Excessive fees, misleading cancellation insurance products drive up airline profits at consumer expense – National Consumers League

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September 23, 2013

Contact: NCL Communications, Ben Klein, (202) 835-3323, benk@nclnet.org

Washington, DC – Rising cancellation fees, unaffordable refundable tickets and misleading travel insurance marketing have become hallmarks of the airline industry’s growing drive to profit from life’s unpredictable events. Findings in a new National Consumers League (NCL) report suggest that the airlines are supplementing cancellation/change fees revenue with commissions from the sale of travel insurance policies that are often misleadingly marketed to consumers.

“The fact is, stuff happens and consumers may need to change or cancel a flight. We think it’s a bad business practice for airlines to rely on life’s unpredictability – a child’s broken arm, a parent needing to be taken to the hospital, a cancelled conference – to bring in billions of dollars in revenue,” said Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director. “What’s worse, consumers who want to hedge against the risk of expensive change fees by buying travel insurance often find that they aren’t covered when the unexpected happens.”

Notable statistics from NCL’s report, entitled “$tuff Happens: Airlines Benefit Handsomely From the Unexpected … and Consumers’ Fears About It,” include:

  • Cancellation/change fees now account for more than $2.5 billion in airline revenue, an increase of more than 176 percent since 2007;
  • Annual sales of travel insurance and related services increased by approximately 46 percent from 2006-2012 to $1.9 billion;
  • Trip cancellation/interruption policies — the type most often marketed to consumers by airline Web sites and online travel agencies — accounted for 94 percent of travel insurance premiums in 2012, an increase of more than 22 percent since 2006;
  • Refundable tickets are not an affordable alternative for most consumers. On average, the least-expensive refundable ticket is 350 percent more expensive that the least-expensive non-refundable ticket (which make up more than 80 percent of all tickets sold).

As a hedge against rising cancellation/change fees and prohibitively expensive refundable tickets, it is logical for consumers to look to travel insurance. Unfortunately, travel insurance policies are misleadingly marketing by online travel agencies and airline Web sites.  Terms like “worry-free” and “peace of mind is only a click away,” encourage consumers to purchase add-on travel insurance policies during the ticket-buying process without learning about the significant limitations and exclusions hidden in the fine print of these policies.

“In comparison to a potential $200 cancellation fee, 5 percent of the cost of the ticket for travel insurance may seem like a great deal to many consumers,” said report author John Breyault, NCL Vice President of Public Policy, Telecommunications and Fraud. “All too often, however, consumers find that the protection they thought they had is denied due to pre-existing condition exclusions and other fine print.”

To address the linked issues of rising cancellation/change fees, unaffordable refundable tickets and misleadingly marketed travel insurance, NCL is recommending that cancellation/change fees be reduced to zero for changes made more than 5-10 days prior to a trip, consumers be allowed to transfer their tickets to another traveler without a fee and that standby fees be eliminated, among other reforms.

To read the full report, click here.

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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.

Don’t text and drive! #ItCanWait – National Consumers League

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Do you text when you drive? Sure, you can stay in constant contact with your friends, instantly “like” a picture on Facebook, or tweet what you just passed on the road, but it’s not worth it? More than 100,000 car crashes every year involve drivers who are texting. It can wait.

Over 75 percent of teens say texting and driving is common among their friends. This habit is widespread and deadly. AT&T’s “It Can Wait” campaign encourages teens to put down the phone when driving and focus on the road. Today, September 19, is the Drive 4 Pledges Day. Americans around the country are encouraged to sign a pledge that they will not drive and text. Texting isn’t the only distraction while driving.

In 2011, accidents resulting from drivers texting, calling, eating, reading maps, using navigation systems, and performing other distracting activities, resulted in 3,331 deaths and an additional 387,000 injuries. For teen drivers, over 20 percent of fatal crashes involved a distracted driver on a cellphone. Need a reason to sign the pledge? Watch these videos of family members telling stories of how they lost loved ones in car accidents involving distracted drivers. 

