Worst teen jobs: meatpacking – National Consumers League

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Here is a list of some of the most dangerous jobs for teens.

 

Meatpacking

In addition to the five worst teen jobs that teens are legally allowed to perform, NCL would like to warn working youth to steer clear of jobs in the meat packing industry.

Although workers are supposed to be18 to work in these plants, federal immigration raids in plants in Iowa and South Carolina in 2008 found children as young as 15 working. Reports that 50 teens may have been working in the Agriprocessors plant in Postville, Iowa and the more than 9,000 child labor violations alleged against the plant by the State of Iowa have raised great alarm among child labor and child welfare advocates. Meat processing work is very dangerous, requiring thousands of cutting motions a day with sharp knives. In a visit to Postville last summer, NCL staff interviewed a young worker who cut himself while processing meat when he was only 16 years old.

One of the examples we provided in our forklift section involved a 17-year-old who was killed in a forklift accident in a meatpacking plant.

In addition to being dangerous, the work is messy, bloody, exhausting and too demanding for teens. NCL asks employers and federal and state labor investigators to make sure that no youth under the age of 18 are working in meat processing.

Agriculture

Farms look safe but they are actually very dangerous workplaces. Agriculture is consistently ranked as one of the most dangerous industries in America. In its 2008 edition of Injury Facts, The National Safety Council ranked it as the most dangerous industry, with 28.7 deaths per 100,000 adult workers. According to Kansas State University (KSU) in 2007, there were 715 deaths on farms involving workers of all ages. More than 80,000 workers suffered disabling injuries. Working with livestock and farm machinery caused most of the injuries and tractors caused most of the deaths, according to John Slocombe, an extension farm safety specialist at KSU.

Agriculture poses dangers for teens as well. According NIOSH, between 1995 and 2002, an estimated 907 youth died on American farms. Between 1992 and 2000, more than four in 10 work-related fatalities of young workers occurred on farms. Half of the fatalities in agriculture involved youth under age 15. For workers 15 to 17, the risk of fatal injury is four times the risk for young workers in other workplaces, according to U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In 2006, an estimated 5,800 children and adolescents were injured while performing farm work. Every summer young farmworkers are run over or lose limbs to tractors and machinery. Heat stress and pesticides pose grave dangers. Riding in open pickups is another danger on farms.

The dangers of farm work for youth are highlighted in the following injuries and fatalities:

  • While driving a tractor as he loaded stone in Skaneateles, N.Y. in October 2008, John Rice, 16, lost control. The tractor began rolling backwards down a hill. The tractor overturned, ejecting Rice, running him over and causing critical injuries that nearly killed him.
  • In September 2008, Jacob Kruwell, age 14, was driving a tractor in Lake Mills, Wisconsin when the wheels went off the pavement, causing the load he was carrying to shift and flip the tractor onto the young teen, killing him.
  • Matthew Helmick, 16, died when the tractor he was driving overturned on the farm that his family owned in Doylestown, Ohio in August 2008. According to reports, Helmick was turning the tractor into a driveway and made the turn too fast, hitting an embankment and causing the tractor to flip. He was pinned underneath the vehicle.
  • A 15-year-old boy, Michael Paul Young, died in June 2008 on a Western Kentucky farm as he worked beside his father and brothers. Young fell into a truck load of grain that acted like quicksand. He sank into the grain and died of asphyxiation before his family and fellow workers could rescue him.
  • In May 2008, Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez, a 17-year-old farmworker, died of heat stroke after working nine and a half hours in a California vineyard as temperatures hovered in the mid-90s. Jimenez was pregnant at the time. According to the United Farm Workers and the girl’s family, the labor contractor in the vineyard ignored California laws that require workers to be given breaks and provided with shade. Workers also said they were not given adequate amounts of water.
  • Edilberto Cardenas, 17, died in a Groveland, Florida citrus grove in January 2008—his first day on the job. Cardenas was emptying bags of oranges into a truck when then truck backed up and ran him over.In December 2006, a 10-year-old Florida youth accidentally ran over his 2-year-old brother while driving a pickup truck in a Florida orange grove. The boy had been driving trucks in the fields since he was only 8 years old.
  • A 13-year-old Illinois youth died after he became entangled in the beaters of a forage wagon. The youth was helping his cousin feed cattle in a farm pasture. The death occurred when the boy climbed on the front of the wagon to dislodge clumps of hay. The legs of his pants became entangled in the rotating beaters. The youth was spending the summer at a relative’s farm in Minnesota where the accident occurred. (September 2005)

Loopholes in current child labor law allow children to work in agriculture at younger ages than children can work in other industries. It is legal in many states for a 12-year-old to work all day under the hot summer sun with tractors and pickup trucks dangerously criss-crossing the fields, but that same 12-year-old could not be hired to make copies in an air-conditioned office building. Because of the labor law exemptions, large numbers of 12- and 13-year-olds—usually the children of migrant and seasonal farmworkers—can be found working in the fields in the United States.

An estimated 400,000 youth under the age of 16 help harvest our nation’s crops each year, and the exemptions allow even younger kids to work legally on very small farms. Field investigations by the Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs, a member of the Child Labor Coalition, have found children working in the fields at the age of 9 and 10. NCL and the Child Labor Coalition believe the long hours of farm work for children under 14 is deleterious to their health, education, and well-being and should be illegal. NCL has long supported legislation that would apply child labor age restrictions to all industries, including agriculture.

