DeLauro Offers Motion to Bar Wal-Mart Notification in Child Labor Inspections
DeLauro Offers Motion to Bar Wal-Mart Notification in Child Labor Inspections
- Connecticut Recently Finds Additional Cases of Child Labor Abuses -
Congresswoman Rosa L. DeLauro (Conn.-3) today offered a motion on the House floor to effectively prohibit the 15 day advance notice the Department of Labor (DOL) agreed to give Wal-Mart stores before investigating for possible child labor violations. The agreement was part of a settlement reached between DOL and Wal-Mart in January after Wal-Mart was found guilty of child labor laws in 3 states - Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Arkansas.
"Granting a two-week advance notice is essentially daring repeated child labor law violators like Wal-Mart to conceal any further violations," said DeLauro. "It is evident from the additional child labor violations recently found at Wal-Mart stores in Connecticut that this company refuses to comply with labor laws designed to protect our children."
Earlier this week, the state of Connecticut announced that 11 additional child labor violations were found in 3 Wal-Mart stores in the state. Three violations involved the store not even bothering to check the age of their workers. The Governor of Connecticut has recently ordered periodic, unannounced visits by state Department of Labor inspectors at Wal-Mart stores to ensure that any future violations are promptly revealed and addressed.
"If a state government can get tough on a child labor violatorparticularly one that happens to be our nation's largest private employerthere is no reason the Federal government should not be able to as well," said DeLauro. "Congress needs to send Wal-Mart a message - that companies who violate child labor laws will not be tolerated."
DeLauro's amendment, offered to the Fiscal Year 2006 Labor HHS Appropriations bill, would prohibit DOL from using federal funds to enforce the 15 day advance notice. According to the agreement, Wal-Mart is also given a 10-day period to correct any problem following a finding of a violation even when a child's safety is at stake.
Wal-Mart has a history of prior child labor violations. In 2000, Wal-Mart paid $205,650 to resolve a case involving 1,436 violations of Maine state child labor violations in 20 stores. Last year alone, Wal-Mart's own internal audit found 1,371 violations of child-labor laws between 1997 and 1999.
http://www.house.gov/delauro/press/2005/June/walmart_amendment_06_24_05.html