If you go to UNITED STATES, you may come across a 14 year old teenager putting on his work clothes after class. Several American states have relaxed the barriers governing the work of minors. The law “simply makes it legal for anyone aged 14 and over (…) to work without government authorization,” Alexa Henning, spokesperson for the state’s Republican governor, told AFP. d’Arkansaswhere the new law has been effective since August 1.
“All protections against child labor still apply,” Governor [Sarah Huckabee Sanders – ancienne porte-parole de Donald Trump] even “signed [un] bill (…) to toughen sanctions,” she added.
Less protected young workers?
“This may not seem very serious, but in reality, the impact of this law is very significant,” lamented Reid Maki, coordinator of the Child Labor Coalition organization, to AFP. The risk ? Finding children “in jobs they should not be doing”. For two years, “at least 14 States” have presented texts aimed at “eroding the protections of young workers », Explained to AFP Nina Mast, of the progressive think tank Economic Policy Institute, and co-author of a report. “By extending hours, expanding the sectors in which young people can work, allowing them to serve alcohol,…” she detailed. Iowa, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Michigan and Arkansas have, at this point, changed their laws, according to this report.
In the United States, a law has regulated the work of minors since 1938. But each state is free to adopt its own legislation, which must however remain more protective than the federal text. In Iowa, Republican Governor Kim Reynolds, by ratifying the text at the end of May, welcomed “adapted and common-sense work arrangements that allow young adults to develop their skills in the job market”. However, according to the report by Nina Mast and Jennifer Sherer, this is “one of the most dangerous setbacks in child labor laws in the country”.
Out-of-the-box applications
Democratic elected officials, opposed to this reform, contacted the Ministry of Labor. Verdict: certain provisions “appear incompatible with federal law,” according to the response sent at the end of August by Seema Nanda and Jessica Looman, two ministry officials. Employers who apply them then find themselves illegal. The country still needs to have enough labor inspectors to see this, lamented Reid Maki.
The Iowa text, for example, authorizes certain dangerous tasks, and allows those under 16 to stay on the job until 9 p.m. during school hours. Outside of the federal text, therefore, which authorizes 14-16 year olds to work up to 19 hours only during school periods, 3 hours per day, and for a maximum of 18 hours per week. To compare, France allows teenagers of this age to work during half of the school holidays only, in risk-free jobs. These reforms come as the number of illegally employed minors in the country has jumped 69% since 2018, according to the Labor Department.
2023-09-22 07:31:44
#American #states #relaxing #work #regulations #teenagers
