Tag Archive for: enforcement

thumbnail

U.S. DOL obtains order to force Los Angeles-area meat processor, staffing agency to give up $327,000 in profits from oppressive child labor

/in , , , , , , , , /by

USDOL News Release June 25, 2024

Investigation revealed children working dangerous jobs, unlawful hours

CITY OF INDUSTRY, CA – The U.S. Department of Labor has obtained a consent judgment in a federal court ordering a City of Industry meat processor and a Downey staffing agency to surrender $327,484 in illegal profits made from sales of products associated with oppressive, exploitative child labor. The judgment also requires the employers to pay the department $62,516 in penalties.

The June 20, 2024, judgment in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California in Los Angeles follows an investigation by the department’s Wage and Hour Division that determined A&J Meats and The Right Hire jointly employed and endangered children as young as 15 by tasking them to use sharp knives, allowing them to work inside freezers and coolers, and to scheduling them to work at times not permitted by law, all in violation of federal child labor regulations.

“A&J Meats and The Right Hire knowingly endangered these children’s safety and put their companies’ profits before the well-being of these minors,” said Western Regional Solicitor of Labor Marc Pilotin in San Francisco. “These employers egregiously violated federal law and now, both have learned about the serious consequences for those who so callously expose children to harm.”

Specifically, division investigators found that children worked at the facility more than three hours a day on school days, past 7 p.m. and more than 18 hours per week while school was in session. The Fair Labor Standards Act forbids employers from employing children under age of 18 in dangerous occupations, including most jobs in meat and poultry slaughtering, processing, rendering and packing establishments.

The judgment also forbids A&J Meats, owner Priscilla Helen Castillo, and The Right Hire staffing agency from future FLSA violations and from trying to trade goods connected to oppressive child labor. In addition, all three parties must also provide annual FLSA training for at least four years and submit to monitoring by an independent third-party for three years.

Castillo’s father, Tony Bran, has also been the found illegally employing children at three poultry processing companies he operates. In October 2023, the same California court ordered his companies to stop endangering children, withholding pay, retaliating, and shipping “hot goods” produced in violation of overtime and child labor laws.

“No employer should ever profit from exploited children,” said Wage and Hour Division Regional Administrator Ruben Rosalez in San Francisco. “When we find children employed in violation of the law, we will take steps to ensure that we can hold all employers accountable under the law. Companies that use staffing agencies to meet their labor needs cannot escape liability for child labor violations when they are in fact also employers themselves.”

The department encourages businesses to monitor their supply chains closely to make sure the goods they purchase, produce and sell are not made with oppressive and illegal child labor.

The department continues to combat child labor abuses and wage theft in the poultry and meat processing industries. This judgment follows numerous cases in California and nationwide where meat processing facilities were found illegally employing children and endangering their safety and wellbeing.

Learn more about the Wage and Hour Division, including a search tool to use if you think you may be owed back wages collected by the division. Workers and employers can call the division confidentially with questions or concerns – regardless of where they are from – and the department can speak with callers in more than 200 languages at its toll-free number, 1-866-4-US-WAGE (487-9243). Help ensure hours worked and pay are accurate by downloading the department’s Android and iOS Timesheet App for free in English or Spanish.

Agency
Wage and Hour Division
Date
June 25, 2024
Release Number
24-1107-SAN
Media Contact: Michael Petersen
Media Contact: Jose Carnevali
Share This
thumbnail

Shareholders demand McDonald’s and Wendy’s tackle child labor problems.

/in , , , , /by

[Via The Washington Post, May 9, 2024]

Citing work by The Washington Post, shareholders are asking the companies for a zero-tolerance policy at their franchises.

“A group of powerful investment managers and public treasurers with assets invested in McDonald’s are demanding that the company take tougher steps to address child-labor violations at its franchises.”

Read the rest of the article here.

 

thumbnail

Seven Child Labor Best Practices for Employers from U.S. DOL

/in , , , , /by
From the U.S. Department of Labor….
Train Management

Train Management

Train supervisors and managers on child labor requirements. Our fact sheets provide guidance on nonagricultural occupations and farm jobs for young workers.

Distribute Resources

Distribute Resources

Provide child labor publications to all current and new workers under the age of 18. View our Young Worker Toolkit.

Build Trust

Build Trust

Establish an internal phone number that allows workers to report child labor violations anonymously. Let workers know that reporting violations will not lead to retaliation.

Provide Different Nametags

Provide Different Nametags

Provide workers under the age of 16 with a different color nametag than those worn by older workers. There are different hours and job rules for workers under 16.

