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Over 100 kids illegally employed in hazardous jobs, contractor pays $1.5M fine

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Re: Over 100 kids illegally employed in hazardous jobs, contractor pays $1.5M fine

#41

Post by aaomidi »

oramit wrote: post #19

"Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, the department assessed PSSI $15,138 for each minor-aged employee who was employed in violation of the law. The amount is the maximum civil money penalty allowed by federal law." Wow, I knew that labor laws in the US were toothless but to have it spelled out like this is so depressing. A max penalty of ~15k per violation, just bravo team, bravo.

I got called insane for saying politicians don't care about people and outright hate people yesterday https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35125683

Here's more evidence.

Re: Over 100 kids illegally employed in hazardous jobs, contractor pays $1.5M fine

#42

Post by ryandrake »

throw93 wrote: post #22

Meanwhile Iowa proposes bill to do exactly this. https://www.weareiowa.com/amp/article/money/business/sf-167-...

These people would rather bring back child labor and The Jungle than offer a wage for work that is even barely high enough for an adult to accept.

Re: Over 100 kids illegally employed in hazardous jobs, contractor pays $1.5M fine

#43

Post by HollywoodZro »

I saw a POV documentary on PBS about kids from undocumented families and some of them are US citizens since the kids were born here.

But there were many instances where these kids work nights, then try to go to school during the day. It's the life they have to live to try and help support their family.

It's a terrible situation, but almost always better than what they faced in their home country.

Re: Over 100 kids illegally employed in hazardous jobs, contractor pays $1.5M fine

#44

Post by sokoloff »

mischanix wrote: post #33
sokoloff wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Presumably variable gross profit is the measure to refer to/compare against, rather than revenue.

So if I rob a bank for $2MM, but spend $1.95MM on contractors to do the job, I should only be fined $50k?

If you want to understand whether there are systemic forces at play which serve to reinforce an undesirable behavior, you should compare the fine to the expected profit not to the expected revenue.

Re: Over 100 kids illegally employed in hazardous jobs, contractor pays $1.5M fine

#46

Post by willcipriano »

nostromo wrote: post #21

There are millions of undocumented workers in the US using fake identities to get jobs. Both major parties support this system. Some Republican interests enjoy the access to dirt-cheap labor. Some Democratic interests want immigrants to be able to find jobs despite it being illegal to employ them. So we end up with a system where employers have no easy way to verify that an employee is who they say they are and has a…

Democrats want the cheap labor as well, as illustrated famously: "Who's going to clean your toilets Donald Trump?"[0]

[0]https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=a8INEYLFWwc

Re: Over 100 kids illegally employed in hazardous jobs, contractor pays $1.5M fine

#47

Post by kneebonian »

A couple of highlights:

> KIELER, WI – One of the nation’s largest food safety sanitation services providers has paid $1.5 million in civil money penalties after the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division found the company employed at least 102 children – from 13 to 17 years of age – in hazardous occupations and had them working overnight shifts at 13 meat processing facilities in eight states.

> Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, the department assessed PSSI $15,138 for each minor-aged employee who was employed in violation of the law. The amount is the maximum civil money penalty allowed by federal law.

Child labor is one issue to deal with but I am getting pissed off at the non-enforcement/selective enforcement of laws we are seeing in society, it doesn't matter what laws we have if they aren't enforced and routinely ignored.

Re: Over 100 kids illegally employed in hazardous jobs, contractor pays $1.5M fine

#48

Post by aaomidi »

organsnyder wrote: post #4

Did the company make more than $1.5M in additional revenue due to employing those 100+ kids (plus the others that are likely to have never been identified)?

The fines for doing this should not depend on company revenue or profit.

It should be that every single exec in charge of that company is never allowed to have any decision making power again in any industry. After a substantial jail time.

Every exec involved here should be personally liable too, and be forced to have their assets sold to cover a huge pay out to these kids. These kids should never have to work again a day in their lives. And if the assets aren't enough, then we should have tax payer money go and make things right for these kids.

Re: Over 100 kids illegally employed in hazardous jobs, contractor pays $1.5M fine

#49

Post by anonymouskimmer »

stonemetal12 wrote: post #31
DeathArrow wrote: post #20

Is it legal to work in the USA if you are 13 years old?

In non farm jobs, No.

Sure it is. The Federal labor laws only apply to businesses engaged in interstate commerce (individual state laws apply locally). But even then exemptions are listed on page 5 of this non-copypastable PDF: https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/WHD/legacy/files/chil...

https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/youthrules/young-workers

If you are under the age of 14, you are only allowed to do the following jobs:

- Deliver newspapers to customers

- Babysit on a casual basis

- Work as an actor or performer in movies, TV, radio, or theater

- Work as a homeworker gathering evergreens and making evergreen wreaths; and

- Work for a business owned entirely by your parents as long as you are not employed in mining, manufacturing, or any of the 17 hazardous occupations.

Re: Over 100 kids illegally employed in hazardous jobs, contractor pays $1.5M fine

#50

Post by legitster »

nostromo wrote: post #21

There are millions of undocumented workers in the US using fake identities to get jobs. Both major parties support this system. Some Republican interests enjoy the access to dirt-cheap labor. Some Democratic interests want immigrants to be able to find jobs despite it being illegal to employ them. So we end up with a system where employers have no easy way to verify that an employee is who they say they are and has a…

> This is such an easy problem to solve

Is it though? I'm absolutely an advocate for eliminating all visa/green card restrictions, but I would by no means say it's an easy problem to solve. There are a lot of downstream implications for unions, housing markets, education, Medicaid, etc. I think these are worthy problems to get to, but I absolutely understand why politicians would rather play dumb.

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