Measuring Impacts: Young Worker Injury Prevention Interventions in Canada. Institute for Work & Health December 2015

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1 Measuring Impacts: Young Worker Injury Prevention Interventions in Canada Institute for Work & Health December 2015

2 Measuring Impacts: Young Worker Injury Prevention Interventions in Canada The goal of this project, funded by the ESDC Labour Program, was to develop a continuum to measure and assess workplace interventions for youth occupational injury prevention. The continuum will be comprised of an evidence-based strategy for the use of metrics to measure young worker injury prevention initiatives, and a framework that can be used to identify key indicators of youth risk of injury in the workplace. Objective 1: To develop an evidence-based strategy for the use of metrics to measure youth injury prevention initiatives for federally regulated workplaces. There are many young worker injury prevention initiatives across Canada. Several provinces have resources and initiatives aimed at young workers to help keep them safe. This project seeks to create a framework for measuring and assessing these wide-ranging initiatives and link them to the federal arena. For example, Work Safe Alberta includes interactive elearning programs with specific resources for youth, public awareness campaigns, and safety awards to recognize the work being done in occupational health and safety. In addition, WorkSafe Saskatchewan offers information for youth as well as an online training, including Young Worker Readiness Certificate Course and WHMIS Training, among others. The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS) has an online Young Workers Zone designed to engage youth and help them stay healthy and safe at work. The CCOHS provides information for young workers, parents, teacher, and employers on worker physical and mental health in order to prevent illnesses, injuries, and fatalities. This information, consolidated into an evidence-based strategy, will form the foundation for the injury prevention initiatives for federally regulated workplaces. Objective 2: To develop a framework that can be used to identify key indicators of youth risk of occupational injury and illness. By analyzing the factors that may impact youth injuries in workplaces, this project will formulate impactful conclusions in prevention. Some known contributors to youth workplace injuries stem from inexperience: being new to the workplace may pose a threat to young workers health and safety. This incorporates the risk associated with being unfamiliar with the environment and workplace hazards, as well as a potential lack of specific job training. Youth may also feel intimidated in the workplace. They may feel powerless to change their working conditions, or too shy to voice their concerns if they are new in their working environment. Young workers are also often part-time, seasonal or temporary employees which may lead to a weaker safety culture in the workplace, as well as poorer safety training. The mentality of youth workers also has an impact on their risk of being injured on the job. Many young workers have a part of the job mentality in which minor injuries as perceived as being normal and acceptable because they occur often and are not severe. These injuries include burns, cuts, scrapes and musculoskeletal injuries. How young workers perceive their workload has an effect on their risk of injuries as well. As the workload increases, youth feel rushed and overwhelmed, which may lead them to do their jobs more quickly while overlooking their safety. 1

3 Parachute Canada contracted with the Institute for Work & Health to contribute two deliverables to the project titled: Measuring Impacts: Young Worker Injury Prevention Interventions in Canada: 1. A systematic review of the published research identifying factors that are associated with the risk of injury among young workers. 2. An inventory of young worker injury prevention resources in Canada In the following pages, we provide summaries of the methods and findings of these two deliverables. We have also included a supplement section, which provides an overview of a framework for defining and measuring occupational health and safety vulnerability in the contemporary labour market. The Institute for Work & Health recommends this framework and measurement approach for assessment by the federal Labour Program as a potential metric to be applied in the federally regulated industries. 2

4 Executive Summary Deliverable1: Systematic review of the published research identifying factors that are associated with the risk of injury among young workers Review Objectives In 2013, an Institute research team published a systematic review of risk factors for non-fatal injury among young workers. The review addressed two questions: What risk factors account for young workers elevated risk for work injury compared to older workers? Among young workers, what are the risk factors for a work injury? The review was informed by two contrasting hypotheses: The employment opportunities for young people expose them to greater hazards of work injury. Young workers are less competent to assess risks and give less attention to the potential consequences of behaviors that present a risk of harm Review Methods The criteria for including studies in the review required that study subjects were included working youth (young people in paid employment) aged 12-24, and that the studies were published between 1980 and In addition, the inclusion criteria required that the study methods included a multivariate analysis with injury incidence or injury severity as the outcome and that incorporated information on the characteristics of individual young workers as well as characteristics of the workplace and employment conditions as predictors of the outcome. The review team identified 14 studies that met these criteria. Review Findings Compared to older workers, 10 of 14 population-based descriptive studies found a higher risk of work injury among young workers. 3 of 4 population-based studies based on multivariate analysis found an elevated risk of young worker injury risk. Multivariate analyses reduced the magnitude of the risk estimate, indicating that factors other than the age of workers were responsible for a portion of the higher observed injury risk among young workers. Work-related factors accounted for the largest share of the elevated risk experienced by young workers. In multivariate analysis, differences in the risk of work injury among young workers were explained by job and workplace factors. These characteristics include: tenure of employment (higher risk in shorter tenure) perceptions of work demands (high demands associated with a greater work injury risk) occupation and industry of employment (a proxy for hazard exposure) perceptions of supervisor attention to worker health protection 3