Exemptions in the law also allow teens working on farms to perform tasks deemed hazardous in other industries when they are only 16—as opposed to 18 for the other industries. For example, a worker must be 18 to drive a forklift at retail warehouse but a 16-year-old is legally allowed to drive a forklift at an agricultural processing facility. NCL does not believe such exemptions are justified. Driving a forklift is dangerous and should not be undertaken by minors.

In agriculture, 16- and 17-year-olds can work inside fruit, forage or grain storage units, which kill workers every year in suffocation accidents; they can also operate dangerous equipment like corn pickers, hay mowers, feed grinders, power post hole diggers, auger conveyors and power saws. NCL and the Child Labor Coalition, which it coordinates, are working to eliminate unjustified exemptions to U.S. Department of Labor safety restrictions based on age.

According to SafeKids USA, only about 5 percent of farms in the United States are covered by safety regulations under the Occupational Safety and Health Act. Children working on family farms with their parents are not protected by safety laws.

Construction

According to Bureau of Labor Statistics fatality records, construction and roofing are two of the ten most dangerous jobs in America. In 2007, an estimated 372,000 workers of all ages were injured in construction accidents and construction led other industries in the number of deaths among all workers: 1,178. A construction worker is nearly three times as likely to die from a work accident as the average American worker.

Young workers are especially at risk given their relative inexperience on work sites and commonplace dangers construction sites often pose. According to NIOSH in 2002, youth 15-17 working in construction had greater than seven times the risk for fatal injury as youth in other industries, and greater than twice the risk of workers aged 25-44 working in construction. In a 2003 press release, NIOSH noted that despite only employing 3 percent of youth workers, construction was the third leading cause of death for young workers.

In 2007, five working youths died in falls—a common cause of death in construction accidents. Among workers 18 and 19, the number of deaths from falls was 11.

Examples of recent teen construction deaths include the following:

  • In January, Danilo Riccardi Jr. was trying to get water from a trench so that he could mix concrete when he fell into the large room-sized hole. A muddy mixture of sand and water soon trapped him like quicksand. By the time rescuers arrived, the boy was dead, submerged under the liquid mixture. It took almost three hours to dig his body out.
  • A 15-year-old Lawrenceville, Georgia boy, Luis Montoya, performing demolition work, fell down an empty escalator shaft 40 feet to his death. According to a spokesman for the Georgia Department of Labor, minors—defined in the state as being 15 years old—are not allowed to work on construction sites. The company that employed the boy, Demon Demo had been fined by OSHA in 2005 and 2008 because workers did not wear required safety harnesses to prevent falls. The fine in the second violation was reduced from a $4,000 penalty to $2,000. Montoya was not wearing a safety harness when he fell.
  • Bendelson Ovalle Chavez, a 17-year-old resident of Lynn, Massachusetts, was fixing a church roof in September 2007 when he fell 20 feet to his death. Employed by the company two months earlier, he had received no training or information about how to prevent falls, according to a report by the Massachusetts AFL-CIO and the Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health.
  • In July 2007, James Whittemore, 17 died while taking down scaffolding at a construction project in Taunton, Massachusetts. The teen was helping his father remove the scaffolding when a pole he was holding fell against a high-voltage electrical wire and he was electrocuted. The boy died in his father’s arms.
  • That same month, Travis DeSimone, 17, was working on a Marlborough, New Hampshire farm, converting a barn into a kennel, when a concrete wall collapsed and killed him.

Roofing, siding, sheet metal work, electrical work, concrete work all pose serious dangers. Falls, contact with electric current, transportation incidents, and being stuck by objects are among the most common causes of construction accident deaths.

Federal child labor law prohibits construction work for anyone under 16 years of age (although youths 14 and 15 may work in offices for construction firms if they are away from the construction site).

Labor law regarding work at heights has some inconsistencies. Minors 16 years and older may work in heights, as long as it is not on or about a roof. They can work on a ladder, scaffold, in trees, and on structures like towers, silos, and bridges.

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Driver/Operator of Forklifts, Tractors, and All-Terrain Vehicles (ATVs)

Forklifts, tractors, and all-terrain vehicles pose dangers for many young workers. Several youth tractor accidents have been detailed in our section on agricultural fatalities and injuries. Some recent forklift and vehicle accidents involving youth:

  • On May 11th, Miguel Herrera-Soltera drove a forklift up a ramp when it tipped over. The boy fell out of the forklift and it landed on top of him. Fellow workers used another forklift to extricate the boy, but he died at the hospital.
  • In March 2008, a 15-year-old suffered a serious leg injury in a Portland, Oregon wrecking lot when a 17-year-old co-worker operating a front loader knocked over a stack of cars and part of a concrete wall collapsed onto the younger boy. No one under 18 is allowed by law to work in an auto wrecking area, or operate a front loader, according to The Oregonian newspaper.
  • John Sanford, 18, a forklift operator in Toledo, mistakenly thought he put his forklift in park. The machine was in neutral and when Sanford walked in front of it, he was pinned between a trash receptacle and the lift and killed. (December 2007)
  • A 17-year-old in California died when the forklift he was operating at a grain and hay store rolled over on him. The youth had only been employed one hour and misguidedly took the initiative to operate the forklift. (June 2004)
  • In Iowa, an 8-year-old was killed helping his father and neighbor chop hay for silage on their dairy farm. The youth was helping, driving to and from the field location on a 4-wheel ATV to assist his father hook up each silage wagon. The boy drove up a slight embankment causing the ATV to roll over on its top and pinning him to the ground. (Summer 2004).
  • A 13-year-old Arkansas youth died when the ATV he was driving tipped over on a levee between catfish ponds. The minor was pinned under the water and drowned. (March 2003).

