U.S. to crack down on child labour amid surge in violations

Washington: The U.S. government has announced measures to clamp down on child labour in the country following amid a steep rise in violations and media reports by Reuters and other news outlets detailing the illegal employment of minor refugees and migrants in dangerous industries.

U.S. officials said the Labor Department had seen a nearly 70% increase in child labour violations since 2018, including in hazardous occupations. In the last fiscal year, 835 companies were found to have violated child labour laws.

Hundreds of companies that employed nearly 4,000 children last year were found in violation of federal labour laws, a dramatic increase in the last five years.

The growing problem has put Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra in the hot seat, with concerns mounting that migrant children have been discharged from shelters and out of federal custody too quickly, pushing them into vulnerable situations where they’re more likely to become victims of child labour.

President Joe Biden still has “full confidence” in Becerra, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Monday when asked about the secretary’s job in light of the new report.

“Of course, the president does not believe that processing migrants should be treated like an assembly line, and neither does Secretary Becerra,” she said.

Becerra has long been viewed as an advocate for immigrants. He often talks about his own parents’ experience immigrating from Mexico to the U.S.

U.S. officials told reporters on a Monday conference call that the administration was probing the employment of children at companies including Hearthside Food Solutions and suppliers to Hyundai Motor Co <005380.KS>. It has created an interagency task force on child labour and plans to target industries where violations are most likely to occur for investigations.

The Democratic administration of U.S. President Joe Biden is also pushing for heavier penalties for companies that violate these laws, and more funding for enforcement and oversight, they said. U.S. federal law prohibits people under the age of 16 from working in most factory settings, and those under 18 are barred from the most dangerous jobs in industrial plants.

“This isn’t a 19th-century problem, this isn’t a 20th-century problem, this is happening today,” said one of the officials on the call. “We are seeing children across the country working in conditions that they should never ever be employed in the first place.”

The maximum civil monetary penalty is currently just $15,138 per child, the administration noted in a press release, a figure that’s “not high enough to be a deterrent.”

A weekend expose by The New York Times reported on an increased presence of migrant minors — some as young as 12 years old — working in sectors across the US economy, from car factories to construction sites and delivery services.

The Times’ investigation identified more than 100 migrant children, some as young as 12 years old, who say they’re working overnight shifts and dangerous jobs for companies big and small throughout the U.S.

Earlier this month, a major food safety sanitation company paid $1.5 million in penalties for employing more than 100 teenagers in dangerous jobs at meatpacking plants in eight states, following another Labor Department investigation.

Separately, the Biden administration said earlier this year it will speed up the deportation relief process for immigrants in the United States illegally who witness or experience labour abuses.

“We also absolutely need to protect workers who do come forward and participate in wage and hour and other worker protection investigations and activities,” one official said on the Monday call.

The administration has struggled with how to respond to a surge of migrants, including children who travel alone, at the U.S. border since Biden first took office. In the fiscal year that ended last September, migrants were stopped 2.38 million times, up 37% from 1.73 million times the year before. The total was more than twice the highest level during Donald Trump’s presidency in 2019.

With inputs from agencies.

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