The practical potential of self-advocacy for improving safety outcomes for school-aged workers

Abstract

Young workers are over-represented in workplace injury statistics and there is growing interest in addressing their vulnerability and safety exposure. Such concerns have been raised within a broader discursive framework of responsibilisation which has seen a transfer of responsibility for workplace safety from employer to worker. This article examines the potential for self-advocacy as a strategy for improving the safety of young workers through the provision of resources to articulate and act on workplace rights. The study utilises data derived from 48 group interviews involving 216 high school students (13–16 years of age) at 19 high schools in Queensland, Australia, who were asked to discuss their knowledge and experience of workplace rights and responsibilities. The limitations of the safety self-advocacy approach are explored, including the social, developmental and organisational issues that might affect the ability or willingness of school-aged workers to self-advocate. The findings reveal that the notion of self-advocacy is internalised by young people before they even enter the formal labour market but that in practice, attempts by young people to enact rights to safety are often dismissed or undermined.

Keywords:

• work
• employment
• safety self-advocacy
• responsibilisation
• student workers

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Young workers, aged 15–24 years, constitute 17% of the Australia workforce (ABS 2007). It has been estimated that 44% of 15- to 19-year-olds (Muir et al. 2009, 13) and 11% of 10- to 14-year-olds (ABS 2006, 3) participate in paid employment.

2. These findings are consistent with other industrialised nations (e.g. see Laberge and Ledoux 2011).

3. Precarious employment, including casual workers, involves work with no employment security (Mayhew and Quinlan 2002).

4. Field work for the broader study included surveys with students from the same 19 high schools. The surveys explored current working hours and conditions, work-study balance and knowledge of employment entitlements. The broader study also involved interviews with teachers, employers (of young workers), union officials, community organisation representatives and policy officials. Students also completed a short essay on their future aspirations for education work, family and leisure. Consistent with ethical requirements only students with a signed parental consent form were permitted to participate in the research.

5. The social dynamics of small and family businesses also affects the ability of young workers to self-advocate. In small family businesses, because the owners are often family members or friends of the family, it can be more difficult to raise issues than may be the case in a larger organisation where there are multiple managers and levels of management to receive a complaint (Anderson, Hannif, and Lamm 2011). This is evident in the account of a participant who was midly electrocuted while working in the bakery run by his father: ‘I got shocked.Not too badly, it was just a shock … I told Dad and he asked me how it happened and I showed him and he said, “Don’t do that again”’. (boy 14 years, food service worker)

Additional information

Funding

The research reported in this paper was funded through the Australian Research Council's Linkage Project funding scheme [project number LP0774931] and Australian Research Council Future Fellowship [project number FT120100635].