Research
2009 - What’s Happening to Our Children?: A Look at Child Work-Related Injury Claims in BC Over the Past 10 Years
By Helesia Luke
A First Call: BC Child and Youth Advocacy Coalition report in October 2009 report found a significant increase in the number of accepted work-place injury claims between 2004 – 2008 after the work-start age was lowered in 2003.
Key Findings
- Beginning in 2004, a year after the law was changed, accepted injury claims began to increase in all age groups examined (14 and under, 15 and 16 year-olds). The only exception was 2008 when accepted claims for 15 and 16-year-olds dropped slightly. Injury claims for children under 15 continued to increase through 2008.
- For all age groups, injury claims were significantly higher after 2005 than they were in any previous year.
- In 2008, WorkSafeBC accepted 42 claims for job-related injuries to children age 14 and under. This represents a ten-fold increase in claims over a four-year period.
- Between 2003 and 2007, 12 to 14 year olds working in the following five sectors experienced the highest rates of injury: accommodation and food services, retail, agriculture, general construction and food and beverage manufacturing.
The report looks at the potential causes of this alarming injury trend and concludes that increasing injury claims are related to increasing work force participation, lack of protection and government oversight and the effort to shift responsibility for assessing workplace safety onto parents. The report also identifies a lack of reliable information about how many children are working in BC since a permit is no longer required to hire anyone over the age of twelve.
The full report is available here.
Thanks to the BC Teacher’s Federation and the Columbia Institute for their assistance with this report.
2005 – Child and Youth Employment Standards: The Experience of Young Workers Under BC’s New Policy Regime
Lead Author Stephen McBride
This survey of working 12 to 14 year-olds found:
- 70% reported they worked without supervision some or all of the time;
- Nearly half (48%) reported that their parents had not evaluated the health and safety of the workplace;
- More than half (58%) reported that their employer did not receive written approval from their parents.
Child and Youth Employment Standards: The Experience of Young Workers Under BC’s New Policy Regime is part of the Economic Security Project, a joint research initiative of the CCPA and Simon Fraser University, funded primarily by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).
2004 – Who’s Looking Out for Our Kids? Deregulating Child Labour Law in BC
By Graham Moore and Helesia Luke
Written shortly after the law changed, the report examines the changes, and concludes that they leave children at serious risk of harm and exploitation. The changes also position BC as the most child labour-friendly jurisdiction in North America. Who’s Looking Our for Our Kids? Deregulating Child Labour Law in British Columbia, was published by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. Read the full report here.