Post Warnings

Post Warnings

Post information about child labor hours limitations in a conspicuous place. Read Fact Sheet #43 to learn more about these limits in nonagricultural occupations.

Use Signage

Use Signage

Place signage on equipment that 14- and 15-year-old workers are prohibited to use. Download and print this flyer.

Spotlight Hazards
[From https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/child-labor/seven-child-labor-best-practices-for-employers]

Spotlight Hazards

Post a “STOP” sticker on all the equipment that the Department of Labor considers hazardous for use by minors.

thumbnail

Child Labor Coalition lauds Wage and Hour’s child labor enforcement strategies that include creating a fund for victims and use of “hot goods” provisions

/in , , , , /by

March 27, 2024

Media contact: National Consumers League/Child Labor Coalition – Reid Maki, reidm@nclnet.org, (202) 207-2820

 

Washington, DC – The Child Labor Coalition (CLC), representing 37 groups engaged in the fight against domestic and global child labor, expresses support for the innovative enforcement strategies in this week’s enforcement action by the Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). The action, announced March 25th, involved fines of $296,951 for a Tennessee parts manufacturer, Tuff Torq, and required the company to set aside $1.5 million as “disgorgement” of 30 days’ profit related to the company’s use of child labor. Disgorgement is a legal term for remedy requiring a party that profits from illegal activity to give up any profits that result from that activity.

Tuff Torq, which makes components for outdoor, power-equipment brands such as John Deere, Toro, and Yamaha, illegally employed 10 children, including a 14-year-old, for work that was hazardous—an identified task involved permitting a child to operate a power-driven-hoisting apparatus, which is a prohibited occupational task.

The Department employed several new or recent strategies in the case, including employing the Fair Labor Standards Act’s “hot goods” provision, which was used to stop the shipment of goods made with oppressive child labor.

“The use of the ‘hot goods’ enforcement tool is also an important new strategy, which Wage and Hour announced it would use last year,” said Reid Maki, director of Child Labor Advocacy for the National Consumers League (NCL) and the CLC. “It’s another critical tool in DOL’s arsenal. Once companies realize that the shipment of goods has been stopped, they feel an immediate impact of the violation.”

“This is the first use of victim’s fund that we have noticed in a child labor enforcement action,” added Maki. “Teens employed in factory settings are often unaccompanied minors and typically very impoverished. When enforcement agents find teens working illegally, they are dismissed with no resources to survive, move forward, and reassemble their lives. A victim’s fund is something the CLC and the Campaign to End US Child Labor – the CLC is a founding member – has touted as desperately needed.”

A third innovation involves how DOL calculates child labor fines. DOL recently announced it planned to change formulas for calculating fines, which previously had been capped at $15,000 per child involved in violations at a specific work site. The new strategy involves applying the maximum fines for each violation, not limited to the number of children involved.

“It’s clear they have used the new formula in the Tuff Torq fines,” said Maki. “Fines levels came in at an average of $30,000 per child—almost double what we would have seen under the old formula. With Congress unable, at this point, to pass into law any of several bills that would increase fines by a factor of ten, DOL’s creativity here is most welcome. Fines must be raised to inflict some real pain on corporate perpetrators. We’re not where we want to be yet, but it’s good to inch closer.”

“Wage and Hour also deserves praise for directing its enforcement action at Tuff Torq,” noted Maki. “In the past, corporations that benefited from child labor have often not been held accountable, as they blamed staffing agencies for illegal hires. Holding beneficiaries accountable is something DOL said it would do when it announced its meatpacking investigation results in February 2023—it’s great to see it happening.”

The Wage and Hour Division faces a big challenge in that its inspectorate, estimated at below 750 inspectors, is too small for a country the size of the U.S. The CLC has called for a doubling of the inspectorate over the next five years and is working to help increase congressional appropriations for that purpose.

Wage and Hour has noted a sharp increase in child labor in recent years, having found 5,792 minors working in violation of child labor laws. The Economic Policy Institute indicates the increase in violations is 300 percent since 2015.

“We are especially troubled by the prevalence of children in hazardous work,” said CLC Chair Sally Greenberg, who is also the CEO of the National Consumers League. “Far too many children are working illegally in meatpacking, auto supply factories, and other hazardous work sites. The U.S. can and must do more to protect these vulnerable children.”

