Young Workers Need Legislation

Source: WorkplaceOHS
Date: 13/12/06

The NSW children's watchdog has called on the State Government to tailor OHS legislation to young workers, after finding an alarming number of injuries to workers aged under 16.

The Commission for Children and Young people survey of 11,000 NSW children aged between 12 and 16 found that 40% had been injured at work.

Of those, 7.4% sustained a serious work-related injury, which was defined as an injury that resulted in hospitalisation, required medical treatment, or an injury that resulted in time off school or work for three days or more.

Recommendations stemming from the report are due to be tabled in NSW Parliament today by the Commissioner, Gillian Calvert (more detail below).

Types of injuries

The most frequent type of injuries reported were burns (22.6%), followed by open wounds (22.1%), sprains and strains (16.0%) and superficial injuries (13.6%). Together these accounted for almost three-quarters (74.3%) of the injuries.

The survey found injuries are most commonly caused by objects coming into contact with the body, exposure to heat, and slips, trips and falls. Non-powered hand tools, appliances and hand equipment were involved in one in three injuries.

Reported examples of incidents included being pinned under bricks that had fallen off a forklift; falling off a motorbike; and a finger amputation from an angle grinder.

As in adults, agricultural work and labouring were found to be the most likely to cause injury to child workers, followed by food preparation and delivery work.

Harassment

The survey also revealed 47.8% had experienced verbal harassment, while 22.8% had experienced some form of physical harassment.

The Commission notes the likelihood of experiencing verbal or physical harassment increases with the number of hours worked, the regularity of work and the formality of work conditions.

'Given this, it is not surprising that we also found that older kids are more likely to experience harassment (they are more likely to work in formal settings and for longer hours),' the watchdog says.

'The harassment may be due to a greater emphasis on efficiency and mistake-free work. Formal work environments have hierarchical structures that increase the opportunities for harassment, or there is more opportunity to establish relationships where harassment can occur.'

The child workers most likely to report verbal harassment worked in food preparation, other food service and sports-related work.

Hours of work

The survey found that most children undertake work that can fit around their other activities - 55.9% work five hours or less per week and 26.2% work between six and 10 hours per week.

However, nearly one in 10 work more than 15 hours, with older kids more likely to work longer hours, reflecting their greater involvement in the formal labour market.

Tailor OHS laws

In response to the findings, the Commission set up a taskforce to make recommendations on children at work.

The taskforce says OHS training for workers is 'generic' and training is not usually provided with children in mind and there is 'little involvement' of young people in the development of OHS training programs at their workplace.

It recommends:

  • the NSW Government amends the OHS Regulation 2001 to give specific consideration to the health and safety needs of children and young people under the age of 18 years.

  • that targeted compliance against OHS standards continue to be undertaken by WorkCover to pre-empt injuries and harassment in industries engaging large numbers of children and young people, such as the retail, fast food, construction and labouring, agriculture, hairdressing, hospitality and entertainment industries.

  • the NSW Government in partnership with WorkCover, business, undertake a campaign specifically designed for parents and those employing children to inform them on:

  • the need to provide a safe workplace for children;

  • the risks of injury and harassment of children and young people in their work; and

  • the most effective ways to mitigate this risk.

The taskforce also recommends further research specifically on young workers and OHS be carried out by the ABS and WorkCover.

Source: Workplace OHS 14/12/2006