Each year, nearly 100 workers are killed in forklift accidents. Another 20,000 workers are seriously injured in forklift-related accidents. Many of these injuries occur when workers are run over, struck by, or pinned by a forklift. U.S. child labor law mandates an age of 18 to operate a forklift unless the forklift is being operated on an agricultural facility—then the youth operating the forklift can be 16. NCL can think of no rationale for this disparity in safety standards, and child labor advocates in Washington are asking Congress to raise the age to 18 for all operators.

Tractor-related incidents are the most common type of agricultural fatality in the U.S. Increasingly, tractors are being used in non-agricultural industries, like construction, manufacturing, and landscaping. Tractor overturns are the most common event among tractor fatalities, and was the primary cause of tractor-related fatality among youth workers.

ATVs resulted in 44,700 serious injuries of youth under 16. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CSPC) reported that in 2004, 130 children under the age of 16 died in ATV accidents. The Associated Press reported that more than 100 kids died in 2006, although clearly the majority of the fatalities were in non-work-related accidents.

Drivers

Forklifts, tractors, and all-terrain vehicles pose dangers for many young workers. Several youth tractor accidents have been detailed in our section on agricultural fatalities and injuries. Some recent forklift and vehicle accidents involving youth.


  • On May 11th, Miguel Herrera-Soltera drove a forklift up a ramp when it tipped over. The boy fell out of the forklift and it landed on top of him. Fellow workers used another forklift to extricate the boy, but he died at the hospital.
  • In March 2008, a 15-year-old suffered a serious leg injury in a Portland, Oregon wrecking lot when a 17-year-old co-worker operating a front loader knocked over a stack of cars and part of a concrete wall collapsed onto the younger boy. No one under 18 is allowed by law to work in an auto wrecking area, or operate a front loader, according to The Oregonian newspaper.
  • John Sanford, 18, a forklift operator in Toledo, mistakenly thought he put his forklift in park. The machine was in neutral and when Sanford walked in front of it, he was pinned between a trash receptacle and the lift and killed. (December 2007)
  • A 17-year-old in California died when the forklift he was operating at a grain and hay store rolled over on him. The youth had only been employed one hour and misguidedly took the initiative to operate the forklift. (June 2004)
  • In Iowa, an 8-year-old was killed helping his father and neighbor chop hay for silage on their dairy farm. The youth was helping, driving to and from the field location on a 4-wheel ATV to assist his father hook up each silage wagon. The boy drove up a slight embankment causing the ATV to roll over on its top and pinning him to the ground. (Summer 2004).
  • A 13-year-old Arkansas youth died when the ATV he was driving tipped over on a levee between catfish ponds. The minor was pinned under the water and drowned. (March 2003).

Each year, nearly 100 workers are killed in forklift accidents. Another 20,000 workers are seriously injured in forklift-related accidents. Many of these injuries occur when workers are run over, struck by, or pinned by a forklift. U.S. child labor law mandates an age of 18 to operate a forklift unless the forklift is being operated on an agricultural facility—then the youth operating the forklift can be 16. NCL can think of no rationale for this disparity in safety standards, and child labor advocates in Washington are asking Congress to raise the age to 18 for all operators.

Tractor-related incidents are the most common type of agricultural fatality in the U.S. Increasingly, tractors are being used in non-agricultural industries, like construction, manufacturing, and landscaping. Tractor overturns are the most common event among tractor fatalities, and was the primary cause of tractor-related fatality among youth workers.

ATVs resulted in 44,700 serious injuries of youth under 16. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CSPC) reported that in 2004, 130 children under the age of 16 died in ATV accidents. The Associated Press reported that more than 100 kids died in 2006, although clearly the majority of the fatalities were in non-work-related accidents.

Landscaping

Landscaping and yard work is a frequent entry point into the job market for teenagers. However, the sharp implements and machinery used to do the work present dangers for teens. Often young workers are left unsupervised for long periods of time. The job also requires a great deal of time spent driving in vehicles which, as we have noted, is a dangerous work-related activity.

hese incidents highlight the dangers of outside work:

  • A 15-year-old Florida youth died of electrocution while trimming trees. The youth was standing on an aluminum ladder holding a pole saw when it hit a wire. (May 2005)A 16-year-old Oklahoma youth died when he was struck by lightening while working as a general laborer for a landscaping company. The youth was standing in the bed of a dump truck, where he was manually moving pallets of rocks from the truck to a front-end loader. The youth had worked for the company for three weeks. (July 2004)
  • A 15-year-old Maryland youth was killed when he fell into a mulch spreading truck. The machine, called a bark blower, churns mulch with a large spinning device called an auger and then disperses it through a hose. The machine had jammed and the teen had gotten on top of the truck to see why the mechanism wasn’t working. He had been with the company for a couple of weeks. (May 2004)
  • Landscaping, groundskeeping, and lawn service workers use hand tools such as shovels, rakes, saws, hedge and brush trimmers, and axes, as well as power lawnmowers, chain saws, snow blowers, and power shears. Some use equipment such as tractors and twin-axle vehicles. These jobs often involve working with pesticides, fertilizers, and other chemicals. Rollovers from tractors, ATVs, and movers are a risk. Tree limb cutting and lifting and carrying inappropriately heavy loads are another potential danger; so is handling chemicals, pesticides, and fuel. Contact with underground or overhead electrical cables presents electrocution dangers.

Federal Child Labor Law

Minors who are age 16 and older may be employed in landscaping and operate power mowers, chain saws, wood chippers, and trimmers. The operation of all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) or tractors for non-agricultural labor is only prohibited if the equipment is used for transporting passengers, an activity prohibited for minors under age 18.