###

thumbnail

Press Release: Schatz, Young Introduce New Legislation to Help Stop Child Labor

/in , , , , , , /by

[We’re sharing here a Press Release by Senator Schatz, 10/20/2023]

Schatz, Young Introduce New Legislation to Help Stop Child Labor

Bipartisan Bill Establishes New Criminal Penalties, Imposes New Steep Fines For Employers Who Violate Child Labor Laws

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i) and Todd Young (R-Ind.) this week introduced new legislation to help stop illegal child labor. The bipartisan Stop Child Labor Act would increase maximum fines for violations, establish new criminal penalties, allow victims harmed by violations to file private lawsuits, and encourage collaboration between employers and government to stop child labor violations before they occur.

“Right now, our laws are allowing some of the worst employers to get away with exploiting kids for labor with nothing more than weak fines,” said Senator Schatz. “Our bill will strengthen our child labor laws, hold bad employers accountable, and protect kids from this illicit practice.”

“Recent data shows that child labor exploitation is not a thing of the past or a problem limited to the developing world. This bipartisan bill would strengthen our nation’s labor laws to better protect our children,” said Senator Young.

This week, DOL released new data showing child labor violations at their highest level in two decades. In fiscal year 2023, violations soared to 5,792, an 88 percent increase from 2019. This is due to companies increasingly circumventing child labor laws to fill positions due to the tight labor market. Currently, the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) imposes weak fines for violations, making it financially easier for companies to skirt child labor laws. Earlier this year, it was revealed that migrant child labor is being used for hazardous jobs in factories making products for well-known brands like Cheetos, Fruit of the Loom, and Lucky Charms. In addition, DOL announced this year that it found more than 100 children across eight states cleaning dangerous meat processing equipment using hazardous chemicals for a contractor of major meat producer JBS Foods. While several child workers were injured on the job, DOL levied its maximum fine, just $15,138 for each count.

To stop child labor and hold bad employers accountable, the Stop Child Labor Act would:

  • Increase child labor violation civil penalties to:
    • $5,000 minimum – $132,270 maximum for routine violations;
    • $25,000 minimum – $601,150 maximum for each violation that causes the death or serious injury of a minor;
  • Create criminal penalties for a repeat or willful violation of child labor laws to include a fine of up to $50,000 and a year in jail;
  • Allow children harmed by violations of the law to seek compensation;
  • Start a grant program aimed at helping employers recognize, avoid, and prevent child labor violations; and
  • Permanently establish a National Advisory Committee on Child Labor.

The full text of the bill is available here.

[The BIPARTISAN  bill, number S.3051, was introduced on 10/17/2023 and has 1 cosponsors as of 11/9/2023 — Sen. Todd Young (R-IN)    Cosponsored on 10/17/2023]

thumbnail

Amazing, must-listen podcast….“Why Are States Loosening Child Labor Laws?” –New York Times child labor reporter Hannah Dreier and the CLC’s Norma Flores López on Roy Woods Jr. video podcast, “Beyond the Scenes – The Daily Show”

/in , , , , , , , /by

Amazing, must-listen podcast….

 

“Why Are States Loosening Child Labor Laws?” —New York Times child labor reporter Hannah Dreier and the CLC’s Norma Flores López on Roy Woods Jr. video podcast, “Beyond the Scenes – The Daily Show”. [Recorded 4/23/23].

 

thumbnail

U.S. DOL News Release: Three McDonald’s Franchises in Kentucky Pay $212,000 in Fines after Federal Investigations Find 305 Minors — Including 10-year-olds — Working Illegally

/in , , , , , , /by

USDOL News Release May 2, 2023

Louisville-area franchisees employed minors to work later, longer than law permits

LOUISVILLE, KY – Working in a kitchen late at night near dangerous cooking equipment is a reality for many adults in the food service industry. But finding 10-year-old kids in such a work environment is a cause for concern and action by the U.S. Department of Labor.

Investigators from the department’s Wage and Hour Division found two 10-year-old workers at a Louisville McDonald’s restaurant among many violations of federal labor laws committed by three Kentucky McDonald’s franchise operators. The investigations are part of the division’s ongoing effort to stop child labor abuses in the Southeast region.

The division investigated Bauer Food LLC, Archways Richwood LLC and Bell Restaurant Group I LLC – three separate franchisees that operate a total of 62 McDonald’s locations across Kentucky, Indiana, Maryland and Ohio – and found they employed 305 children to work more than the legally permitted hours and perform tasks prohibited by law for young workers. In all, the investigations led to assessments of $212,544 in civil money penalties against the employers.

“Too often, employers fail to follow the child labor laws that protect young workers,” explained Wage and Hour Division District Director Karen Garnett-Civils in Louisville, Kentucky. “Under no circumstances should there ever be a 10-year-old child working in a fast-food kitchen around hot grills, ovens and deep fryers.”

