Isle retail sees most
teenage injuries

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By Rod Antone
rantone@starbulletin.com

Wholesale and retail industries account for the most reported work-related injuries and illnesses among teenage workers in Hawaii, according to the state Department of Labor & Industrial Relations.

Labor officials said the category includes jobs with fast-food restaurants and automotive repair shops. According to the Labor Department's last study for the year 2000, there were 189 teenagers in those industries who were forced to stay home for at least a day due to something that happened on the job.

Coming in second is the service or tourism industry with 67 work-related injuries or illnesses. Transportation, communication and public utilities industries collectively ranked third with 31 cases.

Labor officials said there was a total of 330 reported work-related injuries and illnesses in those between the ages of 16 and 19 in 2000 and none from those within the 14- to 15-year-old range. The total number of people reporting "nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses involving days away from work" for the year 2000 is 11,114.

Labor Department officials also released worker's compensation filings for teenage workers for the year 1999. But labor officials said those numbers may not be comparable to national statistics since worker's compensation laws vary from state to state.

In 1999 there were 150 worker's compensation claims filed by 16- to 17-year-olds, according to labor officials, less than 1 percent of the 30,300 claims filed that year. The breakdown includes 26 kitchen workers, 19 counter workers, 18 stock workers and 17 sales clerks.