A driver who sends a text will be distracted for five seconds. Anything can happen in five seconds. Play this game to see just how dangerous it is to text and drive. In a survey of teen drivers, 97 percent of teens say texting while driving is dangerous, and yet 43 percent admit they do it. It’s time this changes. Become an advocate for the cause and pledge that you will not text and drive. This is a public health and safety epidemic; no text is worth the risk. It’s not worth it. Put the phone down. It can wait.

Interagency action an important step to protect health insurance marketplace users from scam artists – National Consumers League

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September 18, 2013

Contact: NCL Communications, Ben Klein, (202) 835-3323, benk@nclnet.org

Washington, DC – The National Consumers League, the nation’s pioneering consumer and worker advocacy organization, today applauded the announcement of a new interagency initiative to fight back against scam artists looking to take advantage of the launch of the new health insurance marketplaces.

The following statement is attributable to Sally Greenberg, Executive Director of the National Consumers League:

“Consumers will soon begin to benefit from a key part of the Affordable Care Act. The state and federal health insurance marketplaces coming on line on October 1 promise to make health care more affordable for millions of uninsured and underinsured Americans. Unfortunately, experience has shown that scam artists frequently look to take advantage of confusion about new government programs to defraud consumers. That’s why it’s so important that government agencies work together to get ahead of the threat and help protect consumers from unscrupulous con artists. The interagency initiative announced today promises to make life harder for fraudsters who want to profit from consumers’ unfamiliarity with the new marketplaces.”

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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.

Advocacy group laments DC City Council’s failure to revive ‘Livable Wage Act’ – National Consumers League

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September 17, 2013

Contact: Ben Klein, NCL Communications, (202) 835-3323, benk@nclnet.org

Washington, DC– Today the nation’s pioneering consumer and worker advocacy group expressed disappointment at the District of Columbia City Council’s failure to find the ninth vote needed to overturn DC Mayor Vincent Gray’s recent veto of the Large Retailer Accountability Act (LRAA) or Livable Wage Act. The bill would raise the hourly wage and benefits of workers at big box stores in DC to $12.50 an hour, $4.25 more than the current minimum wage these workers receive.

Initially, the LRAA passed the City Council with an 8 to 5 vote in July. One more vote was needed – a total of 9 votes – to override the Mayor’s Sept. 12th veto. The Council failed to achieve that vote today.

The Washington, DC-based National Consumers League (NCL), which had previously supported the Act and praised the DC City Council for its passage, has repeatedly called on the Council to override the Mayor’s veto. The LRAA would require DC retailers whose parent companies do more than $1 billion in sales annually, pay their employees the DC living wage and benefits of $12.50 an hour. 

NCL has a long history of supporting the interests of workers and consumers since its founding in 1899, and NCL’s first General Secretary, Florence Kelley, wrote the first state minimum wage laws in the US.

“We have urged the DC City Council to override the Mayor’s veto of the LRAA and support the goal to ‘establish a code of conduct for responsible retailers in our community, ensuring that large retailers pay their workers a living wage and provide affordable health benefits,’” said Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director.

According to a recent survey commissioned by a coalition of groups coordinated by the National Consumers League and conducted by Lake Research Partners, a solid majority of likely Democratic primary voters in the District of Columbia’s Ward 3 supports the LRAA.

“We are deeply disappointed at the failure of this legislation. DC had a chance to set a standard for the nation on what we expect of big box retailers. Instead, we have let the big and powerful triumph over the interests of the working poor,” said Greenberg. “The Large Retailer Accountability Act provided a real chance at helping to lift DC workers out of poverty. What a lost opportunity.”

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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.

Consumer/Worker group heralds new DC Paid Sick Days law – National Consumers League

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September 17, 2013

Contact: Ben Klein, NCL Communications, (202) 835-3323, benk@nclnet.org

Washington, DC—The nation’s pioneering consumer and worker advocacy group today is praising the introduction of new local legislation in Washington, DC—the Earned Sick And Safe Leave Amendment Act of 2013—that would expand the requirement for employers to provide their workers with current paid sick days policies to apply to most tipped workers. The legislation, introduced today by Council Member Marion Barry (D-Ward 8) and Chairman Phil Mendelson (D), along with several co-sponsors, is welcome news for both worker and consumer advocates alike. 

