The Associated Press publishes a series entitled “Children for Hire” on the continuing exploitation of children working in US agriculture.
Human Rights Watch publishes a report outlining the exploitation of children in US agriculture entitled “Fingers to the Bone: United States Failure to Protect Child Farmworkers.”
The International Labour Organization’s Convention 182 becomes international law. This convention defines and condemns the worst forms of child labor, which include slavery, forced recruitment for armed conflict, prostitution, trafficking, and any other “work which, by its nature… is likely to harm the health, safety or morals of children.”
The Children’s Act for Responsible Employment (CARE) is introduced by Senator Tom Harkin in the Senate and Representative Lucille Roybal-Allard in the House. This bill would amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to increase penalties for violations of child labor laws and repeal certain exemptions from child labor prohibitions for agricultural employment.
The United States ratifies the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution, and Child Pornography and the Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict, enacted by the UN in 2000. The Convention on the Rights of the Child has still not been ratified by the US.
[The current Congress has not yet seen the expected re- introduction of the CARE Act. The information below if for the Congress that ended in December of 2010]. The Children’s Act for Responsible Employment The Children’s Act for Responsible Employment (CARE) would extend child labor protections to U.S. agriculture. It would prohibit 12- and 13-year-olds from working in agriculture. It would extend labor protections to 14- and 15-year-olds that all other young workers currently enjoy, restricting the hours you can work and prohibiting work that is unsafe. It would also bar 16- and 17-year-olds from doing work that is none to be hazardous–as is the case in all other industries. The bill also calls for increased fines, added pesticide protections for children, and injury reporting requirements for growers when young workers are injured. (CARE), HR 3564, has 105 Cosponsors Rep. Abercrombie, Neil Rep. Baca, Joe Rep. Becerra, Xavier Rep. Berman, Howard
New law protects underage workers Fines will double under bill aimed at shoring up N.C.’s child-labor rules, which are among the nation’s weakest. By Benjamin Niolet ben.niolet@newsobserver.com Posted: Thursday, Jul. 16, 2009 https://www.newsobserver.com/2009/07/16/55759/child-labor-bill-heads-to-perdue.html
The updated list put out by the U.S. DOL regarding products that government contractors must verify are free of child labor: https://www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/ilab/ILAB20100914.htm Executive Order 13126 Executive Order 13126 [Text] [PDF] on the “Prohibition of Acquisition of Products Produced by Forced or Indentured Child Labor,” was signed on June 12, 1999. The EO is intended to ensure that federal agencies enforce laws relating to forced or indentured child labor in the procurement process. It requires the Department of Labor, in consultation with the Departments of State and Homeland Security, to publish and maintain a list of products, by country of origin, which the three Departments have a reasonable basis to believe, might have been mined, produced or manufactured by forced or indentured child labor. Under the procurement regulations implementing the Executive Order, federal contractors who supply products on a list published by the Department of Labor must certify that they have made a good faith effort to determine whether forced or indentured child labor was used to produce the items listed.
From the NY Times: July 13, 2010 Philip Morris Is Said to Benefit From Child Labor By ANDREW E. KRAMER MOSCOW — One woman said children as young as 10 working in the fields developed red rashes on their stomachs and necks as they harvested tobacco for use in cigarettes made by Philip Morris. Another migrant laborer working in the tobacco fields in Kazakhstan said a farmer confiscated her identification papers and withheld pay to force her to continue working despite dismal conditions. Human Rights Watch, the group best known for documenting governmental abuse and war crimes, plans to release a report on Wednesday showing that child and forced labor is widespread on farms that supply a cigarette factory owned by Philip Morris International in Kazakhstan, in Central Asia.
[The Department of Labor is currently reviewing the agricultural hazardous orders. In 2002, NIOSH recommended expanding Hazardous Order #8 to prohibit all work in silos. If this recommendation is moved forward, teen workers in agriculture under 16 would be protected from silo dangers, which include suffocation and toxic gases . If the CARE Act were to pass and HO #8 is also enacted as recommended, then you would have to be 18 to work in a silo. ] Families remember two teens who died in silo accident July 13, 2010 5:53 PM BARRY COUNTY, Mich. (NEWSCHANNEL 3) – New details are emerging about a tragic silo accident that killed two teens on Monday night. 17-year-old Franscisco Martinez and 18-year-old Victor Perez were inside the silo at Yankee Springs Dairy when they lost consciousness, they were pronounced dead after being taken out of the silo. Newschannel 3 spoke with family of the victims on Tuesday. The families say Frascisco Martinez had worked at the dairy for just a few months, while Victor Perez had been there for about three years. “All I can say is I miss my son,” said Victor’s father Jose Perez. “I miss my son, everywhere I look I see him.” Jose Perez says the last time he spoke to his son was Saturday night. “I told him, just be careful, […]
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