Traveling Sales Crews

Parents should not allow their children to take a traveling sales job. The dangers are too great. Without parental supervision, teens are at too great a risk of being victimized. Traveling sales crew workers are typically asked to go to the doors of strangers and sometimes enter their homes—a very dangerous thing for a young person to do.

Frequent crime reports involving traveling sales crews suggests that the environment they present is not a safe one for teen workers. And with four in 10 worker fatalities coming from vehicle accidents, NCL urges teens not to accept any job that involves driving long distances or for long periods of time.

The Better Business Bureau (BBB) warned consumers in May 2009 that deceptive sales practices are common in door-to-door sales—the group had received 1,100 complaints in the prior year. “Experience tells us that customers aren’t the only victims of [these scams],” said Michael Coil, President of BBB of Northern Indiana, “the young salespeople are also potentially being taken advantage of by their employers and forced to work long hours, endure substandard living conditions and have their wages withheld from them.”

In May 2008, police in Spokane, Washington investigated a 16-year-old’s claim that she was held as a captive worker by a door-to-door sales company. She escaped after the sales crew leaders beat up her boyfriend because he wasn’t selling enough magazines.

Unscrupulous traveling sales companies charge young workers for expenses like rent and food that requires them to turn over all the money they ostensibly make from selling magazines or goods. When they try to quit or leave the crew, they are told they can’t. Disreputable companies have been known to seize young workers’ money, phone cards, and IDs and restrict their ability to call their parents. Drug use and underage drinking are not uncommon. A New York Times report in 2007 found that crew members often make little money after expenses are deducted.

Among the possible dangers:

Murder:

  • In November 2007, Tracie Anaya Jones, 19, who was a member of a traveling sales crew, was found dead of stab wounds. Originally from Oregon, Jones was last seen working in Little Rock Arkansas before her body was found 150 miles away in Memphis, Tennessee. Her killing remains unsolved and is featured on America’s Most Wanted Web site.
  • In Rapid City, South Dakota in April 2004, a 41-year-old man was charged with murdering a 21-year-old woman who came to his home to sell magazines.

Robbery: Working in unknown neighborhoods poses risks, especially if you are carrying money from sales or goods to sell.

  • Although not part of a traveling sales crew, a 12-year-old selling candy for a school fundraiser in a Jacksonville, Florida neighborhood in March 2009 was robbed by three individuals who drove up to her in a car.
  • In April 2003, a 16-year-old Texas youth selling candy was robbed and shot in the stomach by two teens.

Assaults:

  • In May 2009 in Bethesda, Maryland, a 19-year-old woman selling magazines was attacked and nearly raped by someone she encountered while selling magazines door-to-door.
  • In Lawton, Oklahoma, a 19-year-old Nevada woman was selling magazines door-to-door in February 2009 when her potential customer invited her in. The man gave her something to drink and she awoke several hours later and realized she had been raped.
  • A 19-year-old Ohio magazine sales person was assaulted by three men who expressed an interest in buying magazines. The victim was waiting for a pickup by co-workers when she was approached, abducted, and sexually assaulted (April 2003).

Reckless driving: traveling sales crews face greater risk of vehicle accidents and in many cases, crew leaders are driving without licenses or driving on suspended licenses. Vehicles are not always maintained properly and the use of 15-passenger vans in some cases presents safety concerns.

  • In November 2005, two teenagers were killed and seven were injured when the van they were riding in flipped near Phoenix, Arizona. The vehicle crossed a median strip, and ended up in the opposite lanes of a freeway. All nine occupants, who worked for a magazine subscription company, were thrown from the vehicle.
  • A month earlier, 20-year-old, James Crawford, was ejected and killed from a van crash in Georgia. Eighteen young adults were crammed into the 15-passenger van. The driver fell asleep and was allegedly driving under the influence of marijuana. The occupants were heading north from Florida to sell magazine subscriptions.
  • Two young salespersons, age 18 and 19, were ejected from a vehicle and pronounced dead at the scene after a vehicle accident in which 15 salespersons were crammed into a 10-year-old SUV that rolled over on a highway in New Mexico (September 2002).
  • In 1999, seven individuals travelling as a sales crew were killed in an accident in Janesville, Wisconsin. Five other passengers were injured, including one girl who was paralyzed. The driver of the van, who was trying to elude a police chase, did not have a valid drivers license and attempted to switch places with another driver when the accident occurred. The fatality victims included Malinda Turvey, 18, who has inspired ground-breaking legislation—Malinda’s Act—which passed in Wisconsin in April 2009 to regulate traveling sales crews.

Desertion: young salesmen have been stranded if they try to quit or do not sell enough.

Exposure: crews often work in bad weather, walking miles in blazing heat or in cold weather.

Arrest: crews often operate without proper licenses and permits and young sales people are subject to arrest.

Sexual exploitation: young workers, far from home, are at special risk of exploitation from older crew leaders and crew members.

At any given time, there are as many as 50,000 youth under the age of 18 involved in youth peddling crews.

The National Consumers League has material on its Web site that young workers should look at before they consider taking a traveling sales job here.

Busy Time for NCL’s Telecom Work – National Consumers League

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By John Breyault, Vice President of Public Policy, Telecommunications and Fraud

The past several days have seen two important developments for NCL’s work on behalf of telecommunications consumers.  First, we are proud to announce that the FCC has appointed the National Consumers League to its Consumer Advisory Committee (CAC).  Representing NCL on the CAC will be NCL Board member Debra Berlyn, who will be continuing in her role as CAC Chair.  Debbie had previously represented the DTV Transition Coalition at the CAC.  The FCC’s official notice of the appointment is available here.

