U.S. allows child labor by law but chastises other nations for human rights abuses
Daya Gamage
Thu, 2010-07-08
“We Americans proudly spend a lot of time chastising other parts of the world for what we see as human rights abuses and crimes. But given our abuse of farm worker children, especially migrant children, we are hypocrites when we chastise others”, was what one American national newspaper wrote recently.
These sentiments were expressed by Florida’s St. Petersburg Times after an investigative report released early this month by Human Rights Watch about the existence of child labor in agricultural lands in the United States was revealed.
In fact the US has failed to meet its obligations to implement International Labor Organization Convention (ILO) 182 related to the Worst Forms of Child Labor according to a new report released June 1 by the International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF). The new report, "A Matter of Urgency: US Compliance with ILO Convention No. 182 Concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labor," explains how the US does not comply with the international convention and recommends steps for protecting child laborers in the US.
The United States spent over $26 million in 2009 to eliminate child labor around the world—
more than all other countries combined—yet the country’s law and practice concerning child farm workers are in violation of or are inconsistent with international conventions on the rights of children. International Labor Organization Convention No. 182 on the Worst Forms of Child labor, ratified by the United States in 1999, prohibits children from engaging in dangerous or harmful work.
The Convention on the rights of the Child, to which the United States is a signatory but not a party, seeks to protect children from economic exploitation, and also from work that is hazardous or otherwise harmful. Additionally, because farm worker children are overwhelmingly ethnically Hispanic, the disparity in legal protections provided to agricultural workers compared to other workers in the United States has a disparate impact that is discriminatory under international law. The failure of the United States to enforce existing laws and regulations that purport to protect children working in agriculture further violate the United States’ international legal obligations.
The Human Rights Watch report called Fields of Peril: Child Labor in US Agriculture, a 99-page report that details the risks the child farm workers face concerning their safety, health, and education on commercial farms across the United States.
"Fields of Peril" found that children as young as 12 regularly toil for 10 or more hours a day, five to seven days a week. Many children start working part time at age 6 or 7. Like many adult farm workers, kids typically earn well below minimum wage, and their pay is often further slashed because their bosses underreport hours and require them to buy drinking water their employers should provide by law.
Human Rights Watch called on U.S. Congress to amend a federal law that permits children under age 18 to work for hire in agriculture at far younger ages, for far longer hours, and in far more hazardous conditions than in any other industry.
But because of what the human rights organizations call “a double standard in U.S. federal law,” children who would be banned from employment in other industries can legally be employed on farms to do backbreaking and even dangerous work.
As the Human Rights Watch investigative report "Fields of Peril," puts it:
"Agriculture is the most dangerous industry for young workers … Working with sharp tools and heavy machinery, exposed to chemicals, climbing up tall ladders, lugging heavy buckets and sacks, children get hurt and sometimes they die.
"From 2005 to 2008, at least 43 children under age 18 died from work-related injuries in crop production – 27 percent of all children who were fatally injured at work. The risk of fatal injuries for agricultural workers ages 15 to 17 is more than 4 times that of other young workers."
Human Rights Watch wants Congress to force agriculture to follow the same child labor laws that apply to other employers. The organization is also urging states to set a minimum age of 14 for farm work of any kind. It’s the second time the organization has raised the issue: A similar report, written a decade ago, led to no improvements, Human Rights Watch says.
As the report details, agriculture is a tricky industry when it comes to child labor. The rules and regulations are different than almost any other industry allowing children as young as 12 years of age to work legally in what are often times very hazardous conditions. In fact, the report cites that from 2005-2008, there were 43 minors who died from work related injuries in crop production. "The risk of fatal injury for agricultural workers ages 15 to 17 is more than 4 times that of other young workers."
In addition to these risks, the report exposes readers to the long-term health consequences often suffered by children working in agriculture who are often exposed to pesticides; suffer from injuries from repetitive motions, work despite injuries, and work despite extreme cold or heat. Crop workers on U.S. farms suffer from heat fatalities at a rate of 20 times higher than any other U.S. civilian workers.
The abuses they suffer do not end there: many must work long hours furthering their health and safety risks and affecting their school performance (if they are able to go to school at all); many children stated their employers do not provide sanitation facilities and drinking water on-site (despite the fact US federal laws requires these be provided to farms with more than 10 workers); girls also experience significant sexual harassment and violence.
All of these risks create a precarious situation for any minor working in the agricultural industry. It is no coincidence that abuse, fatalities and injuries occur at such a high rate and that even the weak laws that do protect the workers are poorly enforced. Unaccompanied migrant children, in particular, represent a significant risk group for trafficking because the ability to coerce and force these young people is stronger due to a broader set of vulnerabilities. Not to mention the risk of girls being exposed to sexual exploitation. It is interesting that it is still required to show force, fraud and coercion to prove a case of child trafficking for labor as this is not a requirement for cases involving trafficking for sexual exploitation.
The Human Rights Watch report further states:
“Hundreds of thousands of children under age 18 are working in agriculture in the United States. But under a double standard in US federal law, children can toil in the fields at far younger ages, for far longer hours, and under far more hazardous conditions than all other working children. For too many of these children, farm work means an early end to childhood, long hours at exploitative wages, and risk to their health and sometimes their lives.
Although their families’ financial need helps push children into the fields—poverty among farm workers is more than double that of all wage and salary employees—the long hours and demands of farm work result in high drop-out rates from school. Without a diploma, child workers are left with few options besides a lifetime of farm work and the poverty that accompanies it.
“In 2000, Human Rights Watch published the report “Fingers to the bone: United States Failure to Protect Child Farm workers.” This study documented the exploitative, dangerous conditions under which children worked in agriculture and the damage inflicted upon their health and education.
Highlighting weak protections in US law, it found that even these provisions were rarely enforced. Nearly 10 years later, human rights Watch returned to the fields to assess conditions for working children. We conducted research in the states of Florida, Michigan, North Carolina and Texas, interviewing dozens of child farm workers who had altogether worked in 14 states across the country. Shockingly, we found that conditions for child farm workers in the United states remain virtually as they were a decade ago.
Tthis report details those conditions and the failure of the US government to take effective steps needed to remedy them. Most notably, the government has failed to address the unequal treatment of working children in the Fair Labor Standards Act, which provides fewer protections to children working in agriculture compared with all other working children.
“Children often work performing the same motions—kneeling, stooping, or raising their arms for hours a day. Youth described pain in their backs, knees, hands, and feet, even at very young ages. Children whose bodies are still developing are especially vulnerable to repetitive-motion injury. Children work in extreme temperatures, heat and cold, from over 110 degrees in the Texas summer to snow in Michigan. In some climates the day starts cold and wet, and then turns unbearably hot.”
Let’s repeat what Florida’s St. Petersburg Times writer said:
“We Americans proudly spend a lot of time chastising other parts of the world for what we see as human rights abuses and crimes. But given our abuse of farm worker children, especially migrant children, we are hypocrites when we chastise others”.
- Asian Tribune -
asiantribune.com
"A Matter of Urgency: US Compliance with ILO Convention No. 182 Concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labor,"
Attached FilesThis report evaluates US compliance with International Labor Organization Convention 182 which focuses on eliminating the worst forms of child labor. The report demonstrates that the US is not meeting its obligations under the Convention and that urgent action is need to protect child laborers in the US and bring the US into compliance with the Convention.
A Matter of Urgency: US Compliance with ILO Convention No. 182 Concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labor | International Labor Rights Forum