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Archive for category: U.S. DOL

You are here: Home1 / Child Labor - US2 / U.S. DOL

The United States Department of Labor is a Cabinet department of the United States government responsible for occupational safety and wage and hour standards, including enforcing the nation’s child labor laws. In carrying out this mission and other responsibilities, the Department of Labor administers and enforces more than 180 federal laws. These mandates and the regulations that implement them cover many workplace activities for about 10 million employers and 125 million workers.

Report Traces Goods Made with Child Labor to 76 Countries

September 26, 2018/in Viewpoint, U.S. DOL, Gold /by CLC Member

Of the products we use, wear, or consume every day, how many are made with child labor? Perhaps quite a few. A new report from the US Department of Labor identifies 148 different consumer goods produced with child or forced labor around the world. The list includes clothing, beef, sugar, bricks, coffee, and other products originating from 76 countries.

Gold tops the list. The report found that in at least 21 countries, children help mine gold, climbing into unstable shafts, carrying and crushing heavy loads of ore, and often using toxic mercury to process the gold. My colleagues and I have seen how dangerous this work can be, documenting the risks child miners face in Ghana, Philippines, Tanzania, and Mali.

Tobacco produced with child labor originates from at least 16 countries, placing it in the report’s top five. Child tobacco workers often labor in extreme heat, are exposed to dangerous pesticides, and risk nicotine poisoning from handling tobacco plants. In our investigations, children in the United States, Indonesia, and Zimbabwe have described nausea, vomiting, headaches, and dizziness while working in tobacco fields.

Governments, companies, and consumers share responsibility to end child labor. Governments should monitor and enforce their labor laws and provide children with good-quality, free education.

For children old enough to work, both governments and companies should ensure their jobs do not risk anyone’s health or safety. Companies should also monitor their supply chains, report on their efforts, and when child labor is found, transition these children to school or safe alternatives.

… Read the rest
https://stopchildlabor.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/logo-enfold.png 0 0 CLC Member https://stopchildlabor.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/logo-enfold.png CLC Member2018-09-26 13:00:172018-09-25 18:12:34Report Traces Goods Made with Child Labor to 76 Countries

International Labour Organizaton (ILO) Experts Comment on U.S. Government Efforts to Implement Convention 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labor

April 7, 2017/in Child Labor - US, Viewpoint, U.S. DOL, Children in Agriculture, Children in the Fields Campaign /by CLC Contributor
[Adopted in 2016 and published in 2017]
 
Articles 4(1), 5 and 7(1) of the Convention. Determination of types of hazardous work, monitoring mechanisms and penalties. Hazardous work in agriculture from 16 years of age. The Committee previously noted that section 213 of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) permits children aged 16 years and above to undertake, in the agricultural sector, occupations declared to be hazardous or detrimental to their health or well-being by the Secretary of Labor. The Government, referring to Paragraph 4 of the Worst Forms of Child Labour Recommendation, 1999 (No. 190), stated that Congress considered it as safe and appropriate for children from the age of 16 years to perform work in the agricultural sector. However, the Committee noted the allegation of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) that a significant number of children under 18 years were employed in agriculture under dangerous conditions, including long hours and exposure to pesticides, with risk of serious injury. The Committee also took note of the observations of the International Organisation of Employers (IOE) and the United States Council for International Business (USCIB) that section 213 of the FLSA, which was the product of extensive consultation with the social partners, is in compliance with the text of the Convention and Paragraph 4 of Recommendation No. 190.
 
The Committee took note that the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) continued to focus on improving the safety of children working in agriculture and protecting the greatest number of agricultural workers. In addition, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) increased its focus on agriculture by creating the Office of Maritime and Agriculture (OMA) in 2012, which is responsible for the planning, development and publication of safety and health regulations covering workers in the agricultural industry, as well as guidance documents on specific topics, such as ladder safety in orchards and tractor safety.
 

