Citation

Mayhew C. Pol. Pract. Health Saf. 2004; 2(2): 5-24.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2004, Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (Great Britain))

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Over the past decade there has been an escalating debate about the extent to which labour process factors increase vulnerability to occupational safety and health hazards and risks. Included in this debate are the following issues: the extent to which precariously employed workers have restricted access to preventive information; the mechanisms by which contractors/subcontractors are economically encouraged to work excessively long shifts; and the restrictions that are placed formally or informally on access to preventive training. At the same time there has been a quite separate debate within agencies of the United Nations about the negative health and safety consequences associated with the employment of children and adolescents. Further, in an entirely different arena, debate has focused on identification of the risks of occupational violence. To date, these debates about hazard and risk exposures have been evaluated in distinct scientific studies with separate analyses of exposures, at-risk working populations and employment categories. In this paper, these separate debates are drawn together. The central focus of the paper is identification of the risk of exposure to occupational violence among adolescent workers in industrialised countries. The discussion begins with a brief review of the health and safety risks associated with precarious employment in general. This is followed by an assessment of the extent to which adolescents participate in the labour force and an outline of the particular risks faced by teenage workers. Empirical evidence is then presented from a series of occupational violence studies conducted in a range of different industry sectors, and some arguments about incidence patterns and vulnerabilities published in an earlier issue of this journal are developed further to focus more tightly on adolescent workers. The author argues that the probability of experiencing an occupational violence event is increased when workers are adolescent, precariously employed, inexperienced in the workforce, and employed in service sector jobs that require significant amounts of face-toface contact with customers - particularly if these job tasks require the exchange of money for goods and services. However, if adolescents are working illegally, informally in family businesses or formally in casual positions that are very precarious, occupational violence is unlikely to be reported or recorded, and hence preventive interventions are unlikely. The author concludes by examining a range of policy approaches that can be adopted to reduce the risks of occupational violence and to enhance the implementation of preventive interventions that may help protect adolescent workers.