By KEVIN WALKER
Michigan Correspondent

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has announced that it has increased its fines and penalties for illegal child labor and is stepping up enforcement of child labor laws in anticipation of blueberry picking season.

But is all of this helping or hurting migrant workers? It depends upon who is asked.

“Protecting our youngest workers is one of this department’s top priorities,” said Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, in a statement last week. “Beginning today, employers who hire children too young to work will face stiffer penalties. Work is not child’s play. When children do work, that work must be age appropriate, safe and positive, and it must not interfere with their schooling. These increased fines, coupled with important recent revisions to the child labor rules and reinvigorated enforcement by the Wage and Hour Division, will help ensure the safety of children.”

Under the new rules, employers who illegally employ children ages 12 or 13 will face a penalty of at least $6,000 per violation. If a worker is under 12 and illegally employed, the penalty will be at least $8,000. Penalties for illegally employing workers under age 14 could be raised to $11,000 under certain conditions. The new penalty structure applies to agricultural as well as non-agricultural workers, according to Scott Allen, a spokesman for the DOL’s Midwest region office.

The statement went on to specify that, for agricultural workers, children under 12 may work with their parent’s consent, but only on very small farms that aren’t subject to federal minimum wage requirements. Children ages 12 and 13 may work at farm jobs on the same farm as their parent, or with their parent’s consent. Also, no hired farm worker under 16 is allowed to work a hazardous job or work during school hours.

Also, at about the same time last week, the Detroit office of the DOL announced it was stepping up inspections of blueberry growing operations in anticipation of the harvest, which takes place in Michigan July-September.

“We will be conducting investigations on a broad scale this year, including weekends and after regular working hours,” said James Smith, director of the DOL’s Michigan district office. “Growers need to ensure that their field managers and farm labor contractors are aware of the child labor standards and take steps to make certain these standards are not violated.”

The department said it’s added 250 new field investigators over the past year to make sure small children are not working illegally in agricultural operations.

All of this comes less than a year after well-publicized busts of a number of blueberry picking operations in Michigan last year. The DOL and the media made hay over a finding that a small child, well under the legal age limit, was working picking blueberries at one of the farms. One of these operations, Adkin Blue Ribbon Packing Company of South Haven, Mich., defended itself, telling Farm World the company has a strict policy against the use of child labor and has parents sign statements indicating they understand the policy.

Tony Marr, manager of Adkin’s blueberry operation, said the DOL found one seven year-old last year that ran to her parents in a field after she got home from school, ended up carrying a bucket and got her picture taken.

Adkin hires about 350 seasonal workers each year to pick blueberries on 640 acres.

Marr also told the Farm World that parents sometimes bring children with them while they are working because they can’t find childcare and complained that the state cut out funding for migrant childcare.

“All the growers we talked to are really saddled with the problem of what to do with the children,” Marr said.

He said it’s part of the migrant culture that there are a lot of children. He complained that the people who write the rules and regulations regarding migrant workers often know little or nothing about migrant culture and that advocacy groups distort what goes on in labor camps for their own reasons.

He gave as one example new occupancy rules written by both the state and federal governments: one requires 100 square feet per person, the other 144 square feet per person. Because of the new rules he said, Adkin has had to break-up families into two houses and provide less housing overall because of it, even though the migrants like to live close together and are quite unhappy with the new arrangement.

“A lot of the rules and regulations are hurting these workers,” Marr said.