The Consumer Advisory Committee was originally chartered by the FCC in 2000 (then known as the “Consumer/Disability Telecommunications Advisory Committee”) to provide advice to the Commission on issues pertaining to access for people with disabilities to telecommunications technologies, consumer education and protection, and improving consumer participation in the FCC’s rulemaking processes.  Now in its fifth term, the CAC continues to provide advice to the FCC on a range of consumer issues.  We are extremely pleased that the Commission has appointed NCL to the CAC and grateful to Debbie for agreeing to represent NCL at the CAC meetings.

The second important development in NCL’s telecom work was our filing of comments in the FCC’s Notice of Inquiry for the Commission’s national broadband plan.  The Notice was issued in response to requirements in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA — the much-ballyhooed “stimulus” bill), which directed the FCC to submit a national broadband plan to Congress by February 2010.  This effort will effectively frame the FCC’s policy with regards to the nation’s broadband infrastructure for years to come.  As such, hundreds of interest groups from the private sector, organized labor, government, and non-profit communities filed comments.   The main points in our comments include:

  • The National Broadband Plan should encourage robust competition – The one-constant in broadband going forward is that consumers will want more of it, at faster speeds, and accessible on a variety of devices.
  • Broadband access should be affordable – Universal access is insufficient if that access is unaffordable.  Broadband is as essential to life in the 21st century as electricity was in the 20th.  The national broadband plan should seek to keep rates affordable for low-income consumers.
  • Broadband should help create jobs – The ARRA places great emphasis on the job-creation potential of broadband and associated programs such as broadband mapping.  Special emphasis should be placed on innovative public-private partnerships that help to create jobs.
  • Innovative solutions that reduce the Digital Divide should be encouraged – Broadband solutions that help connect difficult-to-reach audiences should be encouraged.  In particular wireless broadband solutions (including Wi-Fi, WiMAX, and 3G cellular technology) connecting low-income consumers should be explored.  Tele-health programs should include strict measures of quality to ensure low-income users benefit.
  • Basic consumer protections should be safeguarded – Consumers should have greater control over the information they share online.  Anti-competitive business practices such as mandatory binding arbitration clauses should be restricted and anti-fraud provisions should be strengthened.

To read NCL’s full comments, click here.

Much-Needed Sick Leave Protections for Workers – National Consumers League

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By Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director

The New Deal laws that were developed and enacted during the administration of President Franklin Roosevelt (FDR) represent the framework of the social safety net that protects so many Americans today: minimum wage requirements and limits on hours workers can forced to toil; unemployment insurance for workers laid off through no fault of their own; Social Security benefits for older Americans that keep many from poverty or starvation. The New Deal accomplished so much, and yet, the women who ran the National Consumers League and their allies – like FDR and Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins – were frustrated that they could not achieve universal health coverage for all Americans.

Surely they would have been staunch proponents of providing minimal protections for working Americans to have access to paid sick leave. There’s a renewed campaign afoot to provide this basic protection for working Americans. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, almost half of full-time, private-sector workers have no sick days at all. Government data also shows a national trend toward a reduction in paid sick days. Research from The Project on Global Working Families at Harvard University found 139 nations provide paid days for short or long-term illnesses.

57 million Americans – nearly 50 percent of all private-sector workers in the United States – don’t have paid sick days. According to an ACORN survey conducted in March 2007, 50 of the largest retailers, more than don’t provide sick leave to their hourly employees. Workers need about seven sick days each year to manage their own health care. But for almost half of U.S. employees, the absence of sick pay is likely to cause them loss of income, a job or advancement, says the National Partnership for Women & Families.

So what happens when workers don’t get sick days? They go to work when they are ill, and they expose their customers and co-workers to their germs. Or they miss work and risk losing their jobs, and even if they don’t get fired, they lose a day’s (or more) pay. The consequences of a lack of paid sick days include health effects, workplace contagion, reduced productivity, turnover costs, poor recovery from illness and surgery, and increased use of healthcare resources.

ACORN, which is leading the charge for paid sick days, says almost half of working women say they must miss work when a child becomes ill, and almost half of those lose pay. Statistics show that children who lack a parent to stay home with them during their illness take longer to recover.

There are currently no federal protections to cover workers who need to take sick leave. The U.S. Family & Medical Leave Act enacted in 1993 provides only unpaid days for serious illness. There is currently no federal law guaranteeing a single day of paid sick leave to workers.

Economists estimate that “Presenteeism,” or employees who come to work sick, costs employers an average of $255 per employee per year and that American businesses lose $180 billion per year in productivity due to sickness in the workplace.

Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) and Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) have introduced the Healthy Families Act to address the need to provide a minimum of sick leave days for American workers.

The Healthy Families Act would require employers with 15 or more employees to provide seven paid sick days to care for their own and their families medical needs, benefiting 66 million Americans: 46 million would gain access to paid sick days; 19 million would gain paid sick days for leave for doctors visits and family care; and 1 million Americans would gain additional paid sick days.

The Institute for Women’s Policy Research estimates that the Healthy Families Act would result in a net savings, after covering costs of paid leave, of $8 billion per year.  Such savings are generated by reducing presenteeism, reducing employee turnover and preventing the spread of the flu.

The Healthy Families Act, HR 2460 in the House, has 105 co-sponsors. The early leaders of the NCL, who fought so hard for wage and hours protections for workers, surely would have supported this common-sense bill, and we at NCL today do as well. Workers who are ill shouldn’t have to decide whether to take their illness into the workplace or to stay home and risk losing their job – and a day’s pay. We call on members of Congress to support the Health Families Act and take a stand both for worker protections and for the health of America’s families.

