Human Resource Services

Worker Safety

 

UF's Guide to Teen Worker Safety

Teen Worker Safety

Preparing Teens to Work Safely
Teens need help to work safely. Their inexperience counts against them. In fact, workers with less than one-year's experience account for almost one-third of all the workplace injuries each year. By following the (4) steps listed below, you can help to reduce the risk of accidents in your area.

Double Check Tasks
Supervisors and co-workers can help compensate for inexperience by showing teens how to do the job correctly. What may be obvious to an adult or simple common sense to an experienced employee may not be so clear to a teen tackling a task for the first time. Time spent showing a teen the best way to handle a job will be paid back threefold through:

  1. Work done correctly,
  2. Limited risk to your department's mission, and
  3. Minimal risk of injury to the teen.

To understand that training teens to work safely is a multi-step process, you must:

  1. Give them clear instructions and tell them what safety precautions to take.
  2. Ask them to repeat your instructions and give them an opportunity to ask questions.
  3. Show them how to perform the task.
  4. Then watch them while they do it, correcting any mistakes.
  5. Finally, ask if they have any additional questions.

Once young workers know what to do and have demonstrated that they can do the job right, check again later to be sure they are continuing to do the task correctly. Don't let them take short cuts with safety. Be sure, too, that supervisors and co-workers set a good example by following all the appropriate regulations as well.

Show Them How to Use Safety Equipment
The Fair Labor Standards Act prohibits young workers from doing tasks identified as particularly hazardous, including operating a motor vehicle, riding on the outside of a motor vehicle, working late at night, and using certain power tools.

This does not eliminate every hazard, however, and some teens may still need to wear protective equipment such as safety glasses, safety shoes, gloves, or hard hats, depending on the nature of their work. Be sure that teens know when they need to wear protective gear, where to find it, how to use it, and how to care for it.

In other cases, teens may simply need to know about safety protocol for equipment or facilities. For example, they should be instructed to keep exit doors free from clutter, keep safety guards in place and to turn off or disconnect equipment at the end of their workday.

Prepare Teens for Emergencies
Every worker needs to be ready to handle an emergency. You should prepare your teens to escape a fire, handle angry customers, deal with power outages -- or face any other risks that may occur in your area. Teens need to know whom to go to if they are injured and need medical care.

Establish or Update Your Area's Safety Program
A strong safety program involving every worker in your area is your best defense against workplace injuries. For help in establishing or improving your safety program, please contact Environmental Health & Safety at 392-1591or visit its web site.

Quick Look at the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)
The FLSA child labor provisions are designed to protect minors by restricting the types of jobs and the number of hours they may work.

Prohibited jobs
Seventeen hazardous non-farmjobs, as determined by the U.S. Secretary of Labor, are out of bounds for teens below the age of 18. Generally, they may not work at jobs that involve:

1. Manufacturing or storing explosives
2. Driving a motor vehicle and being an outside helper on a motor vehicle
3. Coal mining
4. Logging and sawmilling
5. Power-driven wood-working machines*
6. Exposure to radioactive substances and to ionizing radiations
7. Power-driven hoisting equipment
8. Power-driven metal-forming, punching, and shearing machines*
9. Mining, other than coal mining
10. Meat packing or processing (including power-driven meat slicing machines)
11. Power-driven bakery machines
12. Power-driven paper-products machines*
13. Manufacturing brick, tile, and related products
14. Power-driven circular saws, band saws, and guillotine shears*
15. Wrecking, demolition, and ship-breaking operations
16. Roofing operations
17. Excavation operations*

* Limited exemptions are provided for apprentices and student-learners under specified standards.

Hours limitations
1. Youths 18 or older may perform any job, whether hazardous or not, for unlimited hours, in accordance with minimum wage and overtime requirements.
2. Youths 16 and 17 years old may perform any nonhazardous job, for unlimited hours.
3. Youths 14 and 15 years old may work outside school hours in various nonmanufacturing, nonmining, nonhazardous jobs up to: ·
3 hours on a school day and 18 hours during a school week ·
8 hours on a non-school day and 40 hours during a non-school week.

Also, work must be performed between the hours of 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., except from June 1 through Labor Day, when evening hours are extended to 9 p.m.

For answers to your questions about child labor, please contact the Recruitment & Staffing at 392-2477.

UF's Teen Safety Checklist
Some tasks and tools present more of a hazard to teens than others do and many hazardous activities are limited/prohibited by the FLSA. Still, you can take some additional steps to prevent workplace injuries.

1. Understand and comply with child labor laws and university safety regulations that apply to your area. The FLSA limits the hours minors under 16 can work and prohibits employing minors under age 18 for certain hazardous occupations.

2. Stress safety to supervisors. They have the greatest opportunity to influence teens work habits. Ensure that teen workers are trained and supervised to prevent injuries/hazardous exposures.

3. Work with EH&S to develop an injury and illness prevention program and to help identify and solve safety and health problems. Many injuries can be prevented through simple work redesign.

4. Assess and eliminate hazards for adolescent workers. The FLSA* prohibits assigning teens to tasks and tools that have accounted for a large number of injuries, like: ·
Driving a car or truck ·
Operating tractors or other heavy equipment ·
Using power tools

5. Train adolescent workers to recognize hazards and use safe work practices. This is especially important since teens may have had little work experience and are at a disproportionate risk of injury.

* Click here for a full list of FLSA prohibited hazardous jobs.

 

Volunteer Workers

If non-academic volunteers assist in your area, please ensure that you comply with Florida Statutes, Chapter 110. Please complete the appropriate forms.

Volunteers: UF Regulations 6C1-3.0031

Volunteers: Florida Statutes Chapter 110

Record of Volunteer Service

Parental/Guardian Authorization for Treatment of Minors (under age 18)