US Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Peter Welch (D-VT) Tuesday are to introducelegislation to carry companies accountable for his or her baby labor practices. The invoice, titled the Baby Labor Exploitation Act, will prohibit the US Division of Agriculture (USDA) from contracting with firms who’re both discovered responsible of committing labor legislation violations or contracting with distributors who commit labor legislation violations.
The invoice will set out 4 measures to discourage companies from illegally exploiting baby labor. First, it can require firms vying for contracts with USDA to launch their employee and labor security violations. As a part of this measure, potential contractors may even be required to reveal any labor and security violations dedicated by their contractors courting again three years.
Second, the invoice will give the US Secretary of Labor the ability to find out what corrective measures an organization and its contractors should take to be eligible for a contract with the USDA. The invoice may even require the Secretary of Labor to reveal these firms which might be ineligible for USDA contracts primarily based on their severe, repeated, or pervasive violations of labor legal guidelines.
To make sure these measures are carried out successfully, the invoice will lay out transparency measures for the USDA and Division of Labor (DOL) to comply with to make sure compliance.
Booker and Welch will introduce the invoice in response to an investigation into baby labor exploitation allegations at US meatpacking services in December 2022. The DOL discovered kids between the ages of 13 and 17 working in a single day shifts on the services.
The invoice is the latest measure within the efforts to fight baby labor, particularly migrant baby labor, within the US. In February, the DOL announced a plan of action to deal with the 69 % enhance in baby labor it discovered since 2018.
Picture supply: jurist.org
