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Labor Department Not Effectively Fighting Child Labor Violations, Witnesses Say

By Betsy Miller Kittredge on 09-23-2008, 01:53 PM in

The U.S. Department of Labor is failing to effectively enforce the nation’s child labor laws, witnesses told the Workforce Protection Subcommittee today.  According to a study by the National Consumers League, the number of child labor investigations decreased dramatically during the Bush administration: The number of child labor investigations conducted by the Labor Department in 2006 was at the lowest in at least a decade.  Meanwhile, research by the Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs, a coalition of migrant and seasonal agricultural nonprofit and public agencies, indicates that approximately 400,000 children under the age of 18 work in the fields to help support their families. While there are numerous restrictions on what dangerous job functions underage workers may perform, there are few protections if those children happen to work in agriculture.  Agricultural child labor rules have remained largely unchanged since signed into law in 1938. At that time, a quarter of all American lived on farms and the majority of the agricultural work was performed on the family farm. Unlike counterparts in other industries, minors working in agriculture are still permitted to log in more than 40 hours a week without overtime pay.

“Children at age 12 [are] not allowed to work making copies in an air-conditioned office or cleaning floors at a local store.  Yet today in America, children can legally work in harsh conditions out in the farm fields for wages sometimes below minimum wage. Exploitation of children, regardless if it’s done legally or illegally, needs to stop today.” -- Norma Flores, a former migrant farmer who began working when she was 12 years old.

“Unfortunately, all the laws and labor protections in the world won’t help if we do not adequately enforce our child labor laws.  It is clear that the Bush administration is not focused on enforcing the laws already on the books.” --  Rep. Lynn Woolsey, chair of the Workforce Protections Subcommittee.

“Much more can and must be done to better protect our young people from hazards and dangers they confront in the workplace. Child labor law is no longer a high priority for the Department of Labor.” -- Sally Greenberg, executive director of the National Consumers League.

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