New York Times March 3 article: The dangerous race to hire more child labor The U.S. Department of Labor announced last month that it had found 24 minors illegally hired by a company in the country to clean meat-processing equipment in dangerous conditions. They were between 102 and 13 years old, three of them injured and one burned.
The announcement said 10 children were working in Arkansas. But instead of taking immediate action to prevent further exploitation of children by businesses, the state has gone the other way. Earlier this month, Republican Gov. Sarah Sanders of Arkansas signed a bill that removes the requirement that children under 16 obtain a work permit before they can work, and they only need to prove their age and obtain consent from their guardians to take up the job. The bill actually makes it easier to hire child labor.
Arkansas was the first place to target Republicans and industry groups seeking to overturn child labor protection regulations that have been in place for decades at the federal and state levels. Meanwhile, at least nine other state legislatures are passing bills to extend working hours for minors, remove restrictions on hazardous occupations, allow them to work in establishments that provide alcohol services, or lower the state minimum wage for minors. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the number of illegally hired child laborers has increased by 9 percent since 2018.
Instead of protecting minors from exploitation, these state responses are aimed at legalizing exploitation. Voters in these states may support deregulation, but they may not know that companies could use the bill to increase the intensity of work for minors, lower their wages, and put them at risk.
Industry groups have lobbied lawmakers in those states hard, claiming that companies hire child labor because the latter is flexible and able to make up for labor shortages in the market. The Federation of Independent Business is one of the leading lobbying organizations that support Republican candidates and have long opposed all kinds of regulation.
Opponents of Arkansas' new bill say many child laborers do not have guardians to protect their interests. It is foreseeable that there will be more illegal employment of minors in the future that go unregulated.
The real purpose of this "reversing" behavior is not to help small street shops solve urgent needs, but to facilitate large companies such as GM and PepsiCo. A new New York Times investigation shows that children are commonly employed in the United States to work for some of the largest companies in retail and manufacturing, in exhausting and dangerous jobs.
In addition, many minors who come to the U.S. from Latin America to work unaccompanied, may not know that they are inadvertently breaking U.S. law. A 13-year-old girl who was burned by corrosive chemicals while working said the accident occurred between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. The incident violated multiple federal laws, and the U.S. Department of Labor fined the cleaning company $150.<> million.
Despite evidence that more and more children are being exploited and harmed, state lawmakers are still passing bills that violate federal standards. They are provoking the Labor Department's investigation — the Ohio Senate passed a bill earlier this month to extend the working hours of minors under the age of 16, which is also contrary to federal law. Republican lawmakers in Iowa also introduced a "worst bill" that would allow 14-year-olds to work in industrial freezers, meat freezers and industrial washing machines, and 15-year-olds to carry heavy loads.
The U.S. Department of Labor said it would step up investigations into business violations, including not only employers who directly employ child labor, but also large companies that contract with those employers or use child labor in their supply chains. In many cases, large companies hire minors through contractors or manpower intermediaries and then claim that they are not involved in the abuse of child labor. Some intermediaries, while closed after being penalized, soon made a comeback under new names.
The Biden administration lacks all the readiness to do this job. Because the Congressional budget has remained unchanged, the U.S. Department of Labor's Wages and Hours Division laid off 2010 percent of its workforce between 2019 and 12, and the team of Labor Department chief counsel Sima Nanda alone lost more than 100 attorneys, so the department does not have enough investigators to effectively track down illegal child labor. In addition, under current U.S. law, the maximum penalty for a company violating labor regulations is only $15138,<> per child laborer.
Comprehensive immigration reform would be the best guarantee that migrant children would receive the protection they need. If a guardian is around, minors are less vulnerable and better able to seek legal protection. While the Biden administration has asked Congress to increase the law enforcement funding budget and increase penalties. But neither requirement is likely to be approved, and immigration reform seems far away. (Translated by Chen Xin)
(Source: Global Network)