“Paid sick days are good for everyone; it’s both a worker and consumer rights issue. Many successful restaurant owners have demonstrated that it’s possible to be responsible, compassionate employers without compromising the bottom line,” said NCL Executive Director Sally Greenberg. “It’s time for all employees, including the workers who prepare and serve food for DC residents in area restaurants, to earn the right to stay home when illness strikes, and help prevent the further spread of illness.”

According to 2013 research conducted by the DC-based National Consumers League (NCL), there is an expectation among restaurant patrons that the workers who cook and serve food they won’t be required to do so while sick. More than 90 percent of consumers surveyed agreed that it’s important that restaurant workers do not serve and cook when they are sick. However, research indicates that 90 percent of restaurant workers do not have paid sick days, and many say they come to work despite illness. 

The DC legislation would expand the Accrued Sick and Safe Leave Act, from 2008, that required paid sick leave but only for workers who have been on the job for a year and have worked a required 1,000 hours. The 2008 law also guaranteed nearly universal paid sick leave in the District, but excluded tipped wait staff, including most servers, bussers, and bartenders. Under the new law, the benefit would be expanded to tipped employees and the waiting period would be reduced to 90 days.

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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.

DC’s Ward 3 voters overwhelmingly support the Large Retailer Accountability Act or “Livable Wage Act” – National Consumers League

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September 17, 2013

Contact: Ben Klein, NCL Communications, (202) 207-2832, benk@nclnet.org

Washington, DC— According to a recent survey commissioned by a coalition of groups coordinated by the National Consumers League and conducted by Lake Research Partners, a solid majority of likely Democratic primary voters in the District of Columbia’s Ward 3 supports the Large Retailer Accountability Act (LRAA), more commonly known as the Living Wage Bill.

The groups are releasing the poll in conjunction with the DC Council vote, which is scheduled for September 17, on whether to override Mayor Vincent Gray’s veto of the LRAA. Councilmember Mary Cheh, who represents Ward 3, was one of the five councilmembers opposing the bill when it was passed by a vote of 8-5 in July of this year. One of the five councilors voting no would need to switch his or her vote in order to obtain the nine votes needed to override the Mayor’s veto.

According to the poll released today, fully 54 percent of likely Democratic primary voters in Ward 3 support requiring large retailers in DC to pay living wages and provide benefits to employees—and with remarkable intensity (42 percent strongly support the LRAA). With just over one-quarter of Democratic primary voters opposed (27 percent), support for the Living Wage Bill outpaces opposition by a two-to-one margin. Just one-in-five voters (19 percent) is undecided. 

Ward 3 Democrats view their Councilmember, Mary Cheh, favorably (70 percent favorable, 16 percent unfavorable) and tend to like the job she is doing (64 percent excellent/good, 28 percent fair/poor). However, a 42 percent plurality of those voters who said they are open to an alternative candidate to Cheh say they would be less likely to support her if she were to vote against the Living Wage Bill.

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Methodolody

Lake Research Partners designed and administered this survey, which was conducted by phone using professional interviewers. The survey reached a total of 350 likely 2014 Democratic primary voters in Ward 3. The survey was conducted September 12 – 15, 2013. The margin of error is +/-5.3%.

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.

Growing concern over a flawed USDA plan for pork plants – National Consumers League

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By Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director
This week’s Washington Post ran an expose story – one we were glad to see – about the misguided Department of Agriculture (USDA) plan to roll out a meat inspection program nationwide that will allow pork plants to use their own inspectors and replace USDA inspectors.

According to the Post story, the plan “has a history of producing contaminated meat at American and foreign plants.”  The Post noted that the USDA’s decision to allow federal inspectors to be replaced at plants by private employees that serve as inspectors had produced “serious lapses that included failing to remove fecal matter from meat” in three of the five plants that had participated in a pilot program for more than a decade.

The Post went on to note that plants using the same procedure in Australia and Canada also ran into problems. In one case, a Canadian company had to recall 8.8 million pounds of beef products for E. coli contamination. A Government Accountability Office (GAO) report last month even said that it would be difficult to recommend rolling out the plan nationwide.

