Young employees as a target group in working environment measures – pros and cons

Abstract

It is well-known that young employees, between 18 and 24 years of age, have a higher risk of injuries at work compared with their older colleges. This is one of the reasons that young and new employees were chosen to be a specific target group for the Danish government’s strategy for working environment efforts up to year 2020. However, it is not a new phenomenon that young employees are pointed out as a special target group for working environment initiatives. In fact, the first of all Danish work environment legislations, The Factory Act from 1873, was aimed solely at reducing the hazardous working conditions of children and young people. In this article we show that young people throughout the Danish working environment history have been designated as a special focus area, but that it has shifted from mainly structural measures to more individually oriented initiatives. In parallel to this, the duration of the youth period has extended, because of longer educations, which is also reflected in health and safety strategies where the group of 18-24 year olds are now a specific target group. By participating in a seminar organized by the main partners influencing the working environment in Denmark, we investigated the discursive practices relating to the prevention and targeting of young employees’ higher risk of injuries. This case illustrated how the group of young employees is constructed as a target for preventive measures through current work environment initiatives and dominating discourses of the ‘young employee’. The article argues that targeting young employees as an object of prevention might have potential for a greater understanding of the risky work situations which young employees between 18 and 24 years are subjected to. However, the article shows that targeting the group of ‘young employees’, as an object of prevention, apparently appeals to a number of dominating discourses of youth. These discourses tend to constitute the group of young employees as a homogeneous group with common characteristics, i.e., inexperienced with a greater tendency of risk taking, than their older colleagues. This might lead to over-emphasizing the risky behavior and lack of experience of those who currently fall within the group of ’young employees’ at the expense of young people’s working conditions and the relationships they form part of at the workplace. It is concluded that the dominating discourses of youth can be a serious barrier for the development of effective measures for prevention for young employees’ increased risk of injuries.