Read more

https://stopchildlabor.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/logo-enfold.png 0 0 CLC Contributor https://stopchildlabor.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/logo-enfold.png CLC Contributor2017-04-07 16:41:122019-08-07 16:44:21International Labour Organizaton (ILO) Experts Comment on U.S. Government Efforts to Implement Convention 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labor

Jim Leonard Remembers Claire White, Recipient of the National Consumer League’s Florence Kelley Award

September 10, 2016/in Recent News, Enforcement--US, U.S. DOL /by CLC Contributor

REMARKS BY JIM LEONARD AT THE

CELEBRATION OF CLAIRE WHITE’S LIFE

Jim Leonard, retired attorney with the US Department of Labor and a long-time colleague of Claire White made the following remarks at a ceremony celebrating her life on September 10, 2016:

The most important thing about Claire White, as I see it, and as I think all of you see it, if that you just couldn’t help loving her.  Her human warmth, her many kindnesses, and her amazing empathetic eyes were, to me at any rate, what most endeared her to all of us.

This gathering is a very emotional time.  But the emotion we are focusing on here is not our profound sorrow at Claire’s passing, but instead the pleasure we feel in recalling and celebrating her life.

Quite a few others will be talking today about Claire, so I want to keep my remarks short.  So here are two scenes from Claire’s life that some or even all of you may not recall or even know about.

The first scene dates from the late 1970s, when Claire came to the Department of Labor for a job interview in the Fair Labor Standards Division of the Solicitor’s Office.  I was the first person to interview her.  She also had interviews some other lawyers, and I did not have the final say on whether to hire her, but I was glad that we made her an offer and that she accepted.  Many years later, Claire wrote me a letter saying that she loved the “comfort level” and the “non-threatening environment” that she felt during the interviews. … Read the rest

https://stopchildlabor.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/logo-enfold.png 0 0 CLC Contributor https://stopchildlabor.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/logo-enfold.png CLC Contributor2016-09-10 17:45:152016-10-31 17:59:29Jim Leonard Remembers Claire White, Recipient of the National Consumer League’s Florence Kelley Award

Child Labor Coalition Press Release: 110 groups urge President Obama to enact an immediate ban on child labor in U.S. tobacco

August 5, 2016/in Recent News, U.S. DOL, US Campaigns /by Reid Maki

For immediate release: August 3, 2016
Contact: Reid Maki, Child Labor Coalition, (202) 207-2820, reidm@nclnet.org

Washington, DC—A letter signed by 110 groups, representing tens of millions of Americans, is urging President Obama to protect the most vulnerable workers in America by banning child labor in U.S. tobacco before he leaves office. “Children should not be harvesting a crop that routinely makes them sick from nicotine poisoning,” said Sally Greenberg, co-chair of the Child Labor Coalition (CLC) and the executive director of the National Consumers League. “In 2012, under strong pressure from the agriculture lobby, the Obama administration withdrew long-overdue occupational protections for child farmworkers that would have banned child labor in tobacco while providing a host of life-saving protections. We call on President Obama to rectify this decision and at last protect child tobacco workers from the dangers of nicotine poisoning.”

Consistent with our efforts, on May 5, the Federal Drug Administration announced new regulations prohibiting the sale of e-cigarettes to children. In announcing the new regulations, the Secretary of Health and Human Services Sylvia Mathews Burwell stated, ‘We’ve agreed for many years that nicotine does not belong in the hands of children.” Despite this concern, the Obama Administration has not yet taken appropriate steps to protect child tobacco workers from nicotine poisoning in the fields.

“If Brazil and India can ban child tobacco work, the U.S. can too,” said Norma Flores López, chair of the CLC’s Domestic Issues Committee. “We call on the Obama Administration to take action on behalf of powerless child tobacco workers because it is the right thing to do.… Read the rest

https://stopchildlabor.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/logo-enfold.png 0 0 Reid Maki https://stopchildlabor.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/logo-enfold.png Reid Maki2016-08-05 10:34:502016-08-05 17:49:08Child Labor Coalition Press Release: 110 groups urge President Obama to enact an immediate ban on child labor in U.S. tobacco
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Child Soldiers

The countries identified by the US government in 2018 as using child soldiers: Burma, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iran, Iraq, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria and Yemen.  

Hazardous Labor

In 2012, more than half of child laborers—85 million—are in hazardous work (down from 171 million in 2000).   Source:ILO

Latin America and the Middle East

There are 13 million (8.8%) of children in child labor in Latin America and the Caribbean   ...and in the Middle East and North Africa there are 9.2 million (8.4%). Source: ILO

Child labor among girls is falling...

