Young worker woes worry MEPs
July 21st 2008

Three MEPs have called for more to be done to prevent young workers coming to harm when they first enter the workplace.

Chris Heaton-Harris, Conservative MEP and Derek Clark, UK Independence Party MEP, for the East Midlands, and Jean Lambert, Green MEP for London, recently visited the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH), along with Conservative East Midlands MEP Roger Helmer, and heard about the high numbers of young people leaving school without any understanding of the dangers that exist in the workplace.

They were told about IOSH’s ‘Putting young workers first’ campaign, and the Workplace Hazard Awareness Course (WHAC), which IOSH produced in conjunction with the HSE which is designed for year 10 students and is available free to schools, colleges and trainers.

Chris, who is bidding to become MP for Daventry at the next general election, said: “It is our responsibility to ensure that our young people are adequately prepared for starting work. With 64 under-19s killed in the workplace in the last decade and a further 15,000 suffering major injuries, this is clearly a matter which requires prompt attention.

“IOSH’s ‘Putting young workers first’ campaign is an important step towards ensuring that no more young lives are lost or harmed due to a lack of proper training, and I will be addressing its aims with my colleagues in the European Parliament.”

Derek added: “Educating young people on workplace risks is of great importance, as too many lives are being currently lost or affected in the EU due to poor health and safety training.

“With fewer technical courses in schools nowadays, young people do not have the opportunity to gain a basic awareness of health and safety. IOSH’s campaign is importantly filling the gap created by this in striving to teach this group the basic knowledge that they may have missed out on.”

Jean added: “Young people are one of the most vulnerable groups of employees, due to a lack of awareness, training and experience. We must address this in order to stem the number of fatalities and injuries that they suffer as a result.

“I support IOSH’s plan to address this lack of training. If we want to safeguard the next generation, our national and EU-level programmes must take the workplace issues faced by young people seriously.”

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