Democrats and safety organizations want the US Labor Department to go further in its child labor enforcement efforts by revisiting certain limits on the types of jobs minors can work, but the Biden administration says it doesn’t have the rulemaking bandwidth to take on such an update.
Advocates have met with the US DOL’s wage regulator four times in recent months, urging them to revisit its Hazardous Occupation orders, which limit the types of job duties minors can conduct like prohibiting use of meat slicers or certain equipment. Democratic lawmakers have also pressed the agency to address its rules protecting minors at work, noting they are woefully outdated and haven’t been updated since the 1970s.
In just the last four months, recent cases have uncovered that at least 50 children were working with dangerous chemicals to clean meatpacking plants overnight, and that kids as young as 13 were manufacturing auto parts—reinforcing callson the Biden administration to strengthen the rules protecting kids while they’re at work.
“We have been very concerned about the lack of action that has occurred through multiple administrations on the Hazardous Occupation Orders,” said Reid Maki, director of Child Labor Issues and coordinator at the Child Labor Coalition. “We’ve been urging the Department of Labor under the Biden administration to open that door and start trying to fix these regulations.”
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