The division’s investigations found the following:

  • Bauer Food LLC, a Louisville-based operator of 10 McDonald’s locations, employed 24 minors under age 16 to work more than legally permitted hours. These children sometimes worked more hours a day or week than the law permits, whether or not school is in session. Investigators also determined two 10-year-old children were employed – but not paid – and sometimes worked as late as 2 a.m. Below the minimum age for employment, they prepared and distributed food orders, cleaned the store, worked at the drive-thru window and operated a register. The division also learned that one of the two children was allowed to operate a deep fryer, a prohibited task for workers under 16 years old. The division assessed $39,711 in civil money penalties to address the child labor violations.
  • Archways Richwood LLC – a Walton-based operator of 27 McDonald’s locations – allowed 242 minors between age 14 and 15 to work beyond the allowable hours. Most worked earlier or later in the day than the law permits and more than three hours on school days. The division assessed the employer with $143,566 in civil money penalties for their violations.
  • Bell Restaurant Group I LLC is a Louisville-based operator of four McDonald’s locations and part of Brdancat Management Inc., a larger enterprise that includes Jesse Bell I, Jesse Bell V and Bell Restaurant Group II, which operates an additional 20 locations in Maryland, Indiana and Kentucky. The division found the employer allowed 39 workers – ages 14 and 15 – to work outside of and for more hours than the law permits. Some of these children worked more than the daily and weekly limits during school days and school weeks, and the employer allowed two of them to work during school hours. To address the child labor violations, the division assessed the employer $29,267 in civil money penalties. Investigators also found the employer systemically failed to pay workers overtime wages they were due and as a result, the division recovered $14,730 in back wages and liquidated damages for 58 workers.

Federal child labor regulations limit the types of jobs minor-aged employees can perform and the hours they can work. Hours limits for 14- and 15-year-olds include:

  • Work must be performed outside of school hours.
  • No more than 3 hours on a school day – including Fridays – and no more than 8 hours on a non-school day.
  • No more than 18 hours during a school week and no more than 40 hours during a non-school week.
  • No earlier than 7 a.m. and no later than 7 p.m., except between June 1 and Labor Day when the evening hour is extended to 9 p.m.

“We are seeing an increase in federal child labor violations, including allowing minors to operate equipment or handle types of work that endangers them or employs them for more hours or later in the day than federal law allows,” said Garnett-Civils. “An employer who hires young workers must know the rules. An employer, parent or young worker with questions can contact us for help understanding their obligations and rights under the law.”

While most cases with child labor violations involve minors working more and later than the law permits, the division found 688 minors employed illegally in hazardous occupations in fiscal year 2022, the highest annual count since fiscal year 2011. Among those was a 15-year-old minor injured while using a deep fryer at a McDonald’s in Morristown, Tennessee in June 2022.

“One child injured at work is one too many. Child labor laws exist to ensure that when young people work, the job does not jeopardize their health, well-being or education,” added Garnett-Civils.

The Wage and Hour Division offers multiple tools to help employers understand their responsibilities and offers confidential compliance assistance to anyone with questions about how to comply with the law by calling the agency’s toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243). The department can speak with callers in more than 200 languages. The division also recently published Seven Child Labor Best Practices for Employers.

Visit the agency’s website to learn more about the Wage and Hour Division, including information about protections for young workers on the department’s YouthRules! website.

Agency
Wage and Hour Division
Date
May 2, 2023
Release Number
23-685-ATL
Media Contact: Eric R. Lucero
Phone Number
Email
Media Contact: Erika Ruthman
Share This
thumbnail

Do Children in America Ever Work in Deplorable, Dangerous, Dickensian Conditions?  The Short Answer is “Yes” — The Child Labor Coalition’s Top Ten U.S. Child Labor Developments in 2022

/in , , , , , , , /by

By Reid Maki, Child Labor Coalition

 

Most Americans are unaware that the U.S. still has child labor, but 2022 made it abundantly clear that we do, and stories in the news exposed conditions that were often downright shocking. Here are 10 child labor stories or developments that indicate child labor in the U.S. is not something in the past and continues to be a serious concern. The  Child Labor Coalition brings together 39 groups to work collectively to reduce international and domestic child labor and to protect working teens from occupational dangers. Our top 2022 U.S. developments:

