Young staff at risk

WORKSAFE Victoria will target Generation Y in a campaign aimed at reducing workplace injuries and deaths involving young people.
WorkSafe Victoria’s executive director of health and safety John Merritt said that despite Victoria having the best workplace safety record in Australia, figures show that the likelihood of younger workers being admitted to hospital emergency departments compared to their older counterparts is close to double.
Figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, WorkSafe and Department of Human Services show that 15 workers aged between 15 and 24 had been killed at work in the last five years;.
Men under the age of 24 have the second highest injury rate of all age groups by gender, second only to men aged 45 to 54.
Women under the age of 24 have the highest injury rate of all female age groups, while young men aged between 15 and 19 in regional Victoria are four times more likely to be hospitalised compared to their city counterparts.
New research conducted by WorkSafe involving 1600 young workers also found that younger workers are less likely to be consulted on safety in the workplace.
They also don’t have the confidence to raise issues, may not understand or know their rights and alarmingly don’t consider workplace safety as important as road or public safety.
Mr Merritt said that many Victorian employers had good systems in place to ensure that young workers’ first experience in the workforce was a good one, but many more did not.
“What we want employers to do is provide a good induction process, proper training, and supervision and to make sure that their young workers understand the safety policies and procedures,” Mr Merritt said.