Tag Archive for: US

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Bringing More Danger Than Cash – Teens should be cautious of some summer jobs

By: Nicole Collier

TOLEDO, Ohio (WUPW) – When summer jobs are hard to find, teens might get desperate for work and cash.

Minimum wage might not be enough to fund all of a teens summer plans. One local author says when opportunities seem too good to be true, offering chances for travel and loads of cash, teens should beware.

Adventure, travel, rock and roll.

At the age of 18, Adam Brandt was looking to start a career, and was seduced by a newspaper ad for work promising those three things.

The job was selling magazines, but Brandt says the job was more about selling lies. It required him to be a different person every day.

“I’m so and so from whichever college was in town,” Brandt explained. “As a part of our trip or year end classwork we’re selling magazines. Generally people feel more comfortable opening up their wallets to someone that’s local and from the neighborhood who’s trying to accomplish something.”

Brandt says traveling sales groups like these prey on teens with big dreams of making it.

“When you’re that age you want to do it on your own. You’re not going to tell your parents I’m doing this, or that, you say hey I got this job and I’m going to be traveling across the country making tons of money,” the author said. Read more

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GOP Set to Roll Back Child Labor Laws

JESSICA VANEGEREN | The Capital Times | jvanegeren@madison.com

If you’re a 16- or 17-year-old looking to make some good money this summer, you could be in luck.

Just in time for the long summer break, the Republican-controlled Legislature is expected to vote this week on a proposal that would roll back the state’s child labor laws, making them the same as federal child labor laws that govern 16- and 17-year-old workers. The move would expand the number of hours 16- and 17-year-olds could work in any given week and on any given day, essentially treating them no differently than adults in the eyes of the law.

The proposed changes —  pushed by the Wisconsin Grocers Association — were included in a lengthy motion authored by Joint Finance Committee co-chairs Rep. Robin Vos, R-Rochester, and Sen. Alberta Darling, R-River Hills, and approved along party lines June 3 by the panel. They never received a public hearing and are now part of the proposed biennial state budget. Read more

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Summer Homework: Plow the Field

from the American Prospect

By: Marie O’Reilly

From age 12, López, who is now 26, worked 12-hour days, seven days a week on farms during peak season. Children must be at least 16 years old to work in most industries in the United States, and generally do so with strict limitations on the number of hours they work. For hazardous work such as manufacturing and mining, the minimum age is 18.After another spring break spent lugging 50-pound buckets of vegetables and using sharp shears to cut onions, Norma Flores López returned to school with her hands too swollen to hold her pencil. She fell behind in her schoolwork. It wasn’t the first time

But an exemption for agriculture in U.S. law means employers can hire children as young as 12 , and sometimes younger, to work in the fields. Restrictions on the number of hours children can work outside of school in other industries don’t apply here and work deemed particularly hazardous can begin as young as age 16. A low minimum age for farmworkers may have made sense when the Fair Labor Standards Act was enacted in 1938, when family farms needed extra hands to bring in harvests, but agricultural enterprises today are different from those in that era.

There are 400,000 to 500,000 child farmworkers in the United States, according to the Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs (AFOP), the majority of whom are U.S. citizens. But since many children do not get paid themselves — their salary is often rolled into their parents’ paycheck — tracking them can be difficult.

When this happens, “they’re not even counted as a head that’s working, or as a warm body on the farm,” explains Kyle Knight from Human Rights Watch’s Children’s Rights Division.

With school ending in most states now, Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard of California plans to reintroduce the Children’s Act for Responsible Employment (CARE) in Congress, to close the loophole. The act would bring age and work-hour standards for children in agriculture in line with existing standards in other industries. “It levels the playing field,” says Roybal-Allard, so that children working on farms “would have the same rights and protections as all other children who work in this country.”

For years, children’s rights advocates have documented the vulnerability of children working in commercial agriculture in the United States. “In terms of fatalities, this is the most dangerous occupation open to kids in the U.S.,” Knight says. “These conditions are not what Americans would expect to find in their own country.”

Farmworkers are frequently exposed to dangerous pesticides, heavy machinery, and sharp tools, and children are much more vulnerable to the bad effects of these than their older colleagues, according to Levy Schroeder, director of health and safety programs at the AFOP. Deaths from heat exposure and tractor rollovers, and lifelong repetitive strain injuries from stooping for hours on end are just some of the risks that young children face in farm work. “They are not little adults; their bodies have not yet developed,” Schroeder says. Children’s young immune systems are also particularly susceptible to pesticide exposure, which has been associated with cancer and respiratory and reproductive problems over the long term.

