Union leaders, activists sound alarm on child labor in Iowa

CEDAR RAPIDS — Area labor activists and union leaders gathered Tuesday in Cedar Rapids to push back on protests over child labor enforcement in Iowa in the wake of a new state law loosening work requirements for teens that conflicts with federal regulations.

The Hawkeye Area Labor Council and the CR/IC Building Trades held a roundtable discussion about recent changes to state child labor laws they say have created new dangers for teens and legal troubles for Iowa businesses.

“The child labor law has effectively turned back the clock of time 1920s,” Cedar Rapids/Iowa City Building Trades Council President Mike Sadler II said.

State lawmakers last year passed a law allowing teens to work longer hours and at more jobs, including those formerly off-limits as being hazardous. The changes conflict with stricter federal requirements, and Iowa businesses are purportedly facing steep fines ranging from $50,000 to $180,000 that could cause them to close if they follow state rules.

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The 2023 measure makes several changes to Iowa’s youth employment laws, including the ability for Iowa employers to apply for a waiver for 16- and 17-year-olds to participate in approved work-based learning or work-related programs involving certain hazardous work, so long as they take part in an approved training program with adequate supervision and safety precautions. A parent must also grant permission.

Those jobs include roofing, woodworking, and operating power saws and power-driven metal forming, punching and shearing machines, as well as demolition and excavation. The state law also permits workers 16 to 17 years old to serve alcohol in restaurants, with parental permission and adult supervision after training.

Teens who are injured on the job can still seek workers' compensation through the state.

Federal law

Federal law prohibits anyone under 18 years old from working in hazardous occupations and bans 14- and 15-year-olds from performing any work that is listed under the hazardous occupations orders. Currently, there are 17 of these occupations that have a partial or total ban.

The regulations provide a limited exemption for apprentices and student-learners who are at least 16 years of age and enrolled in approved programs.

“However, under federal law, 16- and 17- year-olds cannot work in these hazardous occupations, and there is no exception for 16- and 17- year-olds participating in apprenticeships or student-learner programs meeting the conditions described,” according to the federal labor department.

The state law also includes a provision allowing 14- and 15-year-olds to work as late as 9 p.m. on school nights and as late as 11 p.m. during the summer. It also permits those 14- to 15-year-olds to work up to six hours per day and 28 hours per week during the school year.

Federal law specifies younger teens can work only until 7 p.m. during the school year and until 9 p.m. during the summer, and limits them to working no more than three hours on school days and 18 hours a week when school is in session.

The issue

Supporters have said the bill provides more opportunities for young Iowans who want to work and learn important skills while protecting their safety, and could help address the state’s shortage of workers.

Democrats, labor unions and others have criticized the bill for putting young Iowans at risk in dangerous jobs and creating confusing, contradictory rules for Iowa businesses to follow.

Iowa’s governor and all-Republican congressional delegation have called on the U.S. Department of Labor to reassess its enforcement of teen labor laws in the wake of issuing tens of thousands of dollars in fines to several Iowa restaurants.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, the Iowa Restaurant Association and Iowa’s congressional delegation allege federal investigators are being heavy-handed, overzealous and singling out Iowa businesses.

Reynolds, in a statement last week, said the health, safety and well-being of Iowa youth is a high priority, “but the U.S. Department of Labor's position that a teenager working at a family-owned restaurant past 7 p.m. on a school night qualifies as oppressive child labor is absurd.”

“The department is excessively fining small Iowa businesses to the point of closure for violating outdated child labor regulations that were set in the 1930s,” Reynolds said. “Our workforce and workplaces look much different than they did 85 years ago, and Iowa's child labor laws reflect that. It’s time the DOL update its own regulations to recognize the reality of our modern work world.”

16 states cited

The Labor Department denies singling out Iowa. So far this year, the department says it has found child labor violations in 16 states, with ongoing investigations in several others.

Federal labor officials as well warned employers covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act who follow the less-restrictive Iowa law that they would be subject to penalties.

In March of last year, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Solicitor of Labor Seema Nanda warned that “the department has and will continue to vigorously enforce child labor protections across the nation."

The Department of Labor has said no child should be working long hours, doing dangerous work or be employed in unsafe conditions.

‘Alarming rise’

Speakers Tuesday highlighted an alarming rise of child labor violations across the country and emphasized the importance of safe and age-appropriate work opportunities for children.

“A lot of what you see are one very consistent trend, which is every year the restaurant industry has the highest number of overall violations in the country,” Jen Sherer, president of the Iowa City Federation of Labor, said.

“And second, we're also seeing an alarming rise of instances of extremely hazardous instances of child labor,” including children as young as 14 years old working on overnight sanitation shifts at slaughtering and meat packing facilities in Sioux City and showing up on construction sites during the middle of a school day.

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State Rep. Sami Scheetz, a Cedar Rapids Democrat and union organizer for the Teamsters, recounted reporting safety and potential child labor violations last year, before the new law took effect, during a tour of construction underway at 501 Fourth Ave. SE, the Banjo Block in downtown Cedar Rapids.

Sherer said the Iowa Restaurant Association has consistently misled its members by encouraging them to ignore federal child labor laws, thereby inviting federal scrutiny. She also accused state agencies of providing misleading information on child labor laws, leading to confusion among employers.

Sherer said the U.S. Department of Labor has been focusing on restaurant enforcement for years, with a goal of deterring future violations, and is using more enforcement tools to result in higher penalties in egregious cases.

Sherer said changes made by lawmakers last year also limited the state’s enforcement authority.

“So we have a situation where our state has removed itself essentially from a proactive role in protecting kids in the workplace, and left it up to the federal Department of Labor to play that role,” she said.

Protecting youth

Sherer and other speakers said the federal standards are based on decades of research to ensure work does not interferes with schooling, health or the well-being of children.

“It protects children from being exploited by employers, who in some cases may only want to hire children for labor because it's cheaper and easier to actually exploit them,” said Felicia Hilton, political director with North Central States Regional Council of Carpenters.

Ayman Sharif, executive director of the Center for Worker Justice of Eastern Iowa, said teen workers in Iowa already face labor abuses, including wage theft and unsafe working conditions. He recounted receiving a complaint of unpaid wages from a 16-year-old who worked in roofing and suffered injuries falling.

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He said the center has recovered more than $250,000 in stolen wages in Iowa and is working on claims of stolen wages of more than $50,000.

“We work hard in restaurants and hotels, in farms, factories and in construction,” Sharif said. “And we believe that workers need and deserve to be treated with dignity. … However, a small nonprofit like ours is not really sufficient to stop the rising tide of this labor abuses.

“We need much stronger action by the state and federal agencies to defend the safety and basic rights of workers in our state.”

Comments: (319) 398-8499; tom.barton@thegazette.com