Both NPWF and ACORN are taking a lead in Congress on sick pay legislation.  In addition, the Center for Economic and Policy Research has a great deal of useful research and information on this important issue.

Health Reform – For the Health of the People and the Economy – National Consumers League

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by Mimi Johnson, NCL Health Policy Associate

All signs point to health reform happening in time for Congress to take their August recess.   It will be a busy two months in this town, but everyone agrees that SOMETHING has to happen … if only we could figure out what that something will look like.

In a paper released last week, Obama’s economic advisors outlined a few of the main ways in which health care costs link to the economy, and how fixing the health care system can help fix the economy.

The Administration outlines just how our broken health care system hurts our workforce; we currently burden small employers with skyrocketing costs for covering their employees, lock workers to jobs for fear of losing health benefits, and have a workforce unable to be as productive as possible because of their health.

We were also excited to see that the President is supportive of efforts to engage and educate consumers.  The National Consumers League is committed to educating consumers about their health and the tools available to help manage it.  There is increasing evidence of the cost savings and improved health outcomes when a consumer is educated and engaged in their health care.

Because there are so many players vested in the outcome, there are a lot of competing ideas about how best to approach reform.  In fact, even those on the same side cannot always agree.  Yesterday, President Obama hosted Senators Kennedy (chair of the Senate’s HELP – Health, Education, Labor and Pensions – Committee) and Baucus (chair of the Senate’s Finance Committee) to try to find some common ground.  As follow-up to the meeting, President Obama released a letter to Senators Kennedy and Baucus reiterating his commitment to reform, including:

  • ensuring quality and affordable health care for all Americans – offering choices, an insurance exchange, and a public plan
  • managing chronic care
  • promoting best practices
  • sharing responsibility – including for the cost of coverage
  • working towards a more effective, efficient, and quality-driven system

We’re pounding the marble on the Hill, trying to get our voice heard.  If you can’t make it to Washington, here are some other good ways to stay informed and be heard:

Stay tuned throughout the summer for additional updates!

School May Be out, But LifeSmarts Lessons Are Always in Session – National Consumers League

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by Lisa Hertzberg, LifeSmarts Program Director

Students across the country are sprinting toward the school year finish line. We feel confident that the consumer smarts that LifeSmarts participants gained this year will stay with them, and won’t get thrown in the dumpster along with their biology notes on the last day of school.

While participating in LifeSmarts, students learned about their rights as workers, which will help ensure that they are treated fairly at their summer jobs this year. For a quick refresher, check this out. LifeSmarts students also know that some jobs are inherently dangerous, and before accepting a summer job they will check out which jobs to avoid at NCL’s “Five Worst Summer Jobs.”

When they get their first paycheck, LifeSmarts students they will pay themselves by putting some earnings directly into savings. This will help them work toward goals they’ve established, such as purchasing a car, saving for prom, or saving for post-secondary education. To learn, visit the LifeSmarts Financial Literacy Pilot.

Summer is the time to get more activity in their lives, and LifeSmarts students will follow the advice of sites like this one. While staying active outdoors, they will be sure to wear the appropriate sunscreen (for a quick review here), and follow the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s tips to keep themselves and others safe.

Summer is certainly a welcome time to shift gears, and we want to wish everyone a safe and fun summer!

The LifeSmarts Spring Training site remains open through June 15, but then LifeSmarts also goes on a summer schedule. Summer is our opportunity to refresh the LifeSmarts Web site, retire questions, update the questions in the online competition and practice areas, and get new materials ready for educators and students to use when they check us out again in August or September. (Coaches and students can register again beginning August 1, and students may compete beginning September 14, 2009.)

To everyone involved with LifeSmarts this year – thank you for another wonderful year!

NCL calls for investigation of KeyBank – National Consumers League

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June 3, 2009

Citing excessive fees, predatory lending, outsourcing jobs to India and other anti-worker practices by TARP recipient

Contact: 202-835-3323, media@nclnet.org

Washington, D.C. — The National Consumers League, in coalition with Consumer Action, National Association of Consumer Advocates and the Consumer Federation of California, have written a letter to the Treasury’s TARP Inspector General, Mr. Neil Barofsky, and to the TARP’s Congressional Oversight Panel, Chaired by Harvard Law Professor Elizabeth Warren, calling for an investigation of KeyBank’s current business practices and implementation of a remedial process for harm done to consumers, workers and their communities.

In the letter, the groups told officials that KeyBank has a history of engaging in predatory student lending and exposing its customers to excessive fees, and that loans to the bank will serve to undermine the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008.

Since receiving TARP funds, KeyBank’s behavior towards customers persists as a recent complaint makes amply clear. One customer has written: “Opening an account with KeyBank has been a costly mistake. I have paid overcharge fees and drafts due to the bank’s mistakes! They charge fees for everything, and have no empathy for the customer. They should be ashamed of themselves considering the economy today.”

KeyBank stands out among banks, many of whom also charge excessive fees.

“The National Consumers League and our colleagues find the practices of KeyBank toward students, consumers and workers to be totally out of sync with what the government intended when it provided bailout funds.” said Sally Greenberg, Executive Director of the National Consumers League. “We are distressed to learn that KeyBank is receiving taxpayer funded monies and believe that this is wrong.”

In addition to being involved in shady student loans and excessive customer fees, Key Bank has also engaged in anti-worker behavior, such as providing financing for a company engaged in extensive workers rights abuses, and outsourcing many of its information technology jobs to India. This acts against the interests of the very communities these funds are supposed to be helping.

