Health and Safety for Young Workers

Workers of Tomorrow takes workplace safety message to high school training programs.

Each year thousands of students in Manitoba begin their first jobs. Seeking and obtaining employment is another learning experience that prepares young people for the challenges of adulthood.

However, too many young workers are suffering workplace injuries which are traumatic, debilitating, disabling and sometimes fatal. Often these accidents occur within the first three months of employment.

In the late summer of 1999, Manitoba experienced a rash of severe workplace accidents, a couple of which resulted in death. Even now, one only has to read the paper to see frequent examples of workplace accidents happening to young people - falls, construction site injuries, convenience store or restaurant robberies

There are many examples of workplace accidents that have left young workers gravely injured or dead:

• A 20 year old, working on a drill site is knocked unconscious by a pipe wrench, suffering a fractured skull resulting in brain injury.
• A 26 year old worker's hand is crushed in a cardboard compactor.
• A 23 year old worker dies when scaffolding at an excavation site collapses.

These are just a few examples, and statistics bear out the fact that young workers between the ages of 16 and 29 are in the highest percentile for sustaining workplace injuries, injuries that range from burns, minor cuts and abrasions, to loss of limbs and sometimes, tragically the loss of life.

While these examples are tragic and startling, workplace accidents have even greater impact when they occur to members of your family, your friends or one of your students. Workplace accidents do not only hurt the worker, they hurt everyone around them.

The Workers of Tomorrow Health and Safety School Campaign is striving to reduce and prevent workplace injuries through presentations to high school students and students in training programs. These school presentations are given by volunteer speakers across Manitoba who have extensive knowledge and experience in health and safety. The presentations include:

• How to recognize workplace hazards
• Prevention of workplace accidents
• Workplace Hazardous Materials Information Systems - working with hazardous materials
• Use of personal protective equipment
• Health and Safety rights of Manitoba Workers
• The steps to take if you are injured in the workplace

It is important to know that:

• This is a province-wide Campaign funded by the Workers Compensation Board
• There is no cost
• Presentations can be trade specific if speakers are available
• There is a Teacher’s kit available
• Length of presentation averages 1-1/2 hours and includes audio/visuals and resource material
• It is generally more effective to speak with classroom of students rather than assemblies
• We feel strongly that these presentations should be accessed by all high school students.

The Workers of Tomorrow Health and Safety Campaign has been running since 1997. In the 1998/1999 School Year, 147 presentations were given to 3,611 students across Manitoba.

Mr. Eldon Montgomery, recently retired Principal of Major Pratt School in Russell, Manitoba, when evaluating the Workers of Tomorrow presentation to students there stated that "This was an excellent presentation. I would recommend it to anyone. This is a definite must for students in rural and northern Manitoba as well as for students in the city."

Please call Ellen Olfert, Campaign Co-ordinator at (204) 992-2988 or (204) 654-3366 for further information about how to bring the Workers of Tomorrow program to a classroom near you. Your can also learn more about the Workers of Tomorrow program by visiting their Web site or get information by e-mail on how to book a presentation.