education aimed at teens has adopted a "blame the victim" approach with little emphasis on developing self-advocacy skills (Barnetson and Foster, 2012;Chin et al, 2010) and youth-specific enforcement of employment laws has quietly been downgraded (Clark, 2013). Worker advocates privately note that the government faces little sustained or meaningful pressure regarding the (non-)enforcement of teen employment laws.…”

Section: Child Labour In Developed Countriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Prospects for Greater Enforcement of Teen Employment Laws in Alberta, Canada. “Politically, how do you make it relevant? […] Kill more young people!”

Barnetson

2015

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Summary This study uses a Delphi analysis to identify significant barriers to the development of sustained and meaningful pressure on the Alberta government to increase the enforcement of its laws regulating the employment of teenagers. In addition to general employment laws (e.g., wage payment, occupational health and safety) that appear to go broadly unenforced, Alberta also appears not to enforce laws specifying the hours during which teens may work, the occupations in which they may work and the job tasks they may perform. The result is wage theft, workplace injury and illegal forms of employment among teens. The seven Delphi panelists—a mixture of academics, trade unionists and staff members in not-for-profit agencies with an interest in employment matters—identify a tight business-government relationship as an important limit on the political opportunities available to insurgents seeking change. Insurgents must also grapple with a framing that minimizes concerns around teen employment, i.e. by framing illegal or injurious work as an educational rite of passage and complaints as whining. Together, these barriers significantly limit the opportunities to pressure the state to enhance enforcement. Panelists also noted that there is no mobilizing structure in place that teenage workers and their allies can access. Alberta’s labour movement has had limited success organizing the service sector (where most teens are employed). Some panelists suggested leveraging the widespread sexual harassment of female teen workers as a way to access existing networks and resources in feminist and labour organizations. Other panelists argued that focusing on sexual harassment would emphasize individual employers’ misbehaviour and obscure the class-based nature of inadequate enforcement. Most panelists suggested that highlighting the socially inappropriate nature of the death or serious injury of teen workers would be the best way to destabilize the existing barriers to better enforcement of employment laws. The opportunity to do so is (fortunately) rare and may be difficult to leverage. Indeed, research on high profile occupational fatalities in Canada (e.g., the Westray Mine disaster) suggests that such fatalities do not have a significant effect on state enforcement efforts. In the meantime, advocates such as organized labour and community groups may also work to alter conventional views of teen employment by supporting educational or artistic endeavours that problematize teen employment. This could include identifying the risks and consequences of the non-enforcement of laws regulating the employment of teens (such as injury and wage theft) as well as highlighting the reasons why teen workers warrant the enforcement of their workplace rights by the state.

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Enabling youth to advocate for workplace safety

Cited by 33 publications

References 16 publications

Waiting for safety: Responses by young Canadian workers to unsafe work

Waiting for safety: Responses by young Canadian workers to unsafe work

Health And Safety Of Migrant And Young Workers: Towards A Conceptual Model Of Safety Education For International Students In South Australia

The Prospects for Greater Enforcement of Teen Employment Laws in Alberta, Canada. “Politically, how do you make it relevant? […] Kill more young people!”

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