Tag Archive for: Legislation

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107 Groups Endorse the Children’s Act for Responsible Employment (CARE), which would extend child labor protections to many children working in U.S. agriculture.

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The Children’s Act for

Responsible Employment

[CARE has been reintroduced as H.R. 2234 in the current session of Congress]

The CARE Act  has been endorsed by the following 107 organizations:

  • Action for Children North Carolina;
  • AFL-CIO;
  • Alliance for Justice;
  • American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee;
  • American Association of University Women;
  • American Federation of Teachers;
  • American Rights at Work;
  • America’s Promise Alliance;
  • Amnesty International USA;
  • Asian American Justice Center;
  • Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance;
  • Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs;
  • Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers, and Grain Millers  International Union;
  • Bon Appétit Management Company;
  • California Human Development;
  • California Institute for Rural Studies;
  • California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation;
  • Calvert Group Ltd.;
  • Center for Community Change;
  • Change to Win;
  • Child Labor Coalition;
  • Coalition of Immokalee Workers;
  • Coalition of Labor Union Women;
  • Children’s Alliance, Washington State;
  • Communications Workers of America;
  • Covenant with North Carolina’s Children;
  • Dialogue on Diversity;
  • East Coast Migrant Head Start Project;
  • El Centro Latino of Western North Carolina;
  • Farmworker Advocacy Network [North Carolina];
  • Farm Labor Organizing Committee;
  • Farmworker Association of Florida;
  • Farmworker Justice;
  • First Focus Campaign for Children;
  • Food Chain Workers Alliance;
  • Galen Films;
  • Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network;
  • General Federation of Women’s Clubs;
  • Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities;
  • Hispanic Federation;
  • Honest Tea;
  • Human Rights Watch;
  • Interfaith Worker Justice;
  • International Association of Machinist and Aerospace Workers;
  • International Brotherhood of the Teamsters;
  • International Initiative to End Child Labor;
  • International Labor Rights Forum;
  • Kentucky Youth Advocates;
  • Labor Council for Latin American Advancement;
  • Laborers’ International Union of North America;
  • La Fe Policy Research & Education Center of San Antonio;
  • Laredo, Texas (City Council)
  • Latino Advocacy Council of Western North Carolina;
  • Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
  • League of United Latin American Citizens;
  • Legal Momentum (formally the Women’s Legal Defense and Education Fund);
  • MAFO (The National Partnership of Rural and Farmworker Organizations);
  • Maine Children’s Alliance;
  • MALDEF—Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund;
  • MANA, A National Latina Organization;
  • Media Voices for Children;
  • Migrant Clinician’s Network;
  • Migrant Legal Action Program;
  • MomsRising;
  • NAACP;
  • National Consumers League;
  • National Education Association;
  • National Employment Law Project;
  • National Farmworker Alliance;
  • National Farm Worker Ministry;
  • National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth;
  • National Association of Consumer Advocates;
  • National Association of State Directors of Migrant Education;
  • National Collaboration for Youth;
  • National Foster Care Coalition;
  • National Hispanic Medical Association;
  • National Migrant and Seasonal Head Start Association;
  • National Organization for Women;
  • National Parent Teacher Association (PTA);
  • NCLR (National Council of La Raza);
  • North Carolina Council of Churches;
  • North Carolina Justice Center;
  • Oregon Human Development Corporation;
  • Oxfam America;
  • PathStone;
  • PCUN—Pineros y Campesinos  del Noroeste (Northwest Treeplanters and Farmworkers)
  • Pesticide Action Network North America;
  • Pesticide Education Center;
  • Pesticide Watch;
  • Pride at Work;
  • Public Education Network;
  • Ramsay Merriam Fund;
  • Results;
  • Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights;
  • Social Advocates for Youth;
  • Southern Poverty Law Center;
  • Student Action with Farmworkers;
  • Swanton Berry Farms;
  • Teaching and Mentoring Communities [Formerly Texas Migrant Council];
  • United Methodist Church – General Board of Church and Society;
  • United States Hispanic Leadership Institute;
  • United States Student Association;
  • United Farm Workers of America;
  • United Food & Commercial Workers International Union;
  • United Methodist Women;
  • Vecinos Farmworker Health Program; and
  • Voices for Ohio’s Children.

