Young Workers
Across Europe, 18 to 24 year olds are at least 50% more likely to be injured in the workplace than more experienced workers. Behind the statistics are harrowing stories of young people having to live with the consequences of accidents and damaged health for the rest of their lives, or dying when they had so much of their lives ahead of them. On the back of these statistics the topic for the European Safety week (23rd 27th October 2006) is, not surprisingly, Young Workers.
Employers need to do more to protect young workers, and young people need to be more aware of health and safety issues when they enter the world of work.
Young people at work can be at particular risk because they lack experience, training and awareness. They need good advice information and supervision as well as suitable, safe and healthy jobs. For those under 18 years of age, including those on vocational training and work experience placements and those doing casual work while still at college, more specific regulations apply covering restrictions regarding their exposure to hazards and working hours.
Hazards Involved
The risks associated with young persons in the workplace are increased as a result of:
| • | limited risk awareness; |
| • | inexperience; and |
| • | reduced capability. |
Injury or ill-health may result from using work equipment, exposure to hazardous substances, manual handling tasks, exposure to vibration and many other workplace hazards. For example:
| • | inadequate supervision and lack of awareness of the associated risks may result in serious injury from using a saw if the guard is not properly adjusted; and |
| • | ligament damage may occur as a result of trying to lift a load which was too heavy for the young person to move without assistance. |
Legal Requirements
The current health and safety management legislation requires risk assessments to be carried out for the work activities in which young people are engaged. The outcomes of these risk assessments must be communicated to the young person, their parents/guardians and in the case of young people on work experience the school, the work experience organiser and local education authorities. The legislation requires that you, as the employer, ensure that young persons are protected from risks which are due to their:
| • | mental limitations (lack of knowledge and experience); |
| • | physical limitations (the body is not fully developed); and |
| • | immaturity (requiring further supervision). |
Other legal requirements include restrictions governing the work in which young people can be engaged.
Further legislation also governs the employment of young people. A child under the minimum school leaving age (MSLA) of 16 years of age, calculated depending on date of birthday, must not be employed in an industrial undertaking unless during work experience.
Recognised Control Measures - Risk Assessment
The young people who may be affected by the undertakings of the organisation must be identified in order for a risk assessment to be completed.
When identifying young people the following definitions should be applied:
Young Person - under 18 years of age.
Child – not over compulsory school leaving age (i.e. under 16 years).
Restriction of Work Activities for Young Persons
Current legislation requires that young people are not employed for work which:
is beyond their physical or psychological capacity;
| • | involves harmful exposure to agents which are toxic, carcinogenic, can cause genetic mutations or chronically affect human health; |
| • | involves harmful exposure to radiation; |
| • | involves the risk of accidents which it may be reasonably assumed cannot be recognised, or avoided, due to insufficient attention to safety or lack of experience or training; |
| • | involves a risk to health from extreme heat or cold, noise or vibration; |
| • | involves work in lead smelting and refining processes; |
| • | involves work in lead-acid battery manufacturing processes; |
| • | involves cleaning where the above lead processes are carried out; |
| • | could involve under 16 year olds entering rooms where explosives are made or stored or where the ingredients are stored; |
| • | would mean that under 18 year olds are employed in buildings where explosives are made or stored (unless supervised by someone over 21); |
| • | requires them to act as driver or attendant of or enter any vehicle carrying explosives; |
| • | would mean they are responsible for the security of explosives; |
| • | involves using power presses, unless they have the necessary maturity, competence and training; |
| • | involves using high-risk woodworking machines (e.g. hand-fed sawing machine - fitted with circular blade or saw blade, a planing machine when used for surfacing or a vertical spindle moulding machine) unless they have the necessary maturity, competence and training; |
| • | involves using high-risk lifting equipment (cranes, forklifts and construction site hoists) unless they have the necessary maturity, competence and training; |
| • | involves the operation of forklifts on docks premises; |
| • | includes using powered lifting equipment on dock premises unless during training and under supervision; and |
| • | additional restrictions apply to shipbuilding and repair, mines and quarries. |
Exemptions to the Legal Restrictions
Where a young person is no longer a child the regulations do not prohibit work:
| • | where it is necessary for his training; |
| • | where the young person will be supervised by a competent person; and |
| • | where the risk will be reduced to the lowest level that is reasonably practicable. |
Industry Restrictions
Industry restrictions govern the employment of young people in some industrial sectors. These restrictions include:
| • | work with compressed air; |
| • | offshore diving; |
| • | diving training, in all industries unless trained or supervised by a trained person; and |
| • | demolition work. |
Where industry restrictions apply these should be complied with and adopted as policy for your organisation.
Information, Instruction, Training and Supervision
Providing information, instruction, training and supervision ensures that safety awareness is increased and competence levels are improved. Determining the level of training and supervision required involves considering the maturity and experience of the young person.
Other Measures to Control Risks
Risks to which young people are exposed may be minimised by various measures including:
| • | introducing suitable work patterns; |
| • | reducing work rate; |
| • | getting a medical assessment of the young person before they start work; |
| • | providing health surveillance; |
| • | limiting exposure times; |
| • | modifying workstations to take account of the size of the young person; |
| • | providing guarding; |
| • | maintaining equipment; |
| • | developing and communicating safe systems of work; and |
| • | restricting access to areas or tasks where there is a high risk of violence. |
Provision of Information
Parents/guardians of young people should be informed of the risks, identified through the risk assessments undertaken, the measures put in place to control them and the procedures to be followed in the event of serious and imminent danger.
Before children under school leaving age are employed or offered work experience their parents or guardians must be provided with information concerning the risks identified in the risk assessment and the control measures used to reduce these risks.
Consent must be obtained from the parents/guardians before children under minimum school leaving age are employed.
Peninsula Comment
Youngsters leaving school to start work are classed as a vulnerable group. They are entering a strange environment that is alien to what they have known so far and have little or no built-in recognition of the dangers of machinery or equipment. They are at a stage of physical development that leaves them susceptible to a range of chemical substances and physical hazards that may cause lifelong disabilities or effects.
It is essential therefore that employers who employ young people take their health, safety and welfare seriously and ensure that additional control measures, adequate supervision, correct training and information are in place within the organisation to protect this vulnerable yet important group of workers.