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workplace justice
Let’s Raise the Standard for Workplace Accommodations This Labor Day
Disabled workers are a growing portion of the labor force and a vital asset to our economy, but pandemic-era accesibility gains could end up being temporary if we’re not careful.
Sep 04, 2023
This Labor Day, it’s time to talk about disabled workers.
This issue is personal for me. I debated for years about whether to disclose my disability status to potential employers.
I have rheumatoid arthritis, which is largely managed thanks to medication. I’m extremely lucky—I get to choose whether and how to disclose my disability, instead of needing to disclose it to get access to tools I need to succeed on the job. Usually, the only visible evidence of my disability at work is when an occasional flare-up gives me pain.
We’re at a crossroads: We can either continue to build on this progress that has opened doors for an entire section of the labor force—and for improved labor policies in general—or we can undo those great strides and shut disabled workers out.
At least 1 out of every 4 Americans has a disability, and conditions like long Covid may have bumped that number even further. Millions of disabled American workers rely on a variety of visible and invisible workplace accommodations to help them do their jobs and do them well.
As the U.S. Department of Labor explains on their website, workplace accommodations “may include specialized equipment, modifications to the work environment, or adjustments to work schedules or responsibilities.” That can mean anything from adaptive technology to ergonomic office furniture to a hybrid or fully remote work schedule.
We still have a long way to go to make American workplaces around our country more accessible, inclusive, and more likely to hire and retain disabled workers. Labor Day is the perfect time to talk about how to raise the standard across the country when it comes to disability accommodations in the workplace.
Three years into the pandemic, changes in remote and hybrid work policies have transformed the job market for disabled workers, vastly expanding opportunities for employment and making it more feasible for disabled workers not only to survive but to thrive. Workplaces in turn benefit from disabled workers’ talents, perspectives, and adaptiveness.
Disabled workers are a growing portion of the labor force and a vital asset to our economy. But with a growing employer pushback against remote work and other basic accommodations, these pandemic-era gains could end up being temporary if we’re not careful.
We’re at a crossroads: We can either continue to build on this progress that has opened doors for an entire section of the labor force—and for improved labor policies in general—or we can undo those great strides and shut disabled workers out.
Despite some protections under the Americans with Disabilities Act, which just turned 33, disabled workers still face stigma when it comes to hiring, employment, and navigating workplace environments that require accommodations.
Although a lot of progress has occurred over the past several decades, workers like me can still face an uphill battle when trying to access workplace accommodations to fulfill our job duties. Doctors’ notes, medical records, complicated human resources processes, and other hurdles can be a barrier to getting even the most basic requests accommodated.
The cost for employers tends to be pretty small. A May survey of employers by the Job Accommodation Network found that fulfilling an accommodation request cost half of them nothing at all. Of those that did incur an expense, the median cost was just $300.
Meanwhile, staff-wide workplace measures like flexible scheduling, paid sick leave, intermittent breaks, or ergonomic office furniture tend to benefit everyone, not just disabled employees.
Let’s raise the standard this year. Let’s treat disability accommodations like we treat safety standards or anti-discrimination statutes—as common-sense measures that help employers retain great employees and ensure their full potential, for the benefit of everyone.
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GOP Assault on Child Labor Laws Under Fresh Scrutiny After 16-Year-Old Dies at Poultry Plant
"How many more children must die?" asked the leader of the AFL-CIO. "Any lawmaker who wants to undermine child labor laws, in 2023, is a disgrace."
Jul 19, 2023
The recent death of a minor from injuries sustained while working at a poultry plant in Mississippi has elicited fresh outrage about the dangerous implications of the current assault on child labor protections across the United States.
Authorities confirmed Tuesday that Duvan Pérez, a 16-year-old boy from Guatemala, died last Friday at the Mar-Jac Poultry plant in Hattiesburg.
Pushing back against the framing of Pérez's death as an unexpected mishap, Terri Gerstein, director of the Project on State and Local Enforcement at the Harvard Law School Center for Labor and a Just Economy, stressed that it was predictable and a crime.
"It's not an unforeseeable accident," Gerstein wrote on social media. "Employers aren't allowed to hire kids in terribly dangerous workplaces for a reason."
Pérez, a middle school student, appears to have been unlawfully employed as a sanitation worker at Mar-Jac Poultry.
The federal Fair Labor Standards Act, approved in 1938, prohibits employers from hiring anyone under the age of 18 to work in meat slaughtering, processing, and packing facilities—with limited exemptions for apprentices and student-learners who are at least 16 years old and enrolled in approved programs—due to the inherently hazardous nature of such jobs. All workers under 18 are barred from operating and cleaning power-driven meat processing machines.
