New Safety Regulations: Young or New Workers

Environment Industry employers should take note that the Employers' Advisers Office is offering free seminars province-wide on the new Young or New Worker Orientation and Training Regulations coming into effect July 26, 2007. Every employer who will be hiring young workers or new workers will need to know about WorkSafeBC's new requirements for the orientation and training of young or new workers. The free seminars begin June 4, 2007.

Effective July 26, 2007, all employers must ensure that a young or new worker is given health and safety orientation and training specific to his/her workplace before the young or new worker begins work. A young worker is defined as "any worker who is under 25 years of age," and a new worker is defined as "any worker who is new to the workplace, returning to a workplace where the hazards in that workplace have changed during the worker's absence, affected by a change in the hazards of a workplace, or relocated to a new workplace if the hazards in that workplace are different from the hazards in the worker's previous workplace." An employer must document all their orientation and training.

The new sections of the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation, sections 3.22 to 3.25, detail 13 topics that must be included in the orientation and training. Additional training must be provided if the employer observes that a young or new worker is not able to perform work tasks or work processes safely, or if a young or new worker requests additional training.

The aim of these new regulations is to reduce the injury rate for young and new workers. The injury rate of young workers is more than twice that of the overall population, and the number of serious injuries to young workers has risen since 2001. In addition, during their first month on the job all workers - regardless of age - have five to seven times the average risk of sustaining a workplace injury.

Free Seminars! To assist employers in achieving compliance with these new safety requirements, the Employers' Advisers Office, a branch of the Ministry of Labour and Citizens' Services, will be holding information sessions free of charge. For seminar dates and locations, and to register online, check out the Employers' Advisers website at: www.labour.gov.bc.ca/eao