Dept. of Labor: Protecting Child Workers Or Employers’ Bottom Line?
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I do not envy Hilda Solis’ task at the Department of Labor. Reversing the last 8 years of not-so-worker-friendly Elaine Chao-isms is not going to be an easy task. Especially where there are these types of concerns:
In one case, the division failed to investigate a complaint that under-age children in Modesto, Calif., were working during school hours at a meatpacking plant with dangerous machinery, the G.A.O., the nonpartisan auditing arm of Congress, found.
When an undercover agent posing as a dishwasher called four times to complain about not being paid overtime for 19 weeks, the division’s office in Miami failed to return his calls for four months, and when it did, the report said, an official told him it would take 8 to 10 months to begin investigating his case.
This is not the first time problems have been reported with child labor law enforcement particularly, something that is supposed to be a sacrosanct enforcement priority at Labor. Via Jamie Parks at AFL-CIO:
On a typical day, more than 400 workers younger than 18 are hurt on the job in the United States and one is killed every 10 days. At the same time, the number of federal child labor investigations has declined by half since the Bush administration took office eight years ago….
The U.S. Labor Department has 750 investigators who look into both child labor and wage and hour complaints, 20 percent fewer than in 2001, according to Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.), who chairs the House Education and Labor subcommittee on Workforce Protections. Woolsey, who conducted hearings last September on child labor, has vowed to work with the incoming Obama administration to strengthen child labor laws and increase the number of inspectors. The current laws have been loosely enforced at best, the Observer found. Under federal law, the maximum penalty for most child labor violations is $11,000, but in 2006 the average penalty was less than $1,000.
The Charlotte Observer series that Jamie references is wrenching, intersecting poverty, despair and dangerous conditions for the kids working at a poultry plant that actively recruited underage workers because they were more "compliant." (Full series here. Part I and Part II on child labor.)
That drop in child labor enforcement and reduction of staffing didn’t happen by accident, now did it? Is it what happens when you put people who loathe government and labor organizations in charge of the Department of Labor?
Do workers’ interests get a fairer shake in a Democratic administration? I certainly hope so, and will be watching.
Turnaround in staffing and departmental culture is not going to happen overnight. But appointing Hilda Solis to Labor was a great start given her background on poverty, labor and employment fights.
Rep. George Miller will conduct a hearing in the House this morning on the GAO report, beginning at 10 am ET. Thought folks might be interested.
Morning Christy,
thanks for the hearing heads up.