Employers put teens at risk, study says.

Many employers are violating state and federal laws by allowing teens to operate dangerous equipment, work late hours, and perform other illegal tasks, according to the first national study of teen workers' exposure to on-the-job hazards.

The study, published in the March issue of Pediatrics, was funded by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, which has reported that each year, about 230,000 teens file workers' compensation claims and another 67 die from work-related injuries. The Injury Prevention Research Center (IPRC) at the University of North Carolina conducted the study based on a 2003 telephone survey of 866 teens between 14 and 17 years old who had worked in retail and service, the largest two employment sectors for the group.

"We were particularly interested in examining violations of federal law," said Carol Runyan, lead author of the report. "What we found were fairly substantial red flags that the enforcement system isn't working."

Federal regulations prohibit teens under 18 from using certain types of dangerous equipment--such as slicers, dough mixers, box crushers, or paper balers--and serving or selling alcohol. Yet the study found that 52 percent of boys and 43 percent of girls surveyed reported having performed one or more of the prohibited tasks.

"The findings show examples of employers putting profits over safety, and it's a situation that needs to be addressed," said Kenneth Margolin, a Newton, Massachusetts-based personal injury attorney who has handled workplace injury cases and written about workplace hazards.

Federal law also prohibits teens younger than 16 to work after 7 p.m. on school nights, but 37 percent of the 16-year-olds surveyed reported doing so.

"Also, we found a number of kids who are working with limited supervision or alone at night," Runyan said. "That's the time in retail where the risk is the greatest."

"Adequate training and adult supervision would seem to be a minimum amount of care owed to working teenagers," Margolin said. He noted that many teens working alone at night are "handling a lot of money without being properly trained to do what's necessary if there's a robbery."

The study cited a 2005 Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report that found that 80 teens died at their retail or service jobs between 1998 and 2002, comprising 26 percent of teen work-related fatalities. Most were homicides from robberies. The BLS report indicated that the agriculture, forestry, and fishing industries had the most teen worker deaths in that time period.

"Although teen worker fatalities are less common in the retail and service sectors than in other sectors, nonfatal injuries in these sectors are common," the IPRC study said.

"It's not a trivial problem, yet it hasn't come to the forefront of people's attention," even though most teens will have worked in at least one job by the time they graduate from high school, Runyan said.

"Parents and teens need to be more aware of their rights as workers, and employers held accountable," she added. "My hunch is that some employers know the law but haven't enforced it."

Federal regulations set the minimum requirements employers must meet when employing teen workers. Many states have supplemental laws regarding work permits and other restrictions, but the study's findings suggest widespread lack of enforcement, Runyan said. She called on state labor departments to step up oversight and highlighted Massachusetts's recent reform efforts.

Massachusetts updated its child labor laws in January, requiring work permits for all minors--previously only 14- and 15-year-olds needed them--and mandating direct supervision for minors working after 8 p.m. to reduce their vulnerability to crime and injuries. The new law also authorized the state attorney general to fine employers who violate child labor laws.

Margolin called the changes in his state a major step in the right direction but cautioned that reform works only if a good law is backed with proper enforcement and adequate community education.

Teen workers in Massachusetts are injured at about twice the rate of adults and six have been killed at work in the last seven years--most doing jobs that were prohibited under the state's child labor laws, according to the nonprofit Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health. Yet, not one of their employers has been prosecuted for the violations that resulted in deaths, according to the organization.

Runyan and her research team conducted a parallel study with the surveyed teens' parents to gauge their level of involvement in their children's work and knowledge of current child labor laws. That study, which will be published in a few months, found that parents aren't as aware of what their teens are doing at work as they should be, but they want to learn more, Runyan said.

The research team is also in the process of conducting a comparative study of Canadian teen workers. While Canada does not have the work permit laws that 41 U.S. states have or a federal law that resembles the Fair Labor Standards Act, Runyan said, its government pays "a fair amount of attention to worker safety."

The full text of the study, Work-Related Hazards and Workplace Safety of U.S. Adolescents Employed in the Retail and Service Sectors, is available at www.pediatrics.org/cgi/doi/10.1542/peds.2006-2009 (subscription required).