Model policy: youth employment in agriculture

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  National Children's Center for Rural and Agricultural Health and Safety
• Description:
  Agricultural operations are hazardous by nature and special protections need to be in place to protect youth and untrained workers from the hazards found in specific jobs, locations, and practices. With proper job training, adequate supervision, occupational health and safety education appropriate for the age and developmental level of the learner, and consistent enforcement of work rules, farm work can provide safe and valuable introductory work experiences, and important income opportunities. In many cases, farm work may provide the only introductory employment opportunities available for adolescents. These early employment experiences are increasingly important in motivating young people to seek a career in the industry and enter college programs in farming, food processing, food marketing, landscaping, horticulture, and other agricultural disciplines. Positive early work experiences, hands-on vocational educational training opportunities, and robust post-secondary education programs in agriculture and agribusiness are critical to the future of American agriculture and continuation of our abundant, diverse, safe, and economical food supply. Ideally, youth will have developmentally- and age-appropriate agricultural work opportunities that can be performed safely and are within their physical, cognitive and emotional abilities. Young workers must be afforded extra protections from hazards or situations that would subject them to undue risk of injury or long-term health risks. The National Council of Agricultural Employers (NCAE) is the national trade association focusing exclusively on agricultural labor issues from the agricultural employer's viewpoint. Over 300 strong, NCAE members are growers, associations, and others whose business interests revolve around labor intensive agriculture. NCAE has a model workplace policy prohibiting unauthorized workers including underage children in the workplace. NCAE also has a 2010 "Youth policies in U.S. Agriculture" position paper. At the annual meeting of NCAE in Washington DC of February 2013, with 80 plus members in attendance, a panel with youth safety experts discussed the value of developing a model policy on youth employment that expands upon the earlier NCAE position statement. It was suggested that with more recent events surrounding regulatory proposals and more information about injuries experienced by youth working in agriculture, now is a good time to update, expand and promote a model position paper. Through a series of teleconference calls, in-depth discussions were undertaken of relevant voluntary standards and regulations already in use and specific areas of concern regarding job assignments for youth. All drafts and updates were reviewed by members of the 20-person task force. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Age Factors Aging Agriculture Education Farmers Food-Processing Industry Nervous System Occupational Health Safety Staff Development
• Keywords:
  Age Factors Age Groups Agricultural Agricultural Industry Agricultural Workers Cognitive Function Farm Workers Food Processing Hazards Health Protection Humans Landscape Services Workers Mental Processes Physical Capacity Physiological Factors Safety Measures Training Worker Health Workers Worker Safety Work Experience Work Practices Young Workers

  More +
• Publisher:
  Marshfield Clinic
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Report
• Place as Subject:
  OSHA Region 5 ; Wisconsin
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-5
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20048906
• Citation:
  Marshfield, WI: Marshfield Clinic, 2014 Jun; :1-5
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2014
• Performing Organization:
  Marshfield Clinic Research Foundation
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20080930
• Source Full Name:
  Model policy: youth employment in agriculture
• End Date:
  20250929
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:930c60455568f245e61fa6194979beb853ba48523a7cd9b99e4bfb53edb27e12e2a51157a0219dfa64608337d7596c2c74ca581a17a6a353151b0d6ebf413954
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/203524/cdc_203524_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 333.74 KB ]