Mar 6 2007
According to researchers in the U.S. teenagers working part-time in retail and service jobs during the school year, do an average of 16 hours a week, often at jobs that are dangerous and unsupervised.
In a new study by researchers at the University of North Carolina, some of the working conditions found in interviews with a representative sample of 928 teenage workers violated federal law.
The researchers say youngsters are exposed to multiple hazards, use dangerous equipment despite federal prohibitions and work long hours during the school week; they are also shortchanged when it comes to consistent training and adult supervision on the job.
The study based on telephone surveys of 928 teenaged workers, 14 to 18 years old, found that 52 percent of males and 43 percent of females use dangerous equipment such box crushers and slicers, or serve and sell alcohol where it is consumed, despite federal child labour laws prohibiting these practices.
The teenagers worked an average of 16.2 hours per week during the school year, including nearly three times a week after 7 p.m. on school nights and 37 percent of those under 16 reported working after 7 p.m. on a school night.
While girls were more likely than boys to have jobs that involved handling cash thereby exposing them to robbery risks, boys had less supervision.
Homicides during robberies are the cause of up to one half of all youth fatalities in the retail trade.
Teenagers who work late are possibly subjected to interference with school or sleep, as well as being exposure to possible workplace violence that is more prevalent in the retail and service sectors than in other settings.
Lead study author Carol Runyan, Ph.D., director of UNC's Injury Prevention Research Center (IPRC) and professor of health behaviour and health education in the UNC School of Public Health, says many teens are performing tasks that are prohibited by current federal child labor laws and there are serious lapses in safety.
Dr. Runyan also says there are gaps in both safety training and supervision of working teens because approximately one-third of the teens reported not receiving any safety training, and critical areas such as what to do in case of robbery or how to deal with arguments or fights among co-workers were not addressed.
Dr. Runyan says parents need to be aware of the work their children are doing and ensure that businesses provide a safe working environment.
She has also called on physicians working with adolescents to be more aware and ask teens about work as part of standard medical practice.
The study was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health and is published in the March 1 edition of the journal Pediatrics.