Pick up your camera! This video contest is your chance to produce a video on the importance of working safely (and getting paid fairly) and win prize money for yourself and for your school.

You’re under 25. And you’re eager to work and contribute your ideas. Did you know that you have rights protecting you against workplace health and safety hazards, and to ensure that you are treated fairly? Employers and supervisors have duties under the law to protect you.

The It’s Your Job . . . Prevention Starts Here video contest challenges secondary school students and those who are not in secondary school (but are at least 18 years old and less than 25) to use your creativity to develop an original video to illustrate to younger workers the importance of working safely on the job or about your rights to being paid fairly for the work you do.

Here are some additional contest highlights:

1. Every province and territory (P/T)  is running a secondary school video contest during the 2012/13 school year. All will culminate in April with P/T announcements of their winners. The winners and will “compete” against each other nationally for top Canadian prizes.

2. Canadians age 18 -24 in every P/T are eligible to enter. Their contest is nationally only, meaning that they won’t have prizes within each jurisdiction, just national prizes.

3. May 5th to the 12th 2013 – NAOSH week and Education week, the TOP national secondary school videos and the TOP 18 – 24 videos will be posted on the contest YouTube site (hosted by HRSDC) for Fan Favourite voting. This is a great opportunity for all of us to encourage all Ontarians – workplace parties, employer and labour groups, parents, communities, youth, students – everyone to go to the YouTube site that week and watch the safety videos and vote for their favourite.  The videos will be fun to watch and will carry good safety messages – so a win-win for all!  Mark this in your calendar as an activity for NAOSH week.

4. National judging for our Canadian winners will be done by a panel of celebrity judges as listed on the HRSDC site.  National winners will be announced later in May 2013 and likely linked to any announcements for safe summer employment.

5. Canada’s top winning videos in each category will be entered in an international safety video contest happening in Dusseldorf, Germany in September 2013.

For more details on the contest and the contest rules, click here.

To download a contest poster, click here for English or click here for French.