Iowa House approves bill to make filing child work permits optional

The question wasn't “paper or plastics?” but “paper or electronic?” when the Iowa House debated whether employers should have to file child work permits electronically or simply keep a paper copy in their files where they would be available for inspection.

“That's wrong, wrong, wrong,” Rep. Kirsten Running-Marquardt, D-Cedar Falls, said about House File 2227, which was proposed as a clean-up and modernization bill.

“The bill before us moves us one step forward … but then takes us back 100 years by saying that the employer may or may not send in the electronic form,” she said.

Running-Marquardt suggested the change would benefit employers who might want to exploit young workers. Today the law allows youth 14 and 15 years of age to work outside of school hours, but requires a work permit, signed by a school official, be on file with Iowa Workforce Development where Running-Marquardt's father once was director.

“Efficiencies? I'm all for them,” she said. “But who are we trying to protect?”

Without work permits on file, the department won't know how many young Iowans are working, where they are working, what types of work they are doing or who is employing them, she said.

Last year, she said, there were 4,254 work permits filed – 1,739 electronically. The department closed 154 investigations -- 26 initiated by complaints from the public and others from news stories, OSHA inspectors and the Workforce Development's Labor Division, which enforces the law.

Running-Marquardt noted the state has just one child labor investigator, which she called the “one safety net we have for our children.”

Floor manager Rep. Lance Horbach, R-Tama, disputed the value of having the child work permits on file with the department. When he visited the department and asked how important it was to have the permits on file, “they couldn't find the documents,” Horbach said.

Running-Marquardt's amendment failed 42-57 and the bill was approved 61-37. It now goes to the Senate.