CBS News reported Wednesday that Pérez died from injuries sustained while cleaning equipment.
A worker on duty at the time told NBC News that by the time they heard the boy screaming for help, it was already too late.
"Two times he began to scream, 'Help! Help!'" the worker said. "I knew he had died."
The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the U.S. Department of Labor's (DOL) Wage and Hour Division have opened investigations into the fatal incident at the Mar-Jac Poultry plant—the facility's second in two years.
Pérez's death came less than two weeks after a 16-year-old boy died while working at a sawmill in northern Wisconsin in violation of state and national child labor regulations.
"How many more children must die?" AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler asked Wednesday. "Any lawmaker who wants to undermine child labor laws, in 2023, is a disgrace."
Since 2021, lawmakers in 14 states have introduced bills to weaken rules governing what kinds of workplace tasks minors are allowed to perform and for what wages. The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) has argued that this deregulatory attack is driven by corporations' desire to ramp up exploitation.
"The trend reflects a coordinated multi-industry push to expand employer access to low-wage labor and weaken state child labor laws in ways that contradict federal protections," EPI researchers Jennifer Sherer and Nina Mast wrote earlier this year. "And the recent uptick in state legislative activity is linked to longer-term industry-backed goals to rewrite federal child labor laws and other worker protections for the whole country."
As of June, legislators have proposed at least 19 child labor rollbacks over the past two years. Of those, seven have been signed into law in five states (Arkansas, Iowa, Michigan, New Hampshire, and New Jersey). Most of the legislation has been authored and advanced by Republican lawmakers. However, Democrats in New Jersey played an integral role in passing a 2022 law that increases the number of hours children can work, and Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer declined to veto a pair of laws enacted in 2022—one to lower the minimum age for working at a liquor store and another the age to serve alcohol.
According to EPI, a GOP-approved Iowa law that took effect on July 1:
- Allows employers to hire teens as young as 14 for previously prohibited hazardous jobs in industrial laundries or as young as 15 in light assembly work;
- Allows state agencies to waive restrictions on hazardous work for 16-17-year-olds in a long list of dangerous occupations, including demolition, roofing, excavation, and power-driven machine operation;
- Extends hours to allow teens as young as 14 to work six-hour nightly shifts during the school year;
- Allows restaurants to have teens as young as 16 serve alcohol; and
- Limits state agencies' ability to impose penalties for future employer violations.
"Multiple provisions in the new state law conflict with federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) prohibitions on "oppressive child labor" involving hazardous conditions or excessive hours that interfere with teens' schooling or health and well-being," EPI pointed out.
State officials are moving to dilute child labor laws even as this month's preventable tragedies at the Wisconsin sawmill and the Mississippi poultry plant serve as heartbreaking reminders that existing state and federal protections are already inadequate and not being enforced consistently—with lethal consequences.
According to DOL data, the number of minors employed in violation of child labor laws increased by 283% from fiscal year 2015 to fiscal year 2022. Over that same time period, the number of minors employed in violation of hazardous occupation orders rose 94%.
While the agency is investigating hundreds of child labor cases, they constitute "just a tiny fraction of violations, most of which go unreported and uninvestigated," EPI lamented.
Earlier this month, Gerstein toldThe Guardian that "to stop violations of child labor laws, we need more funding for enforcement, higher penalties, and clear, attainable ways to hold lead corporations accountable for violations in their supply chains."
On April 12, U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Thomas Vilsack sent a letter imploring the nation's 18 largest meat processors to "take important precautionary steps" to help eliminate "illegal child labor in your supply chains."
"The use of illegal child labor—particularly requiring that children undertake dangerous tasks—is inexcusable, and companies must consider both their legal and moral responsibilities to ensure they and their suppliers, subcontractors, and vendors fully comply with child labor laws," the letter states. "Companies in food manufacturing—particularly those with significant market power—need to be vigilant about the standards of their suppliers to help reduce systemic violations and abuses."
NBC Newsreported last month that a federal probe into Guatemalan children working in the U.S. in violation of child labor laws "has expanded to include meatpacking and produce firms that have allegedly hired underage migrants in at least 11 states."
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Wisconsin Teen's Death at Sawmill Highlights Danger of Corporate Push to Roll Back Child Labor Laws
The current effort to weaken child labor laws across the United States "reflects a coordinated multi-industry push to expand employer access to low-wage" workers, says the Economic Policy Institute.
Jul 07, 2023
The recent death of a 16-year-old boy from injuries sustained while working at a sawmill in northern Wisconsin has drawn renewed attention to the dangerous implications of the ongoing assault on child labor protections across the United States.