“We implore the Federal authorities to review their decisions to provide funds to KeyBank, and ensure that the bank’s practices are consistent with the public interest,” said Ira Rheingold, Executive Director of the National Association of Consumer Advocates.

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About the National Consumers League

The National Consumers League, founded in 1899, is America’s pioneer consumer organization. Our mission is to protect and promote social and economic justice for consumers and workers in the United States and abroad. For more information, visit www.nclnet.org.

Downey’s Perkins Bio a Must-Read – National Consumers League

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by Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director

It’s rare for me to read a work of nonfiction that is a page turner, but I’m reading such a book right now. It’s the new biography of nation’s first female cabinet member and Secretary of Labor, Frances Perkins. The author is the former Washington Post business reporter Kirsten Downey, and she has produced a riveting biographical sketch of Perkins, who changed her name from Fannie to Frances because she thought the latter was more dignified. I didn’t want the book to end; I pored over each chapter as though I was reading a work of great suspense, eager for the next chapter.

The book title is “Woman Behind the New Deal – The Life of Frances Perkins, FDR’s Secretary of  Labor and His Moral Conscience,” and it’s written with clarity and filled with valuable nuggets of information, has a feminist perspective, and includes a unique perspective that is not found in the usual accounts of this New Deal era.

The National Consumers League figures large in the life of Frances Perkins. Florence Kelley, the League’s first leader, spoke at Perkins’ college, Mt. Holyoke, in 1902, and Perkins was captivated by this powerful orator. Kelley spoke about her new organization, the National Consumers League, and its efforts to eradicate child labor and eliminate sweatshops. Kelley was fiery, energetic, and filled with idealism. Perkins, after graduating from college, ran the League’s New York chapter, focusing on four areas: poor conditions in cellar bakeries, long hours and poor wages for children, child labor, and workplace fire hazards.

Shopgirls suffered some of the worst conditions working for Bloomingdales, Altman’s  and Macy’s: they worked very long hours (14-16 hours) for very low pay. While lobbying for the League, Perkins developed a friendship with Former President Teddy Roosevelt, who endorsed the NCL’s efforts to restrict child labor in a letter he allowed Perkins’ to circulate widely.

Again, while lobbying for the League in Albany, Perkins became acquainted with Franklin Delano Roosevelt. When he was elected president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt asked Perkins to be his Secretary of Labor. Perkins went on to serve all of FDR’s four terms – the last was cut short by his untimely death – but FDR so relied on and trusted Perkins he rejected her offers to resign as Labor Secretary. All the while, her fellow cabinet members – all male – mocked her style of speaking and were jealous of her close relationship to FDR.

Perkins is responsible for so much more than any of us probably realize. That is why Downey’s book title is so apt. As labor secretary, Perkins worked to pass unemployment insurance, Social Security, and the law setting wage and hour restrictions known as the Fair Labor Standards Act.

In an interesting historical twist, Downey suggests that Perkins was probably also responsible, indirectly, for the election of Harry Truman as president, once he ran on his own after serving out FDR’s aborted final term. Perkins persuaded Eleanor Roosevelt to endorse Truman, something she had been reluctant to do because she was unhappy that the new president had let Perkins go as Labor Secretary in his new cabinet. Eleanor thought it was important to have a woman in the cabinet.

But Perkins prevailed on Eleanor, who was a highly respected democrat in 1948 whose voice carried a lot of weight, to make a strong appeal to democrats to support Truman for President. As history reminds us, this was a very close race between Truman and Thomas Dewey, so much so that newspapers called the election for Dewey. Eleanor’s voice probably turned the tide of history and resulted in Truman’s ultimate victory.

Downey brings out aspects of Perkins’ life (her husband was bi-polar, couldn’t work for much of his life, spending many years in an institution, and her daughter suffered from mental illness as well) and career that have been missing in other biographies of the first female labor secretary. Perkins soldiered on, never allowing prejudices to hold her back.

Today we have another female labor secretary, Hilda Solis, who works at DOL in the federal building named for Frances Perkins and is supportive of the needs and concerns of working men and women. This book is a timely and invaluable contribution to our understanding of the New Deal and programs intended to provide that social safety net that made America a model for the rest of the world.

NCL releases top 10 frauds of 2008 – National Consumers League

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June 2, 2009

With economy in shambles, group warns consumers are at increased risk of falling for scams

Contact: 202-835-3323, media@nclnet.org

WASHINGTON, DC – The National Consumers League (NCL) has released its annual ranking of the top telemarketing and Internet scams plaguing consumers in 2008, with Fake Check Scams, Internet Merchandise Scams, and Prizes/Sweepstakes/Free Gift Scams topping the list. NCL’s Fraud Center, which collects reports directly from consumers, tracks emerging scams and trends, and relays complaints to relevant law enforcement and consumer agencies in the United States and Canada, is reminding consumers today that, no matter how pinched they are feeling in the pocketbooks, they must keep a level head in this shaky economy.

2008 Top Overall Scams (read full report)

  1. Fake Check Scams
  1. Internet: Gen Merchandise
  1. Prizes/Sweepstakes/Free Gifts
  1. Phishing/Spoofing
  1. Nigerian Money Offers (not prizes)
  1. Internet: Auctions
  1. Advance Fee Loans, Credit Arrangers
  1. Lotteries/Lottery Ticket Buying Clubs
  1. Friendship & Sweetheart Swindles
  1. Magazines

“Consumers are losing money to scams by the billions, and in this economic environment, they really can’t afford the losses,” said Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director, the nonprofit consumer group that has operated the national Fraud Center since 1992. “The consumer marketplace is challenging enough without the unscrupulous tactics of scam artists thrown into the mix. We’re issuing this reminder today to consumers to keep a level head about offers that seem to be ‘can’t lose’ or ‘no risk’ situations and be on their guard for fraud.”

