Employers owe all employees a duty of care for their health, safety and welfare while they are at work.

This is a duty of care that is personal to the specific needs of each and every individual employee. Some employees may require a greater duty of care than others. Categories of vulnerable employees who will require an extra duty of care include disabled workers, pregnant workers, young persons, those with learning difficulties, anyone suffering from an illness which may affect their own safety.

A Young person is defined as anyone under 18 years old. A Child is anyone who has not yet reached the official age at which they may leave school, just before or just after their 16th birthday - often referred to as the minimum school leaving age (MSLA). (Refer to previous article in ESsential News entitled “Children in the Workplace”)

The employer must put in place measures to control the risks which will remove them altogether or reduce them to the lowest possible level;

The overall rule is that a young person must not be allowed to do work which:

• cannot be adapted to meet any physical or mental limitations they may have;
• exposes them to radiation or substances which are toxic or cause cancer;
• involves extreme heat, noise or vibration.
• involves risks which may not be recognised due to their lack of attention or inexperience.

Young people who are over the MSLA can do this work under very special circumstances, which are:

• the work is necessary for their training;
• the work is properly supervised by a competent person;
• and the risks are reduced to the lowest level, so far as is reasonably practicable.

Note: these are very special circumstances and should not normally be considered as a means to allow a young person to cover for the duties normally carried out by a trained adult.

Under health and safety law, it is a requirement to assess the risks to young people under 18 years old, before they start work and tell them what the risks are. You may be able to use or adapt a general risk assessment for young people who are doing the same job. But in all cases you will need to:

• cover all circumstances as previously referred to.
• keep the risk assessment up to date.
• review the risks if you have reason to believe that controls in the original assessment are no longer satisfactory.

The statistics for accidents involving under 18’s are not good. There were 54 fatalities between 1996-2001. HSE will always vigorously pursue any employer where a young person has been injured or suffered ill health due to work related circumstances.

Example: HSE recently successfully prosecuted a company, responsible for finding work placements for children, for not carrying out a young persons risk assessment. A 14 year old schoolboy was on work experience in a garage retrieving petrol from a fuel tank when he was left unsupervised, sprayed his clothes with petrol which then caught fire. He was fortunate only to suffer from minor burns. The placement company were given a one-year conditional discharge with £22,000 costs. The garage was fined £3,500 with £1,500 costs.