Maria Mandujano, now 20, started working on farms in her home state of Idaho at age 11. “It was just something you had to do to put food on the table,” she says, but now she laments the experience. “I wish my parents would have said no, or somebody would have been there to say no,” she adds. Mandujano is now studying in college and is trying to lure her younger brother away from the fields. “I always try to explain to him how he can benefit from not working the fields right now, what he could do in exchange,” she says. “For example, learning from my own mistakes and not growing up as quickly as I did.”

One thing that frequently gets sacrificed is education — Mandujano is a rarity for making it to college. In fact, young farmworkers are four times more likely to drop out of school than their peers, according to government estimates. López moved around the country for work during her summers and often found herself months behind in school when she returned to her home in Texas in late October. Despite the odds, she graduated with a bachelor’s in communications and now works at AFOP to advocate for those less fortunate. “More than half of these kids don’t complete high school,” she says, “and we continue to allow that to happen.”

Members of Congress have been introducing draft legislation like Roybal-Allard’s for more than 10 years, but no bill has ever reached a vote. “When we first started … many of my colleagues were not even aware that there was this double standard when it came to child labor laws,” Roybal-Allard says. Support rose to 107 co-sponsors after the bill was last introduced in 2009, but the bill went nowhere.

Farmers’ representatives continue to oppose the legislation, arguing that farmwork is “safe, wholesome work for kids,” in the words of Frank Gasperini of the National Council of Agricultural Employers. “In towns and suburbs, children can go and work at McDonalds or bus tables in a restaurant, but in rural areas, those opportunities tend not to be there,” he says. And besides, he adds, “some of those migrant families need the money that their children help produce.”

But the CARE Act would not deny children the experience of working on farms, says Roybal-Allard. By raising the minimum age and increasing protection mechanisms, it would simply allow them to have that experience under the same laws governing every other industry. It also leaves in place an exemption for family farmers, since parents are more likely to look after the health and safety of their own kids on their own farm.

Reflecting on the growth in support for the CARE Act in recent years, Roybal-Allard remains optimistic. “I’m very hopeful that if we start getting the truth out about what is happening in the country with children in agriculture … we will be able to pass the bill.”

Marie O’Reilly is a freelance journalist based in New York City.

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On Missing Children’s Day, Murray Pledges Trafficking Bill Passage

By Colleen Quinn

State House News Service

Cambridge- Senate President Therese Murray promised advocates of missing children Monday that lawmakers would pass legislation targeting human trafficking.Cambridge —

The Plymouth Democrat made her commitment as Magi and John Bish, whose daughter Molly went missing in 2000, gathered with a group of parents at the State House to mark something no parent ever wants to make note of – their missing children.

The Bishes returned to the state capitol Monday for the 11th annual Massachusetts Missing Children’s Day. They come every year to bring attention to abductions and to missing children never found. Currently, 38 children are missing in the state, according to the Molly Bish Foundation.

Attorney General Martha Coakley thanked the Bishes for reminding law enforcement about “all the people who are touched by a missing child.” Coakley is pushing for Massachusetts to pass legislation that would establish state crimes of human trafficking in labor and sex. She wants to create a task force to study human trafficking, and increase the penalties for “Johns” to target the demand side of trafficking in prostitution. Massachusetts is one of four states in the nation that does not have human trafficking laws.

“We have this problem right in our own backyard,” Coakley said.

The Bish Foundation presented Murray with a legislative award and Murray said it was important to hold the event annually as a reminder of all the missing children.

“The devastation, I can’t imagine losing your child, and not knowing what happened or where, and that they won’t come back. I can’t imagine it,” Murray said.

Speaking to the trafficking bill, Murray said, “God we will pass that human trafficking” bill.

Magi Bish said she comes year after year and relives the horror she went through when her daughter was abducted and murdered because she wants lawmakers and law enforcement officials to recognize the dangers that exist for children. Bish said she would tell every parent to make sure their children know there are people who could hurt them, and teach them how to protect themselves.

“You need to have your child have awareness, to be smart,” she said. “We need to give them the tools to be safe.”

During the summer of 2000 Molly Bish was taken from Comins Pond in Warren where she was working as a lifeguard. Her mother had just dropped her off for work. Her body was found three years later, but her killer was never caught.

“Eleven years ago we decided we needed to do something. We need to work with the Legislature to make sure our children are safe,” said Bish, who launched the Molly Bish Foundation to advocate for tougher laws surrounding child abduction and child abuse.

Another parent of an abducted child, Bob Curley, said his son was taken from his East Cambridge home and murdered in 1997. Jeffrey Curley was a 10-year-old boy who was sexually assaulted and murdered by two men who promised him a new bike if he went with them. His body was found days later in a river in southern Maine. The two men were convicted and sent to jail. Curley said he felt “more fortunate” than other parents of abducted children because his son’s body was found, and he was able to “bring him home.”