5 The overall conclusion of the review was that the observed elevated risk of work injury among younger workers is due to the concentration of hazardous employment exposures among young workers. There is very weak evidence for vulnerability attributed to the individual characteristic of being young (for example, immature socio-emotional development or weak risk assessment competency). A copy of the original review is provided in Appendix A, an extract from Health and Safety of Young Workers: Proceedings of a US and Canadian series of Symposia NIOSH Publication

6 Executive Summary Deliverable 2: Inventory of young worker injury prevention resources in Canada The accompanying Appendix B provides an inventory of programs and resources focused on the prevention of work-related injury and illness among young workers in Canada. The inventory has been completed for each provincial jurisdiction and is focused on current programs and resources ( ). For each jurisdiction, the inventory identifies the primary provincial authority that addresses the needs of young workers. Content in the inventory is identified by a url link, accessed over the period August October The inventory of programs and resources in each jurisdiction follows a common structure: OHS regulatory standards: young workers To document applicable age restrictions in each jurisdiction and to document where specific training and competency requirements have been established for young worker entry-level employment. OHS enforcement activities: young workers To document the extent to which inspection and enforcement activities give emphasis to the protection of young workers Education and training To document the extent to which a jurisdiction has established secondary school curriculum standards for occupational health and safety in preparing adolescents for participation in employment. This component of the inventory also documents specific resources developed to inform young workers of their rights and responsibilities. Information resources for young workers To document guidance materials specific to young workers. Information resources for employers To document guidance materials specific to employers of young workers Information resources for parents To document guidance materials for parents of young workers Communication campaigns / social marketing / social media To document communication campaigns or social marketing programs that specifically address the needs of young workers. Overview of the key characteristics of All provincial jurisdictions give emphasis to guidance and educational content that orient young workers to their rights and responsibilities in occupational health and safety. Workers rights include the right to refuse unsafe work, the right to participate in the workplace health and safety activities through Joint Health and Safety Committee (JHSC) or as a worker health and safety representative and the right to know and be informed of actual and potential dangers in the workplace. Workers responsibilities include the responsibility to work in compliance with OH&S acts and regulations, the responsibility to use personal protective equipment and clothing as directed by the employer and the responsibility to report workplace hazards and dangers. Relatively few jurisdictions appear to routinely focus inspection and enforcement activities on the target group of young workers. The project team did not identify any 5

7 examples of the use of financial incentives to improve employer OHS practices in the employment of young workers. Most provincial worker health protection authorities initiated focused attention on young workers in the period. The primary components of provincial young worker health protection activities emphasize information for, and communication to young workers about their rights and responsibilities, information for, and communication to, employers and supervisors concerning obligation to orient and train new workers in recognition of workplace hazards. Less consistency has been seen across provincial jurisdictions in the development of secondary school curriculum content, the use of targeted inspection and enforcement activities and the consistent use of social marketing campaigns. Among the provinces with the most extensive resources supporting the protection of young workers are British Columbia WorkSafeBC has prepared comprehensive information resources for young workers and for employers and these resources have been continuously refreshed and update. The province has developed primary and secondary school curriculum content concerning safety and safety at work. WorkSafeBC was an early innovator in the use of social marketing methods and has made continuous investments in this medium. To address the vulnerability of new workers, the province has adopted some regulatory reforms concerning the employers obligations to train new workers. Noteworthy content prepared by WorkSafeBC is the Young Worker Focus Report, published in The report provides a comprehensive look at the issues facing young workers in B.C. -- what puts them most at risk, how they are getting injured at work and why, and the responsibility that everyone has in preventing young worker injuries. Manitoba The province of Manitoba has developed comprehensive information resources for young workers and for employers and these resources are continuously refreshed. SAFE Work Manitoba has established strong relationships with NGO intermediary organizations who deliver prevention services to workplaces. The province has made moderate, and continuous investments in social marketing. Ontario Ontario made a very significant investment in young worker OHS programs and services in the period. The coherence and comprehensiveness of these programs and services was distinctive. Ontario developed strong secondary school curriculm content and innovated in the adoption of passport to safety across the secondary school system. The use of social marketing was strong in the period but was not continued. Of importance, the worker health protection priorities in Ontario re-oriented to a focus on vulnerable workers in

8 Supplemental Section Defining and measuring occupational health and safety vulnerability in the contemporary labour market Recent work completed by the Institute for Work & Health has proposed an approach to defining and measuring vulnerable workers. Vulnerable workers are those employees with higher exposures to hazardous working conditions and who lack the power to alter those conditions. Vulnerable workers include new workers, young workers, immigrants and non-permanent residents, workers in temporary employment relationships or with very low earnings and workers in inherently hazardous jobs. The framework notes that many young workers are new workers, and that short employment tenure is a prominent risk factor for work-related injury across all age groups. The increased risk of work injury among short-tenure workers is attributed to: insufficient/inadequate safety training before beginning a job, inexperience with the work environment and more hazardous working conditions. Electronic copies of two recently published reports on defining and measuring vulnerability are provided in Appendix C. 7