Child labor among girls fell by 40% between 2000 and 2012, compared to 25% for boys.   Source: ILO

The Philippines

The Philippines has 2.9 million child laborers but in its 2013 Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor, USDOL said the country was making "significant" progress in dealing with the problem.     [source: https://tinyurl.com/llxpt2o]

Child Domestic Servants

According to an ILO report in 2013, 10.5 million children work as domestic servants around the world.

Philippines

In the Philippines, an estimated 246,000 children experience abuse, violence and child labor living on the streets.

Child Mining

An estimated 1 million children perform hazardous work in mines around the world.

Child Trafficking

According to UNICEF, 1.2 million children are trafficked each year--many for purposes of sexual exploitation.

Ivory Coast

According to a Tulane University study, 40 per cent of the 820,000 children working in cocoa in Ivory Coast are not enrolled in school, and only about 5 per cent of the Ivorian children are paid for their work.

Schooling and Conflict

In underdeveloped countries, every additional year of schooling reduces an adolescent boy’s risk of becoming involved in conflict by 20 percent. According to one study, a country that enrolls more than 87 percent of its children in school decreases its risk of conflict by nearly 75 percent.

The Philippines

According to the Philippine government, one in five Filipino children is involved in child labor--5.5 million in all.

Forced Labor

In June 2012, the ILO estimated that 21 million people had experienced forced labor over a 10-year period--5.5 million had been children.

Trafficking

The State Department estimates that 27 million people worldwide, most of them women and children, are victims of human trafficking, forced into labor or prostitution.

Child Labor & Brick Making

According to U.S. DOL/ILAB, bricks are produced by child labor in 15 countries: Afghanistan, Argentina, Bangladesh, Brazil, Burma, Cambodia, China, Ecuador, India, Nepal, North Korea, Pakistan, Peru, Uganda, and Colombia.

Gold

18 countries produce gold with child labor and many children are exposed to toxic substances like mercury during the process.

Cambodia

In Cambodia,  52 per cent of children aged between seven and 14 work—over 1.4 million children.

A 2005 survey by NCL found that 96% of those Americans surveyed would not let their own children work in the fields as hired farmworkers under 13--something allowed by current U.S. Child Labor law.

Remediation

Between 1995 and 2010, the U.S. Congress appropriated approximately $780 million to the U.S. Department of Labor to support global efforts to combat exploitive child labor.

India

India is home to one-fifth of the world's child population.

Progress in Two Areas

The ILO reports that in the four-year period ending in 2008, the number of child laborers among 5- to 14-year-olds fell 10 percent and the number children in hazardous work fell 31 percent.

Uncovered

The proportion of children who live in countries that have not yet ratified ILO Convention 182 (on the worst forms of child labor) or Convention 138 (on the minimum age): 1 in 3

Agriculture

6 in 10 child laborers work in agriculture, most commonly as unpaid workers on family farms

Sub-Saharan Africa

While many areas of the world are experiencing some progress in reducing child labor, Sub-Saharan Africa is seeing an increase in child labor activity.

Hazardous work

Levels of hazardous work seem to be dropping for girls but not for boys.

The World Wide Recession?

The number of youth, 15- to 17-years-old, who work increased 20 percent in the period 2004-2008, while child labor rates are believed to have fallen among young children, particularly girls.

Total Child Workers

The estimate of child laborers in the world: 168 million Source: ILO

Decline of Child Labor Slowing?

The ILO reports that while child labor around the world decreased 10 percent between 2000 and 2004, it only decreased 3 percent between 2004 and 2008.

Nutrition

Almost 55 million children under the age of 5 in India are underweight.

2000: Human Right's Watch Report Fingers to the Bone

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.”

Trafficking - Africa

According to a UNICEF report in 2003, the number of 53 African countries with human trafficking problems: 49

Trafficking

Nearly one in five victims of trafficking around the world are children.

1995: Death of Iqbal Masih Child Labor Activist

Iqbal Masih, a former child slave in the carpet industry in Pakistan, is murdered for his international advocacy of child rights at the age of 13. His courage and determination continues to inspire children, activists, and officials.

1832: Association Condemns Child Labor

The New England Association of Farmers, Mechanics and Other Workingmen officially condemns child labor.

1836: Union Proposes Minimum Age Laws

Early trade unions at the National Trades' Union Convention propose requiring state minimum age laws for factory work.

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CLC members—the Ramsay Merriam Fund, the American Federation of Teachers, and the National Education Association—made this web site possible through their generous support.

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