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Archived News Release--Caution:
information may be out of date.
For more information call: (202) 219-8305
Two 10-year-old children were recently found harvesting onions in a
field outside Las Cruces, New Mexico in violation of the federal child labor
requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the U. S. Department of
Labor announced today.
Investigators of the Department's Wage and Hour Division observed the
children working on a farm owned by Charlie Tharp of Las Cruces. The children
were part of a crew being supervised by Ruben Dan Sosa, a farm labor contractor
providing services to the grower as well as a packing shed operated by Charlie
Johnson Company. The Wage and Hour Division found all three organizations to be
joint employers of the crew -- including the illegally employed children -- and
responsible for the violations.
"The Department of Labor is committed to enforcing this nation's child
labor laws,"said Secretary of Labor Alexis M. Herman. "We're determined to root
out abuses of child labor laws and when we find children being exploited we
will use all the powers of the department to stop it. We hope that targeted
investigations like the salad bowl' initiative will help us eliminate abusive
child labor."
Civil money penalties of $1800 were assessed as a result of the
violations. Neither the packing shed operator, farm labor contractor, or grower
have disputed the employment of the children, and the farm labor contractor has
paid the penalty.
In addition to paying the fine, Ruben Dan Sosa, Charlie Johnson Company,
and Charlie Tharp have signed agreements with the Department of Labor
stipulating future compliance with the minimum wage and child labor provisions
of the FLSA and agreeing not to ship "hot goods" in violation of the FLSA.
Under the hot goods provisions of the law, goods produced in violation may not
be shipped in interstate commerce. In addition, the agreement calls for the
parties to institute an effective compliance monitoring program:
- requiring training in the provisions of the FLSA all field personnel
and farm labor contractors before each and every planting season or harvest;
- performing monitoring activities for compliance at least twice daily
when agricultural crews are working in the fields, and making records of the
monitoring available to the Department;
- ceasing all production activity upon any finding of child labor
violations, until such children are removed from the field and the Department
is notified to coordinate the correction of all violations.
This case arose from an enforcement initiative that is part of the Wage
and Hour Division's targeted enforcement program in the "salad bowl"
commodities including onions, lettuce, garlic, cucumbers, and tomatoes. The
Division is conducting more than 50 enforcement sweeps nationwide this year in
agriculture with a special emphasis on child labor compliance. In April, the
Department fined 6 growers in Texas' Rio Grande Valley for hiring 36 children,
four as young as 6, to pick onions. Earlier, the Department cited a grower in
southern New Mexico for hiring children to set onions.
The FLSA generally prohibits the employment of minors under the age of
12 to work in agriculture. Minors, aged 12 and 13 may work outside school hours
in farm jobs not declared hazardous when they are employed on the same farms as
their parents or have written parental consent to work elsewhere. Fourteen and
15-year-old youth can be legally employed in any nonhazardous farm jobs outside
of school hours.
Archived News Release--Caution:
information may be out of date.
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