Working teenagers are being injured at a rate twice as high as adults, according to a recent report. Young people could be required to perform work duties that put them at risk, and this fact is not known until the accident has already occurred. Parents are usually completely unaware that their child had job-related duties that are dangerous and could lead to serious or fatal injuries.
Under federal labor law, teens cannot be employed in jobs that are hazardous, but this regulation is frequently violated. Employers, according to the report, may ignore the rules, and hire underage workers to for jobs that have inherent risks. These include jobs in the food industry using meat slicers, operating machinery with safety risks, or bakery equipment, or other job that is hazardous and could endanger the child. Parents may assume that their child is in a safe environment, only to discover after an accident occurs that an employer had given the child tasks to perform that put the child at risk of injury.
Is your son or daughter safe at work? It is important to find out exactly what your child is asked to do. Parents are often shocked to discover that their child has been required to perform tasks that could lead to severe injury or death.
Many teenagers take on retail jobs over the summer or work on weekends, and when they are injured, they have the same rights as adults – the right to workers’ compensation benefits. Many of these injuries to underage workers are very severe, including serious cuts for those working in the food industry, back injuries, as well as permanent or fatal injuries.
If your child was injured at work, contact Katz, Leidman, Freund & Herman. The firm represents injured workers throughout NYC, Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens and Staten Island.