WorkSafe has launched a major advertising campaign targeting younger workers. The ads, on TV, radio and in print, have the stated intention of reducing ‘young workers apathy towards OHS' and seek to encourage young workers to ‘speak up’ on safety issues. This is the wrong message. Speaking up is one thing - being injured because you don't is a failing of the employer.
VTHC Young Unionist Coordinator, Danielle Archer, says the ads reinforce negative stereotypes of younger workers.
"These ads don't address the real causes of workplace injury and WorkSafe has failed to include any call to action on the ads apart from the urge for young workers to “Speak up”, which only serves to reinforce the idea that workplace safety is the individual’s responsibility. The campaign needs to provide more information for young workers to be able to act to ensure their safety."
"The ads do not reflect the research WorkSafe claims they are based on and the messages they push run counter to WorkSafe’s own guidance notes and advice on how to engage with, train and supervise young workers. Unfortunately the new ads reinforce the idea that injuries to young workers are their own fault."
The ads do not address workplace safety in any meaningful way. Instead we are subjected to high production value stories about young people doing stupid things which result in injury. The role of employers is completely ignored, training and supervision are barely mentioned and nothing is said about the right of any worker to refuse to do unsafe work.
Research conducted for WorkSafe by Sweeneys in April this year does not demonstrate that young workers are 'apathetic'. Rather it advises that young workers:
- lack knowledge of their rights at work, what to do if they got injured, and of IR and OH&S issues;
- mimic the behaviour and attitudes they observe around them from older workers and supervisors;
- had a general reluctance to speak up or ask question because they are intimidated and worried about losing their job or think their boss will think they're stupid;
- are perceived as apathetic or arrogant by employers, which the research noted was due to young workers being too intimidated and worried about looking stupid to speak up.
The ads feature ‘real-life’ stories of young people being injured in the workplace. They bear a similarity with ads produced by the Ontario WSIB in Canada for their “Prevent It” campaign. Unlike the Canadian ads, the workplace ’accidents’ depicted here are not explained as happening due to a breakdown in workplace OHS systems and make the workers appear at fault and foolish.
Feedback from young workers taken recently indicates the message they are taking from the ads is that if you get injured at work it is your fault. They paint a very negative stereotype of young workers.