 

 
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Bill eases Child Labor Restrictions in Maine

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AUGUSTA, Maine—A bill to ease Maine’s child labor restrictions faces further House and Senate action after winning preliminary House approval.

Assistant Senate Republican Leader Debra Plowman’s bill would allow 16- and 17-year-olds to work longer hours and more often while school is in session.

Those teen-agers would be allowed to work as many as 24 hours rather than the 20 per week under current law. The bill would also increase from four to six the number of hours students can work on school days. The Sun Journal of Lewiston says the bill won preliminary House approval Wednesday.

A separate bill that sought to allow lower minimum wages for youths and remove limits on their school-week work hours has been killed.

Information from: Sun-Journal, https://www.sunjournal.com

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Maine’s Child Labor Laws Come Under Scrutiny

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by Rob Poindexter

Augusta – Hearings began in Augusta Friday on a bill that would weaken some of Maine’s child labor laws.

Representative David Burns of Whiting is the sponsor of the legislation. It calls for limiting minimum wage for high school students to $5.25 per hour for their first six months on the job. It also would let high schoolers work more than the 20 hours per week they’re currently restricted to during the school year.

Opponents say if the bill passes it would open the door for employers to take advantage of the student workers. “This is nothing more than a shortsighted effort by certain employers to hire more of Maine’s teens for lower wages, for longer hours, later at night, during the school year,” said Sarah Standiford of the Maine’s Women’s Lobby.  Read more

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Lunchroom Controversy Spurs Change in Idaho Law

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[KTVB.com:]

https://www.ktvb.com/news/local/Lunchroom-controversy-spurs-change-in-Idaho-law-119366994.html

by Ty Brennan

KTVB.COM

MERIDIAN — A lunchroom controversy has ended up on the governor’s desk and spurred a change in Idaho’s child labor laws.

For more than two decades, the Meridian School District has allowed students to work in the lunchroom.  In return, middle and high school students are paid, as well as given a free lunch.  But that program came to a halt earlier this year after a parent complained the district was in violation of Idaho’s child labor laws, which states a child under the age of 14 cannot work during the hours that public school is in session.

But parents rallied in support of the program taking the matter all the way to the Idaho Statehouse. Read more

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Proposed changes to child labor law spark concern in Maine

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[from the Lewiston Sun Journal]:

By Steve Mistler, Staff Writer

Published Mar 10, 2011 12:00 am | Last updated Mar 10, 2011 12:00 am

AUGUSTA — Groups representing restaurants and hotels sparred with worker advocates on Wednesday over a bill that would ease work restrictions within the state’s 20-year-old child labor law.

The legislation is sponsored by Sen. Debra Plowman, R-Hampden, and backed by Gov. Paul LePage. Both believe high school-age students should be allowed to work longer hours and more often during the school year.

Opponents said the proposal would dial back child-labor protections enacted in 1991 to prevent employers from pressuring minors into working longer hours. They also worried the proposal would shift emphasis from education and school-sponsored, extra-curricular activities.

Currently, 16- and 17-year-olds can work a maximum of 20 hours per week when school is in session. On school days, students can work a maximum of four hours a day and no later than 10 p.m.

Read more

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Tell Congressional Leaders It’s Time to Protect Farmworker Children–Pass the CARE Act Now

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Help us protect migrant children by contacting your member of Congress today and urging them to pass the Children’s Act for Responsible Employment:

 

Summary of the Children’s Act for

Responsible Employment (CARE Act)

H.R. 2234

Representative Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA) introduced the Children’s Act for Responsible Employment (CARE Act) on June 16, 2011. The CARE Act addresses the inequities faced by the estimated 300,000 to 400,000 children currently employed in agriculture in the U.S.

The CARE Act:

  • Amends the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA) by bringing the age and work hours standards for children working in agriculture up to the standards set under FLSA for all other forms of child labor.

There is currently a loophole that permits children working in agriculture to work longer hours, at a younger age, and in more hazardous conditions than children working in other jobs. The FLSA currently allows children as young as 12 years of age to work in agriculture, while children in non-agricultural work must be at least 14 years of age (often, they must be 16 or older), and are limited to 3 hours of work a day outside of school hours while school is in session.