NCL has been working with a coalition of food safety and worker safety groups since the moment the USDA announced its disastrous campaign to shift oversight to private companies, to increase line speeds, and endanger both workers and consumers. But the USDA simply won’t listen. The tide should be turning though. We have a new bill this week from Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) called the Safe Meat and Poultry Act, which addresses concerns about the line speeds and potential for food safety outbreaks in the USDA plan, the GAO report, and now this Washington Post story. We urge the USDA to listen at last to critics and give up this program, for the sake of the health and safety of all Americans.

Around the world 15.5 million children are trapped in domestic servitude – National Consumers League

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 By Sharon L. Fawcett, CLC Contributing Writer “I clean the floor many times in a day. When it is not well done, my employer throws the dirty water at my face.”

This is how a girl from Togo describes her experience with child labor to *Anti-Slavery International (ASI) researchers. She is a child domestic worker, enduring her employer’s abuse. The International Labour Organization estimates that 15.5 million children around the world are involved in domestic work in a home other than their own; 10.5 million of these children are involved in child labor as they are either under the legal minimum working age, or employed in hazardous conditions or conditions akin to slavery. In 2008, 61 percent of children in domestic labor were between 5 and 14 years of age; one-third were under age 12.73 percent of children engaged in domestic work are girls.

Child domestic labor is one of the most widespread and exploitative forms of child labor in the world. Child domestic workers help with the day-to-day tasks of running a household. These may include cooking, cleaning, caring for children or the elderly, gardening, running errands, and other tasks, as well as selling goods in the marketplace and on the street. These children may live with their employers, they may receive financial remuneration for their work, or “in kind” payment like food and housing. The hours are long, and many child domestic workers report that they are always on-call.

The reasons children end up in domestic labor vary by country and region, but poverty is usually a major factor. Child domestic workers are often overlooked in attempts to protect child workers, partly because of the notion that domestic work is a “safe” form of employment. However, because these children work inside private homes, they are especially isolated and at risk for abuse. According to the ILO, three-quarters of all children in domestic child labor perform hazardous work. This includes children working at least 43 hours per week, working at night, and being exposed to physical or sexual abuse.

The ILO reports that significant numbers of child domestic workers are victims of trafficking, debt bondage, or servitude. Approximately 225,000 of these children work in *Haiti’s *restavek system, trapped in what amounts to forced labor and slavery. From the French words rester avec (“to stay with”), restavek children, usually girls, from poor rural backgrounds are given or sold by their parents to work as domestic servants for other families.

ASI and Free the Slaves (FTS) report that restavek children are treated as sub-human, and are extremely vulnerable to exploitation as well as physical, psychological, and sexual abuse. A similar form of servitude takes place in *Nepal where, for more than half a century, daughters of lower-caste, Tharu, have been sold or given to those of upper-castes as a means of debt repayment by their families. These young girls are known as kamlari.

In spite of Nepal’s government officially banning bonded labor in 2000 and its Supreme Court making the kamlari practice illegal in 2006, at least 500 girls are still trapped in domestic slavery, according to Man Bahadur Chhetri from the Kamlari Abolition Project. The suicide by self-immolation of 12-year-old kamlari Srijana Chaudhary, this year, highlighted the dire situation of kamlari girls. Yet another form of child domestic servitude is found in *Niger, where girls born into slavery can be sold to wealthy men as “fifth wives” or wahayu, a practice in which they become sexual and domestic slaves. Child domestic labor violates the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) to which all countries that have ratified it are bound.

The United States, Somalia, and newly constituted South Sudan are the only UN member nations that have not ratified the CRC. (To learn what children’s rights are violated by child domestic labor, see table “Child Domestic Work and Children’s Rights.”) Child domestic labor also violates the ILO’s Worst Forms of Child Labor Convention (C182) and Minimum Age Convention (C138). In many cases it may violate the UN Palermo Protocol on Trafficking in Persons.

In 2011, the International Labour Conference adopted the Domestic Workers Convention (C189). C189 gives domestic workers, in states that ratify the convention, the same protections that other workers are entitled to. The convention also contains specific provisions to protect children from child labor in domestic work, ensuring that those of legal age to work can do so in decent conditions, without jeopardizing their education. The entry into force of ILO C189 on September 5, 2013 is a major step towards acknowledging the rights of domestic workers and protecting child domestic workers. However, as Kali Yuan of The Bernard and Audre Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice at the University of Texas points out, the standards in C189 must be translated into local context, changing norms and attitudes at the grassroots level. The same is true for other relevant conventions, so that children who wish to perform domestic work—and are of legal working age—can do so in conditions that are fair, safe, and respect their dignity.

