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WorkSafeBC

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Initiatives & Research - Young Worker Strategy

Awareness Campaigns | Education Strategies | Young Worker Strategy | YW Research


Backgrounder on Young Worker Injury Prevention

What's the problem and how big is it?

  • There are over 350,000 young workers (aged 15-24) in British Columbia. They comprise approximately 16% of our workforce.
  • Injuries sustained at a young age can have life long implications. Every working day, 41 young workers are injured: one every 35 minutes. Every week, 5 young workers are permanently disabled as a result of workplace injuries. In 2006 nine young workers lost their lives.
  • Young males are at especially high risk. 80% of YW injury claims involve males, and the frequency of injury claims from young men is 62.5% higher than it is for workers as a whole.
  • Research shows that 50% of young worker injuries occur within the first 6 months on the job.
  • 74% of young workers surveyed in our recent research said they need more information about workplace health and safety. Only 1 in 4 recalled seeing, hearing or reading safety communications from the job site - or any other source - in the past year.

Prevention initiatives thus far

  • Disturbing statistics about injuries to young workers first came to light in 1989 through WorkSafeBC (Workers' Compensation Board of BC) claim analysis. The first YW safety initiative introduced by the Board (in 1990) was WorkSafeBC officer presentations to secondary school students. This was followed by development of the award-winning Student WorkSafe kindergarten to Grade 12 education programs and an annual public awareness campaign.
  • Prevention initiatives now include youth-to-youth initiatives (e.g., theatre productions, regional forums), parent-to-youth initiatives (e.g., parent resource booklet, parent speakers), teacher-to-youth initiatives (e.g., Student WorkSafe instructional kit), industry-to-youth (e.g., award for best training program for young / new workers), and direct-to-youth resources (e.g., young worker video, speakers network, Skills Canada safety awards).
  • The WorkSafeBC web site http://www2.worksafebc.com/Topics/YoungWorker/ is dedicated exclusively to the safety of young workers, linking browsers to many resources that can be downloaded for free.
  • Several industries in BC have established industry-specific organizations to support workplace health and safety. These include FISA (Forest Industry Safety Association), FARSHA (Farm and Ranch Safety and Health Association), SHAPE (Safety & Health in Arts Production & Entertainment), The Safety Network (in Road Construction), and CSABC (Construction Safety Association of British Columbia). These agencies offer safety courses and resources for self-directed studies. Employers in these sectors share costs through assessments collected by WorkSafeBC.
  • Some employers and industry training institutes are developing pre-employment safety orientation courses for people who want to work in their sector. For example, Service!Plus provides customer service training for retail job applicants, and couples that training with career planning instruction and also a half-day workplace safety module. When Metropolis partnered with BCIT in the creation of a Retail Sales Associate Fundamentals course, they did the same thing.
  • The various initiatives are working. The young worker injury rate is now sixty percent of what it was in 1994 - but still higher than the overall injury rate for workers in BC.

Three-pronged approach to young worker safety

Through extensive analysis of young worker claims data, external research, and a WorkSafeBC (Workers' Compensation Board of BC) Prevention team, the Board developed a three-pronged approach to young worker safety.

1. WorkSafeBC is developing partnerships with existing health and safety associations and/or employers and workers in the three industries where young worker claims are the highest: restaurants, supermarkets, and general retail outlets. WorkSafeBC is also developing and implementing awareness and educational programs that target these high-risk areas.

2. WorkSafeBC has created a regional strategy to reduce young worker injuries in the top five sectors within each region in B.C.

3. WorkSafeBC is working province-wide to raise public awareness and understanding of young workers' health and safety issues.

Deep Mining of Data Warehouse Transforms WorkSafeBC Thinking and Operations

This report (PDF 96 KB) tells the story of how Strategic Initiatives mined the rich resources of the new Data Warehouse to transform the Board's strategic approach to young workers. By delving through multiple layers and interconnections, Strategic Initiatives confirmed hunches and revealed surprising facets of the young worker issue. The data nuggets brought from the Data Warehouse afforded the impetus for a new young worker strategy --- a targeted, tactical approach to young worker injuries.

A Community-Based Approach to Young Worker Safety

Submission to the Tri-National Occupational Safety and Health Working Group

At WorkSafeBC (the WCB), we have a vision: workers and workplaces safe and secure from injury, illness, and disease.

PDF Document (85 KB)

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