Announcements Include New Inter-Agency Child Labor Task Force
Since 2018, the Department of Labor has seen a 69 percent increase in children being employed illegally by companies. In the last fiscal year, the department found 835 companies it investigated had employed more than 3,800 children in violation of labor laws. The maximum civil monetary penalty under current law for a child labor violation is $15,138 per child. That’s not high enough to be a deterrent for major profitable companies.
The Labor Department takes these egregious violations very seriously and investigates every child labor complaint they receive and acts to hold employers accountable. On February 17, the Labor Department announced the resolution of one of the largest child labor cases in the department’s history against Packers Sanitation Services, Inc. LTD. The Department of Labor currently has over six hundred child labor investigations underway and continues to field complaints and initiate investigations to protect children.
At the same time, the United States has seen an influx in migrant children from Latin America fleeing violence and poverty, a majority of whom do not have a parent in the United States. “Every child in this country, regardless of their circumstance, deserves protection and care as we would expect for our own child,” said Secretary Becerra. “At HHS, we will continue to do our part to protect the safety and wellbeing of unaccompanied children by providing them appropriate care...
A La Habra-based provider of positron emission tomography scan services has agreed to pay more than $8.3 million to resolve allegations it violated the False Claims Act by offering improper payment...