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Archived News Release--Caution:
information may be out of date.
For more information call: (202) 219-8211
The Labor Department conducted 547 investigations in "salad bowl"
commodities lettuce, onions, tomatoes, cucumbers and garlic -- in 1998 and
found 69 minors working in the fields. The investigations were part of targeted
enforcement to combat child labor in agriculture.
"Our salad bowl initiative tells growers that we are serious about
ending child labor in the fields," Secretary of Labor Alexis M. Herman said.
"We follow a tough strategy of targeted investigations, court orders and our
hot goods' authority to get growers' attention. We will continue to hold
agricultural employers responsible."
Last year's salad bowl activities continued a multi-year initiative of
targeted enforcement in salad bowl commodities. The crops are labor-intensive,
hand-harvested and grown in most of the country. Labor law violations have been
common.
The department has "hot goods" authority under the Fair Labor Standards
Act to stop the interstate shipment of goods made in violation of the law.
"Just the threat of stopping shipments of perishable food products is an
effective tool," said John Fraser, acting administrator of the department's
Wage and Hour Division. "We found that employers are more responsive to
correcting problems and complying with the law."
In court actions taken during the 1998 fiscal year which ended last
Sept. 30, the department obtained a consent decree forcing a Louisiana farm to
stop employing children to pick strawberries. When the department sought a
temporary restraining order against a Texas grower who hired 10 children, ages
6 to 11, to pick onions, the grower paid a $9,600 fine and signed a compliance
monitoring agreement to ensure that children would not be employed.
"The compliance monitoring contract is another tool for holding growers
responsible for following the law," Fraser said. "We now have more than 30 such
agreements with producers, processors and packers who will monitor all of their
operations for violations of child labor and other labor laws."
"In all agricultural investigations, we found nearly half of the
employers violated at least some part of the Fair Labor Standards Act or the
Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act," Herman said. "At the
same time that we are taking a tough stand through the courts and the use of
hot goods, we are doing more to encourage voluntary compliance. We've asked
several major producers to work with us to clean up this industry."
During 1998, the department conducted more than 2,000 investigations as
part in agriculture and assessed fines totaling nearly $1 million.
Archived News Release--Caution:
information may be out of date.
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