Most employers are fully aware of their duties under Health and Safety legislation to safeguard their employees from the hazards they may encounter in the workplace.

What many are less aware of is that inexperienced workers (typically in the age range from 15 to 24 years old) are likely to be more at risk than their older, more experienced colleagues.

Health and safety at work

It is helpful to know how people are defined by age in Health and Safety law:

“A Young Person” is anyone under the age of 18 years of age

“A Child” is anyone who has not yet reached the official age at which they may leave school, (this is often referred to as the minimum school leaving age, MSLA)

Larger organisations that employ significant numbers of graduates or school leavers on a routine basis should be aware of the need to consider young people as a special case in regard to health and safety. However, smaller organisations that may recruit very few young people or perhaps only employ them on a sporadic basis may overlook the need to give them special attention.

Causal Factors

There are all kinds of reasons why young people face greater work-related risks including, for example:

• General lack of skills and experience of the work, the tasks and the workplace
• Lack of maturity often leading to a failure to recognise risks that may be second nature to their older, more experienced workmates
• Lack of specific health and safety training, coupled with a natural tendency to ignore or not to treat seriously any training that is given. (more…)