  • Minors found working illegally in Brazilian-owned JBS meatpacking facilities in Nebraska and Minnesota. Several children suffered caustic chemical burns, including one 13-year-old. The children worked on the killing floor in cleaning crews, toiling long nights in the graveyard shift and used dangerous pressure-washing hoses while they stood in water mixed with animal parts. Initially, the number of children numbered 31 in Nebraska and Minnesota, but U.S. DOL has suggested the number of illegally employed teens in processing plant cleaning crews may be much larger. The CLC has expressed concerns about teens illegally working in meat processing plants since a large immigration raid in Iowa in 2003 found 50 minors working illegally in the plant.
  • Teens found working in an Alabama factory that supplied parts to Hyundai. In July, labor officials found three siblings, aged 12, 14, and 15, working in an Alabama stamping plant that supplied part to the car manufacturer Hyundai. According to reports, a larger number of minors worked in the factory in recent years. The story drew enormous publicity because factory-based child labor in the U.S. has become rare.
  • The Wisconsin legislature passed a bill to weaken child labor laws by expanding the hours of teen work, which endangers children’s educational development and presents certain health risks. The CLC amplified the work of labor unions on social media, we also wrote a letter to Gov. Tony Evers, urging him to veto the proposed legislation, which he did in February. According to research, high school age workers who toil more than 20 hours a week get lower grades and have an increased risk of dropping out.
  • An estimated 300,000 children still work for wages in agriculture, performing backbreaking labor in searing heat. Currently, federal law allows children who are only 12 to work unlimited hours as long as they are working when school is not in session. Federal legislation which would protect child farmworkers, the Children’s Act for Responsible Employment and Farm Safety (CARE), H.R. 7345, would raise the minimum age of farm work from 12 to at least 14 and lift the age of hazardous work from the current 16 to 18—the same as all other sectors. CARE saw some promising developments in 2022, including the holding of a congressional hearing on the bill—the first since 2009. We also secured over 200 organizational endorsements for CARE and we worked with CLC-members Human Rights Watch, Justice for Migrant Women, and First Focus Campaign for Children to obtain 47 CARE legislative cosponsors.
  • The Children Don’t Belong on Tobacco Farms Act, H.R. 3865 –and its companion bill S.2044—would ban child labor on U.S. tobacco farms where children toil long hours and routinely suffer symptoms of nicotine poisoning such as vomiting, fainting, dizziness, headaches and nausea. In a desperate attempt to keep nicotine off their skin, many teen tobacco workers toil while wearing black plastic garbage bags with holes punched out for their arms and head. Some teens work at great heights and great danger in tobacco drying barns. In the U.S., you have to be 21 to buy cigarettes but at age 12, you can work on tobacco farms and suffer poisoning from toxic nicotine. In the 117th congressional session, we helped secure 32 cosponsors for H.R. 3865—more than double the amount of cosponsors in the 116th.
  • Enforcement of domestic child labor laws in 2022 through mid-November saw an almost 40 percent increase in the number of child workers involved in a violation of child labor rules—nearly 4,000 children, according to reporting by DailyMail.com, using Department of Labor data. Nearly 20 percent of the violations involved teens performing hazardous work.
  • USDOL and state labor agencies frequently found child labor violations among fast food restaurants. Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey fined Dunkin’, the donut franchises, $145,000 for over 1,200 child labor violations in 14 stores. U.S. DOL found violations in 13 Pittsburgh area McDonalds restaurants in which teens worked too many hours or too late, as well as a case of a teen doing prohibited hazardous work
  • In September, Human Rights Watch, a CLC member, issued a child rights report card for all U.S. states related to child marriage, child labor, juvenile justice, and corporal punishment, and how well they meet the standards set by the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Alarmingly, only four states earned passing grades: 20 received an “F”; 26 received a “D”; four received a “C” and none received a “B” or and “A.” See the grades and report here.
  • In July, Massachusetts became the seventh US state to ban entirely child marriage. Like child marriage globally, U.S. child marriage has substantial health, educational, and financial impacts on teen girls who marry. Most states have broad exemptions that allow teens to marry with the approval of parents or the courts. Massachusetts joins six other states that passed legislation to end child marriage: New York, Delaware, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania and Minnesota. The CLC is a member of the National Coalition to End Child Marriage, headed by the NGO Unchained at Last.
  • The CLC and HRW held a series of meetings with Wage and Hour in 2022 to secure the reopening of the occupational child safety rules for agriculture called “Hazardous Occupation Orders.” These common-sense rules have not been updated for agriculture in roughly four decades despite many lessons-learned about farm injuries during that time. We also helped Rep. Roybal-Allard and Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI) draft and circulate a letter to DOL Secretary Walsh urging enhanced safety precautions. The letter had 46 congressional signatories.

                                                             #END#