The Florence County Sheriff's Office responded last Thursday morning to a 911 call for an unresponsive teenager at the Florence Hardwoods logging company. Police said the boy was taken to a local hospital before being transferred to Children's Wisconsin in Milwaukee, where he died on Saturday.
The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is investigating the fatal industrial accident. OSHA has made a referral to the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division for potential child labor violations relating to hazardous jobs.
The deceased victim was unlawfully employed. As Wisconsin Public Radioreported Monday: "In Wisconsin, minors are prohibited from working in many occupations in logging and sawmills. According to the state Department of Workforce Development, children under 18 are prohibited from entering a sawmill building. They are also not allowed to work felling or bucking timber, collect[ing] or transporting logs, operating or assisting in operating power-driven machinery, handling or using explosives, working on trestles, working on portable sawmills, working in lumberyards used for storing green lumber or using a chainsaw."
"State officials say child labor complaints more than quadrupled from 2018 to 2022. The Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development's Equal Rights Division received 18 minor employment complaints in 2018 and 86 complaints last year," the outlet noted. "Over the same period, the U.S. Labor Department says it's seen a 69% increase nationally in cases of children being illegally employed during the same period."
Wisconsin is one of 14 states where lawmakers have introduced or approved bills since 2021 to loosen rules governing what kinds of workplace duties minors are allowed to perform and for what wages. The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) has argued that this deregulatory blitz is driven by corporations' desire to increase exploitation.
"The trend reflects a coordinated multi-industry push to expand employer access to low-wage labor and weaken state child labor laws in ways that contradict federal protections," EPI researchers Jennifer Sherer and Nina Mast wrote earlier this year. "And the recent uptick in state legislative activity is linked to longer-term industry-backed goals to rewrite federal child labor laws and other worker protections for the whole country."
Of the 19 child labor rollbacks proposed over the past two years, seven have been signed into law in five states (Arkansas, Iowa, Michigan, New Hampshire, and New Jersey). Most of the legislation has been unveiled and advanced by Republican lawmakers, but not all of the blame can be placed on the GOP's shoulders. For instance, a 2022 New Jersey law to extend work hours and postpone breaks has Democrats' fingerprints all over it. In addition, Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer chose not to veto a pair of laws enacted in 2022—one to lower the minimum age for working at a liquor store and another the age to serve alcohol.
Last year, Democratic Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers vetoed a bill passed by the state's Republican-controlled House and Senate that would have increased the number of hours minors are allowed to work. Even if the Wisconsin teen's sawmill death cannot be attributed to recent attacks on child labor laws, it underscores the lethal consequences that could result from attempts to put kids back in factories.
In neighboring Iowa, for example, GOP-passed legislation rubber-stamped by Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds does the following, according to EPI:
- Allows employers to hire teens as young as 14 for previously prohibited hazardous jobs in industrial laundries or as young as 15 in light assembly work;
- Allows state agencies to waive restrictions on hazardous work for 16-17-year-olds in a long list of dangerous occupations, including demolition, roofing, excavation, and power-driven machine operation;
- Extends hours to allow teens as young as 14 to work six-hour nightly shifts during the school year;
- Allows restaurants to have teens as young as 16 serve alcohol; and
- Limits state agencies' ability to impose penalties for future employer violations.
"Multiple provisions in the new state law conflict with federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) prohibitions on "oppressive child labor" involving hazardous conditions or excessive hours that interfere with teens' schooling or health and well-being," EPI pointed out.
The law went into effect last Saturday, the same day the 16-year-old succumbed to his sawmill injuries in Wisconsin.
The tragedy in Wisconsin is also a reminder that existing state and federal laws are already inadequate.
Skip Mark, a University of Rhode Island professor specializing in labor and human rights, toldThe Guardian on Thursday that the nation's agricultural industry remains a hotbed of child labor.
"The U.S. Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 helped limit child labor in many ways. However, it did and still does not apply to the agricultural sector, where most child labor in the U.S. and most child injuries and deaths occur," Mark explained. "Child labor is most common in agriculture where children are maimed, killed, exposed to dangerous chemicals, underpaid, and we've known about these issues for decades."
"Child labor is hard to measure, and most estimates are terrible and should not be taken at face value. Governments don't want to report how bad child labor is because it makes them look bad," said Mark. "Businesses don't want to report that they have hired children because then they would have to pay fines. Children and their parents don't want to report child labor because they need the job to support themselves and would lose their job if it was reported."
Terri Gerstein, the director of the Project on State and Local Enforcement at the Harvard Law School Center for Labor and a Just Economy, shared similar concerns.
"To stop violations of child labor laws, we need more funding for enforcement, higher penalties, and clear, attainable ways to hold lead corporations accountable for violations in their supply chains," Gerstein told the newspaper.
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