Child agricultural labor rule: Not just dead, but erased from DOL's website

[Omaha Steve]

http://scienceblogs.com/thepumphandle/2012/05/child_agricultural_labor_rule.php#more

Posted on: May 4, 2012 3:00 PM, by Celeste Monforton



This time last week, many of us in the public health and workers' rights community were still in shock by the Obama Administration's decision to withdraw its proposed regulation to protect children in the U.S. who work on farms. Others weren't really surprised and simply chalked it up to the Administration caving into energetic attacks by the American Farm Bureau, Republicans in Congress (and some Democrats, too) and anti-regulation spinmaster radio hosts. The proposal recommended that children aged 15 years and younger---who are being paid as employees----be prohibited from doing some of the MOST dangerous tasks on farms. The 13 hazardous tasks included working in grain silos (where they can be fatally engulfed in grain), and working in a manure pit (where they can inhale deadly gases, pass out and drown in animal waste.) For some of the 13 hazardous tasks, child workers aged 14 and 15 would be allowed to do some of these tasks if they received special training. Is that so unreasonable?

U.S. Labor Secretary Solis is well known for her passionate speeches about the Department's commitment to address abuses of our nation's most vulnerable workers, whether they are veterans and older Americans unable to get jobs, or immigrant workers who may not understand their rights to a safe workplace. When this proposal to protect children working in U.S. agriculture was issued last fall, Solis pronounced that U.S. children employed in agricultural jobs are some of the most vulnerable workers, and the rules on the books were 40 years old and seriously out-of-date. The senior official responsible for the proposal put it even more eloquently, noting that we don't live in an ideal world where all employers assure the safety of their workers, including elementary school-age workers. Therefore, special rules to protect children are necessary.

Suddenly last week, the voices of reason for the protection of child workers on U.S. farms reversed themselves. Secretary Solis' Labor Department withdrew the proposal and declared last Thursday:

To be clear, this regulation will not be pursued for the duration of the Obama administration. (emphasis added)

FULL story at link.