Young Worker Fatalities and Violations of Labor and Safety Regulations: Moving To

描述(申请人提供)：近年来，美国劳工法规的执行情况一直在下降，每年违反童工的人数高达数十万人，在减少年轻工人职业死亡人数方面进展甚微。有证据表明，当青年被非法雇用时，可能会发生非致命伤害，但很少有研究关注致命的年轻工人伤害与违反劳动和安全规定之间的关系。了解这一问题并制定改进策略是这项研究的目标，也是解决国家职业研究议程(NARA)长期关注的创伤和年轻工人这一特殊风险人群的目标。为实现这一目标，该研究将采取创新的混合方法方法，将调查结果带到实地，并与当地利益攸关方(即执法和公共卫生官员)接触，以影响地方一级的变化，这一方法有助于国家职业安全与健康研究所的研究-实践倡议。这项研究的第一个目的是利用北卡罗来纳州法医系统内现有的优秀数据，了解违反童工法律和/或健康和安全标准与青少年职业死亡的关系。北卡罗来纳州法医系统是全国最好的系统之一，由400名法医组成，他们对死亡进行彻底调查，并将调查结果报告给首席法医办公室，首席法医办公室保存着调查数据。第二个目的是通过审查联邦和北卡罗来纳州监管机构对已查明的年轻工人死亡事件进行的调查的范围和性质，探讨目前的执行环境可能如何影响这种关系。这些数据是公共记录，可根据要求向有关当局索取。最后一个目标是通过重点小组、深入访谈和多组织顶峰会议，确定当前执法方面的挑战，并制定战略，通过与当地一系列利益攸关方接触，克服这些挑战，改善对青年工人的保护。这项研究将促进我们对最严重的职业伤害和死亡的深入了解，扩大对北卡罗来纳州年轻工人的早期研究，并增加一个创新的组成部分--使用参与性方法来分享我们的研究结果，并与利益攸关方一起制定预防战略。这项工作符合NIOSH的战略目标，即通过干预措施、建议和能力建设促进安全和健康的工作场所，以及NORA呼吁多个专业学科、行业、机构和团体之间的合作，它认识到这对制定和实施预防战略以减少职业伤害至关重要。这项研究以北卡罗来纳州为基础，对于在减少我们最年轻和高度脆弱的工人中的致命和非致命伤害方面面临类似挑战的其他司法管辖区具有相关性。这项研究促进了我们对最严重的职业伤害和死亡的理解的深入，在美国，青少年每周都会发生一起以上的职业伤害和死亡。该项目将调查青少年职业死亡与违反劳动和安全法规之间的关系。然后，它将利用这些调查结果向当地利益攸关方提供信息并使其参与进来，以改进执法和遵守条例，以便更好地保护年轻工人的健康和生命。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): In recent years, enforcement of US labor regulations has been on the decline, child labor violations number in the hundreds of thousands annually, and little progress has been made in reducing the number of young worker occupational fatalities. Evidence shows that non-fatal injuries can occur when youth are illegally employed yet little research has looked at the relationship between fatal young worker injuries and labor and safety violations. Understanding this problem and generating strategies for improvements are the goals of this study and are ones that address the National Occupational Research Agenda's (NORA) longstanding focus on traumatic injury and young workers as a special population at risk. To achieve this goal, the study will take an innovative mixed-methods approach that involves taking the findings into the field and engaging with local stakeholders (i.e., enforcement and public health officials) to affect change at the local level an approach that contributes to the Research-to-Practice initiative of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. The first aim of the study is to understand the extent to which violations of child labor laws and/or health and safety standards are related to adolescent occupational fatalities by capitalizing on the excellent data available within the North Carolina medical examiner system - one of the nation's best - consisting of 400 examiners who carry out thorough investigations of fatalities and report these findings to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner where investigation data are housed. The second aim is to explore how the current enforcement environment might have an impact on this relationship by examining the extent and nature of investigations carried out by federal and NC regulatory agencies on identified young worker fatalities. These data are public record and available from the respective authorities upon request. The last aim is to identify current challenges in enforcement and develop strategies to overcome these challenges and improve the protection of young workers by engaging with a range of local stakeholders through focus groups, in-depth interviews, and a multi-organizational capstone meeting. This study will advance the depth of our understanding of the most serious occupational injuries, fatalities, extending earlier research on young workers in NC and adding an innovative component - the use of participatory methods to share our findings and engage with stakeholders to develop prevention strategies. This work addresses the NIOSH strategic goal to promote safe and healthy workplaces through interventions, recommendations and capacity building and NORA's call for collaboration among multiple professional disciplines, industries, agencies, and groups, which it recognizes as being essential to the development and implementation of prevention strategies to reduce occupational injuries. Based in NC, this study has relevance to other jurisdictions facing similar challenges in reducing fatal and non-fatal injuries among our youngest and highly vulnerable workers. This research advances the depth of our understanding of the most serious occupational injuries, fatalities, which occur among adolescents at a rate of more than one every week in the US. This project will investigate the relationship between adolescent occupational fatalities and violations of labor and safety regulations. It will then use these findings to inform and engage local stakeholders to improve enforcement and compliance with regulations in order to better protect the health and lives of young workers.