In the fall of 1997, Curley’s murder ignited an emotionally-charged debate to reinstate the death penalty in Massachusetts, which came one vote shy of passing. The Senate had approved a bill that would have allowed prosecutors to seek the death penalty in 15 categories of first-degree murder. But the House doomed the capital punishment bill in a tied 80-80 vote. Former Rep. John Slattery (D-Peabody) flipped his vote at the last minute, and prevented the measure from passing. At the time, Gov. Paul Cellucci slammed Slattery after discovering the death penalty lacked one vote of support.

During Monday’s Missing Children’s Day, one particularly emotional moment came during the event when the mother of a young girl kidnapped 10 years ago collapsed on the floor crying. She was helped to her feet by Gov. Deval Patrick, who tried to comfort her.

After a short pause in the ceremony, Bish told those assembled, “Our hearts are quite broken. They never quite heal. Keep us in your prayers.” Patrick then hugged Bish for several moments before he left the event.

A few minutes earlier, Patrick relayed a story from his own life when one of his daughters, Sarah, disappeared for a few minutes when she was 4 years old. They were waiting for a relative at Logan Airport when he turned around for a minute, and when he turned back she was gone, Patrick said.

“It was 10 minutes, maybe 15. I had no idea where this little girl was,” Patrick said, adding he found her sitting under a security desk, where a security guard told her to wait while they looked for her father.

“That 10 or 15 minutes left an incredible hold in my heart and my soul. I cannot even imagine what it is like to carry that around for months, for years,” Patrick said. “That ache has got to be just as fresh after a long period of time as it was in that first 10 or 15 minutes.”

Patrick called the Missing Children’s Day a “sober” but important occasion and promised the families that lawmakers would do whatever they could to make sure children are safe.

Sen. Stephen Brewer (D-Barre), who represents the area where Bish was killed, said he was forever changed the day she disappeared.

“It is seared in our memories. It is part of who we are. It is always in our consciousness,” said Brewer, who hosted the group.

Brewer told the parents that lawmakers “are resolute in this building and in Washington D.C.” in trying to better protect children.

Read more: https://www.heraldnews.com/archive/x1303843525/On-missing-childrens-day-Murray-pledges-trafficking-bill-passage#ixzz1NUN0A0nC

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Bill eases Child Labor Restrictions in Maine

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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Restaurants Beware: The Labor Department is Cracking Down

By RICHARD MULLINS | The Tampa Tribune

TAMPA —

The United States Department of Labor is launching a massive sweep of restaurants in Hillsborough County, which officials say is rife with violations of child labor rules and owners who short-change workers.

Department teams have already raided several hundred in recent years, and will probably approach 50 to 60 establishments in this round, according to local officials, after finding “significant child labor violations,” including children forced to work dangerous equipment.

“The restaurant industry employs some of our country’s lowest-paid workers who, especially during hard economic times, are vulnerable to exploitation,” said James Schmidt, the Wage and Hour Division’s district director in Tampa. Read more

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Hilton Signs Code of Conduct to Prevent Child Prostitution

After over a year of efforts from ECPAT-USA, anti-trafficking advocates,Change.org members, and Hilton staff, Hilton Worldwide has signed the Code of Conduct to prevent sexual exploitation of children in the travel and tourism industry.

Hilton Worldwide is only the second large U.S.-based hotel chain to sign the Code, and represents a huge step towards fighting child sex trafficking in the travel and tourism industry.

Started by: Amanda Kloer in Human Trafficking

Targeting VP, Corporate Social Responsibility (Jennifer Silberman)

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US Labor Department Fines Marcus Theatres, Regal Cinemas and Wehrenberg movie theatre chains more than $277,000 for Child Labor Violations

WHD News Release: [03/01/2011]

Contact Name: Scott Allen or Rhonda Burke

Release Number: 11-0247-NAT

Minors in 9 states found performing hazardous work, working longer hours than permitted by law

CHICAGO — The U.S. Department of Labor has assessed a total of $277,475 in civil money penalties against three movie theatre companies, Marcus Theatre Corp., Regal Cinemas Inc. and Wehrenberg Inc., for allowing dozens of teens to perform hazardous jobs and work longer hours than allowed by the youth employment provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

The Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division, through a strategic enforcement initiative aimed at curbing violations in an industry found to have a high rate of non-compliance with child labor laws, discovered approximately 160 minors were being required to perform hazardous jobs — such as operating paper balers and trash compactors, operating motor vehicles, using power driven mixers and baking — in theatres owned by the three chains. Marcus Theatre Corp. also allowed youth to work beyond permitted hours. The 27 theatres where the minors were employed are in nine states: California, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, South Carolina and Wisconsin. Read more