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WorkSafeBC

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Raise Your Hand

Raise Your Hand campaignEveryday there are more than 350,000 workers on the job in British Columbia. They might be changing the oil in deep-fryers, planting trees in the back woods, or cleaning up debris around construction sites. While the jobs they do may differ, young workers all have one thing in common — they are at high risk of getting injured at work.

Every summer just as more young workers are entering the workforce, WorkSafeBC launches the Raise Your Hand campaign to reach out to those workers.

“The reasons young workers get hurt vary from lack of training and supervision, to simply lacking the confidence to speak up about unfamiliar or unsafe work practices. The bottom line is they get hurt because they don’t know. And the 2010 Raise Your Hand Campaign plans to change that,” says Scott McCloy, WorkSafeBC’s director of Communications.

Know your rights

This year’s campaign includes a web site, live events, and social media components. It encourages young workers to be pro-active about their own workplace safety by educating them on their three basic rights:

  • The right to know how to protect themselves
  • The right to speak up about safety concerns
  • The right to refuse unsafe work

This year on the raiseyourhand.com website, young workers also can create a slam poetry mix using the online rhythm mixer. The music tracks can then be entered in a contest to win an iPad, or one of four DJ Hero prize packs.

The Raise Your Hand street team will be out on the town over the next several months, attending high school dances and appearing at various festivals and college campuses across the province.

“In order to educate young workers about their legal rights to workplace safety, we need to meet them in the places they frequent, and engage them in the safety message speaking a language they understand,” Scott says.

For more information, visit www.RaiseYourHand.com.

 

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