New noteworthy trends among fraud complaints in 2008 include an increase in the use of the Internet (36.3 percent) and postal mail (25.5 percent) as the method of initial contact by scammers. The two methods replaced email (25.4 percent) which had been the most common method of contact in previous years. In telemarketing scams, fake check fraud continued to dominate, accounting for more than three-fifths (61.2 percent) of all telemarketing fraud complaints logged by consumers. Among scams perpetrated online, Internet merchandise-related complaints (in which consumers lose money on goods purchases at Internet Web sites other than online auctions) bumped fake check schemes from the number one spot on the Internet frauds list.

“Complaints to our Fraud Center tell a variety of stories about consumers being victimized by telemarketing and Internet scams, but there’s a common thread throughout,” said John Breyault, Director of NCL’s Fraud Center and Vice President for Public Policy, Telecommunications and Fraud. “The con artists making a living perpetrating these scams are, needless to say, good at what they do. Fraud can happen to anyone, of any age, at every level of education. No one is immune from scams. It’s more important than ever that fraud victims come forward to share their stories, help prevent other consumers from falling victim, and bring scammers to justice.”

The nonprofit NCL’s Fraud Center, unique among consumer organizations, was created in 1992 to combat the economic menace of telemarketing fraud, and in 1996, expanded its fraud-fighting efforts to include scams in cyberspace. The Fraud Center’s www.fraud.org. Web site is a consumer resource with information on the most common telemarketing and Internet scams. Consumers can report suspected fraud using the online complaint form. The Fraud Center transmits reports to the appropriate agencies among more than 190 law enforcement and consumer protection authorities in the U.S. and Canada that participate in the Fraud Center’s “early warning” system. These reports alert agencies to emerging scams and help put them in touch with victims, while providing the necessary ammunition to investigate and shut down fraudulent operations. To learn more about the top Internet and telemarketing frauds of 2008, visit www.fraud.org.

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About the National Consumers League

The National Consumers League, founded in 1899, is America’s pioneer consumer organization. Our mission is to protect and promote social and economic justice for consumers and workers in the United States and abroad. For more information, visit www.nclnet.org.

This Week in Consumer Policy – National Consumers League

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By John Breyault, Vice President of Public Policy, Telecommunications and Fraud

Recent weeks have been historic ones for consumers from a public policy perspective.  On Wednesday, June 20, President Obama signed in to law two pieces of legislation designed to protect consumers from predatory lending in the housing market – the Helping Families Save their Home Act and the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act.   Scarcely 48 hours later, the President signed an even more far-reaching piece of pro-consumer legislation, the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure Act (CARD Act).  NCL was at the White House to witness history and celebrate these hard-won victories.   After nearly a decade of playing defense on consumer protection in Washington, it seems like the pendulum is finally swinging back in consumers’ favor.

As the nation’s oldest consumer organization, we’ve seen our fair share of the daily back-and-forth that characterizes the way that public policy is crafted in Washington.  To outsiders, the process can often seem mind-numbingly confusing in its complexity.  To address this issue, we’d like to occasionally highlight the most important consumer issues bubbling up here in Washington and attempt to explain how they can affect consumers.

The legislation noted above is hugely significant, making consumers better off than they were before these laws went into effect.  However, there is much work to be done.  This week, Congress returns from its Memorial Day recess to face a host of consumer issues.   Highlights include:

  • FTC Business Opportunity Rule Workshop – Monday, June 1, 9:00 AM – The day-long public workshop will explore proposed changes to the FTC’s Business Opportunity Rule, requiring that companies selling business opportunities (such as franchises)  provide a one-page Business Opportunity Disclosure Form to prospective purchasers.   Information to help consumers and businesses avoid business opportunity fraud is available from the FTC by clicking here.
  • Legislative hearing on the discussion draft of the Food Safety and Enhancement Act of 2009 – Wednesday, June 3 , 10:00 AM –  Coming on the heels of the a rash of food safety scare involving salmonella in peanut products, melamine in milk, and E coli in spinach, this bill would increase the oversight authority of the Food and Drug Administration and give the agency additional resources to carry out this increased oversight role (click here for a bill summary and click here for additional analysis from The Washington Post).  Health Subcommittee of House Energy and Commerce Committee, 2123 Rayburn House Office Building.
  • FCC Open Commission Meeting Focuses on DTV Transition – Wednesday, June 3, 9:30 AM – The FCC’s meeting will include presentations by the agency, industry, and consumer groups involved in the DTV transition.  In February, NCL supported the DTV Delay Act, which moved the deadline for analog-broadcast shutoff to June 12.  NCL is a member of the DTV Transition Coalition.
  • Senate Commerce Committee Hearing: “GM And Chrysler Dealership Closures: Protecting Dealers And Consumers” – Wednesday, June 3, 2:30 PM – The announced closure of more than 4,300 Chrylser and GM dealerships over the next two years will have a big impact on local communities, jobs, and broadcast and print journalism (dealers are among the largest local advertisers).  In addition, millions of Chrysler and GM cars currently on the road will continue to need to be serviced.  These closures will have an impact on consumers looking to these dealerships for that service. Click here for additional information.

As you can see, this week is shaping up to be a busy one for consumer advocates!  If you know of an event that we missed, please feel free to email me at johnb@nclnet.org.