For more on what some CLC members are doing in this sector see: Report: Human Rights Watch (2012), Lonely Servitude: Child Domestic Labor in Morocco. Information about the work of Free the Slaves, and partners, to end domestic slavery in Haiti, India, and Nepal. Information about the work of UNICEF, and partners, to *help child domestic workers in Haiti regain their rights.

*Links are no longer active as the original sources have removed the content, sometimes due to federal website changes or restructurings.

Advocacy group to DC Mayor Gray: Veto of LRAA shameful – National Consumers League

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September 12, 2013

Contact: Ben Klein, NCL Communications, (202) 835-3323, benk@nclnet.org 

Washington, DC– Today the nation’s pioneering consumer and worker advocacy group expressed its disappointment at Washington, DC Mayor Vincent Gray’s vetoing of the Large Retailer Accountability Act (LRAA), legislation that would dramatically improve the lives of some minimum-wage workers in the District. The Washington, DC-based National Consumers League (NCL), which had previously supported the Act and praised the DC City Council for its passage, is today calling on the Council to override the Mayor’s veto. The LRAA would require DC retailers whose parent companies do more than $1 billion in sales to pay their employees the DC living wage and benefits of $12.50 an hour. 

NCL has a long history of supporting the interests of workers and consumers since its founding in 1899, and NCL’s first General Secretary, Florence Kelley, wrote the first state minimum wage legislation.

“We urge the DC City Council to override the Mayor’s veto on the Large Retailer Accountability Act and support the bill’s principles, to ‘safeguard the public health, safety, welfare and prosperity of all Washingtonians, the District must establish a code of conduct for responsible retailers in our community, ensuring that large retailers pay their workers a living wage and provide affordable health benefits,’” said Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director.

“This bill would affect some of the most profitable companies in the world, corporations that can well afford to improve the wages and working conditions of their employees without diminishing their profits. The City Council should stand up for workers, especially when companies can afford to pay them more. If the LRAA is enacted, taxpayers could stop subsidizing the paltry wages these retail giants pay. This law will help lift workers out of poverty,” said Greenberg.

The LRAA passed the City Council with an 8 to 5 in July. One more vote is needed – a total of 9 votes – to override the Mayor’s veto.

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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.

A plea to USDA, stop playing chicken with our poultry – National Consumers League

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By Michell K. McIntyre, Outreach Director, Labor and Worker Rights Last week the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a scathing report on the Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Food Safety Inspection Service’s (FSIS) pilot program for overhauling the nation’s chicken and turkey inspection regulations.

While the report focused on the food safety risks of program there are worker safety concerns as well. The poultry industry and USDA hope to roll out the regulation changes nationwide as a “modernization” to the current inspection model. The pilot, part of the HAACP-based Inspection Models Project (HIMP), and USDA have been sharply criticized by food and worker safety groups, including NCL, because the proposed changes increase public health risks and the safety of plant employees.

The changes would replace government trained federal inspectors with untrained private plant employees and increase the speed of inspection to 175 birds per minute – 3 birds per second. The report finds that USDA “has not thoroughly evaluated the performance of each of the pilot projects over time [15 years] even though the agency stated it would do so when it announced the pilot projects.” GAO also accuses the program of using “snapshots of data” instead of comprehensive figures reflecting all data from the entire duration of the pilot during their analysis. FSIS’s own testing has shown that some plants in the pilot program are failing to detect foodborne illness, including salmonella.

Food and worker safety groups have not been alone in calling attention to this egregious regulation change. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) have been sounding the alarm on the Hill. “Our food safety system is being ‘modernized’ at the expense of worker safety and public health,” said Rep. DeLauro, who had also previously raised concerns about the rule with USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack. “The proposed rule has long been a problem, with 10 percent of chicken plants in a related program recently failing a round of salmonella testing.” It’s time for the USDA to stop playing chicken with our health, halt this ill-conceived pilot program and scrap this so-called “modernization.”