When Sara Lambie was in her early 20s, she worked 12-hour shifts packaging fibreglass insulation on an assembly line in a factory. When fibreglass got jammed in conveyor systems or in the bagging machine, Lambie and her co-workers would have to use a pitchfork to unjam it.
“Sometimes we would have to go on top of the machinery and lean over a chain to try to reach the fibreglass that was jammed,” says Lambie. “There was not much keeping you from falling. You had to reach way out with the pitchfork to try to clear jams. And, it had to be done quickly, since more product was coming down the line and would make the jam worse.”
Sometimes, when the machine was jammed, fibreglass piled up over the workers’ heads. “The product kept coming down the conveyor either way,” says Lambie. “And if it came in contact with skin, it was very itchy.”
She would also sometimes have to lockout and clean ovens, lift products with MSD-related hazards (also known as musculoskeletal disorders – which are injuries that affect muscles, tendons, ligaments and nerves), and interact with forklifts.
While Lambie generally felt she was properly prepared for the job, since her safety training was thorough, there were still times she felt unsafe. You can help your teen stay safe at their factory job and avoid unnecessary risks by sharing these tips.
1. Ask questions
Getting clarification on the safest way to perform a job before they do it is so important. Attempting something they are unsure of can end with an injury, or worse.
“If you’re not sure how to do something – ask,” says Lambie. “It is worse to try to figure it out yourself and become injured. Your supervisor will prefer the question.”
2. Listen to your instincts
“If your gut instinct tells you that something is off – don’t do it,” says Lambie. “You are within your rights to refuse work and the law will protect you.” The right to refuse unsafe work is law in Ontario. That means your teen can’t be punished, fired or otherwise treated badly for refusing to do something that can harm them or another worker.
3. Take uniform and personal protective equipment (PPE) rules seriously
PPE should be worn as required to make your teen’s factory job safer. For Lambie, that meant wearing steel-toed boots, a baseball cap (as a form of hair net), hearing protection, an optional N95 mask and cut-resistant gloves. One major hazard of factory work is loose clothing or jewellery getting tangled in machinery and trapping the worker. If your teen is told to tuck in any loose clothes and not wear jewellery, they should heed the advice.
4. Speak up when you feel unsafe
There were many risks at Lambie’s factory job, and one of them was the environment itself. “[There was] melting glass in the factory and no AC, so it was a hot environment,” she says. But overall, the factor that made her feel the most unsafe was the drive home. She wasn’t accustomed to shift work and was exhausted by the time she was ready to clock out for the day. “Shift work was brutal for me. I was not used to that kind of shift. The 45-minute drive home was the scariest part.”
If your teen is feeling the same way about shift work, suggest they ask to switch their hours. While it’s not mandatory for their boss to agree to shift changes, it’s still important for your teen to speak up when they feel unsafe.
5. There’s no prize for putting yourself in harm’s way
“Sometimes it seems like a fun physical challenge to find a way to make a job work,” says Lambie. “I’ve been there, when putting product away on racking systems without the proper equipment to reach the shelves.” But she cautions that acting like a hero can come with dire consequences. “Stop and think about what could happen,” she says. “Broken bones? Concussion if you hit your head on the hard concrete floor? Is it worth it?”