Farmworker youth can work an unlimited number of hours, as long as those hours are outside of school time. The CARE Act would eliminate these loopholes and require children to be a minimum of 14 to work for wages in agriculture. The Secretary of Labor would determine if specific agricultural jobs are safe for 14- and 15-year-olds to perform—as is done with all other industries.

  • Preserves the FLSA’s family farm exemption. Under the CARE Act, farmers’ children of any age would continue to be able to work for their parents on their own farms.

 

  • Increases the civil monetary penalties for child labor violations from $11,000 to $15,000, with a minimum penalty of $500, and higher fines for repeat or willful violations. It also increases criminal penalties to a maximum of five years imprisonment.

 

These increased penalties will serve as a stronger deterrent for employers who consistently violate child labor laws.

 

 

  • Strengthens provisions for pesticide exposure in agriculture to take into account additional risks posed to children. Requires the Worker Protection Standard for pesticides be included in the hazardous orders for minors by the Secretary of Labor.

 

Children working on farms are consistently exposed to hazardous pesticides.  Children have a high skin to body weight ratio and are in a more rapid stage of development, which makes them more vulnerable than adults to pesticide exposure. This provision will protect children from more exposure to pesticides.

 

Why is the CARE Act Needed?

 

Health. Agriculture is consistently rated as one of the three most dangerous industries. According to NIOSH, between 1995 and 2002, 113 youth under the age of 20 died in farm-related injuries each year. The fatality rate for young workers in agricultural is six times the rate of any other industry, according to a 2008 report from U.S. DOL. In 2006, an estimated 23,000 children and adolescents were injured on farms. In addition, advocates worry about the long term impact of pesticides on farmworker youth.

Education. Migration and exhausting work contribute to astronomic dropout rates among farmworker kids. Farmworker advocates believe that two of every three dropout. In some migrant communities. The dropout rate is 80 percent.

 

Equity. Some advocates believe that there is a human rights and civil rights element to this issue. Children who work for wages harvesting crops are often Hispanic and have traditionally been minority youth. Is that one of the reasons Congress has failed to address these child labor disparities?

 

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Bill to protect domestic workers passes in N.Y. Senate

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ALBANY – The State Senate passed the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights (S2311D/Savino) making New York the first state in the nation to provide new standards of worker protections for more than 200,000 employees in an industry which has gone unregulated for decades.

The legislation passed 33-28 in the Senate. The Assembly has yet to act.

This legislation guarantees protection from discrimination, notice of termination, paid sick days and holidays, and other basic labor protections long denied to nannies, housekeepers, and elderly caregivers employed in private homes.

Read more

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The CLC Applauds the Introduction of the CARE Act Press Release

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Sept. 16, 2009

Washington, D.C.—The Child Labor Coalition (CLC) applauds the introduction of the Children’s Act for Responsible Employment (CARE), H.R. 3564, introduced September 15th by Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA). The legislation would close loopholes that permit the children of migrant and seasonal farmworkers to work for wages when they are only 12- and 13-years-old.

“Child farmworkers are exposed to many dangers—farm machinery, heat stroke, and pesticides among them—and perform back-breaking labor that is not fit for children,” said CLC co-chair Sally Greenberg, the executive director of the National Consumers League, a consumer advocacy organization that has worked to eliminate abusive child labor since its founding in 1899. “It’s time to level the playing field by closing these archaic loopholes and offering these children the same protections that all other American kids enjoy. We applaud Rep. Roybal-Allard’s leadership in introducing CARE.”

Read more

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Prostitution in Cambodia: ‘New law doesn’t protect me’

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Guardian Weekly

By: Claire Colley

In March 2008, Cambodia saw the implementation of a new law entitled: Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation. Aimed at offering protection to women in prostitution by making the selling of sex illegal, it has resulted in clean-up operations and police raids of red light areas. Women in prostitution are being arrested, reporting police brutality and imprisonment. It’s also resulted in decreased safety for women as brothels are closed down and women are forced into street work. Mei, a young prostitute in Phnom Penh, describes how she fell into prostitution and the horrific experiences she has had as a result of the new law

My name is Mei and I’m 19 years old. I live in Phnom Penh but I’m from a small village in Prey Veng province. I went to school when I was younger, but I had to leave to work in the rice fields when I was 13. My family is poor and when there is no food to eat, you have to do what you must to support them – as I’m the oldest it’s my responsibility. Read more