October 19, 2011

Washington, DC– Voluntary industry guidelines designed to protect hundreds of millions of American consumers from cell phone “bill shock” will only work if the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is committed to holding the wireless industry accountable, according to the National Consumers League (NCL), the nation’s pioneering consumer organization.

The voluntary guidelines announced this week by the FCC, CTIA and Consumers Union reflect the fact that tens of millions of consumers are victims of wireless “bill shock” every year.  The combination of rapidly growing wireless data usage by consumers and the embrace of data caps by many carriers underscore the urgent need for greater consumer protections in this area. The public record is replete with horror stories of consumer bills in the thousands of dollars.  Independent data from the FCC and General Accountability Office and consumer groups indicate that millions more experience smaller “bill shocks.”

“The new ’bill shock’ guidelines will only protect consumers if the FCC holds the cell phone companies’ feet to the fire,” said NCL Executive Director Sally Greenberg. “We are pleased that the Commission has left its ‘bill shock’ proceeding open as a stick to ensure industry compliance.”

The new guidelines reflect many of the common-sense solutions that NCL and other consumer and public interest groups called for in comments at the FCC.  In particular, we are encouraged that the new alerts will be provided free of charge and without the need for consumes to opt–in to receive the notifications.  It remains to be seen how the new guidelines will be implemented and how consumers will be able to respond to the new notifications.

NCL’s comments on “bill shock” are available here.

NCL’s reply comments on “bill shock” are available 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.

October 12, 2011

Contact: NCL Communications, (202) 835-3323, media@nclnet.org

Washington, DC—The nation’s oldest consumer organization, the National Consumers League (NCL), today lauded California Governor Jerry Brown for signing into law Senate Bill 459, an employment bill addressing employee misclassification. NCL has been advocating for tougher wage theft penalties and sent Governor Brown a letter urging him to sign S.B. 459 in September of this year.

The harm caused by employee misclassification—where an employer knowingly classifies an employee as an independent contractor to avoid paying taxes and employee benefits—goes beyond workers and their families to victimize everyone from honest businesses to state treasuries and the federal government. Employees who are misclassified as ‘independent contractors’ are denied key worker rights, such as minimum wage protection, overtime pay, workers’ compensation, unemployment insurance, and anti-discrimination protections.

Employers who illegally classify their workers as independent contractors shortchange the government by skirting payroll taxes and Social Security & Medicare, while also giving unscrupulous businesses a competitive advantage by enabling them to offer their services at a lower cost than honest employers; leaving lawful businesses paying higher rates of workers’ compensation and losing out on bids.

Between 2005 and 2007, audits conducted by the California Employment Development Department recovered a total of $111,956,556 in payroll tax assessments, $18,537,894 in labor code citations, and $40,348,667 in assessments on employment tax fraud cases.  With increases in employee misclassification, California is likely losing out on over $112 million in badly needed state revenue.

California Senate Bill 459 will establish monetary penalties for businesses that misclassify their workers. The new law imposes fines that range from $5,000 to $15,000 for each misclassification violation for first time offenders and $10,000 to $25,000 per violation for repeat offenders.

“Laws like the one recently passed in California are an important step towards ensuring that American workers receive what they are lawfully owed,” said Michell K. McIntyre, Project Director of NCL’s Special Project on Wage Theft.  “Wage theft occurs in industries across the board and the only way to fight back is to hit unlawful businesses where it hurts the most- the pocket book.”

To read NCL’s letter to Governor Brown, 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.

October 5, 2011

Contact: NCL Communications, (202) 835-3323, media@nclnet.org

Washington, DC—The nation’s oldest consumer organization, the National Consumers League (NCL), today lauded a U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) vote on an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) to move forward on achieving a national safety standard for table saws.

According to CPSC’s own data, consumers suffer 40,000 table saw injuries each year, 4,000 of which are finger amputations. That translates into 10 finger amputations every day for those using table saws.

NCL has been advocating for table saw safety standards since November of 2010, when NCL a sent a letter to the Chairman and each of the other four CPSC Commissioners, stating that: “NCL strongly urges the Commission to take action toward a performance standard for table saw safety.” In May of 2011, NCL brought table saw victims from across the country to CPSC headquarters to share their debilitating injuries with CPSC Chairman Inez Tenenbaum. The letter and victim profiles are highlighted below.

NCL Letter to CPSC

Victim Profiles

“We are greatly encouraged by the CPSC’s unanimous 5-0 vote in favor of moving forward with the Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking regarding table saw safety,” said Greenberg.

“With table saws, clearly we have a pattern of injury, we have technology to prevent the injuries, and we can do so for a reasonable cost. The CPSC is greatly advancing the cause of protecting the 40,000 consumers each year who are injured unnecessarily by table saws. We applaud the Chairman for her leadership and look forward to working with her and the Commission in the months to come,” Greenberg said.

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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.

June 16, 2011

Contact: NCL Communications, (202) 835-3323, media@nclnet.org

Washington, DC – The vast majority of American consumers do not believe that 12- and 13-year-old children should be allowed to perform arduous agricultural work for long hours in the fields, and would not allow their own children to do commercial farm work at the young ages the government currently allows, according to a survey released today. The survey (questionnaire | tabular data | methodology), commissioned by the National Consumers League (NCL), the organization largely responsible for passing many of the nation’s first child labor laws in the early 19^th century , reveals that 81 percent of consumers—four out of five—agree that child labor laws should protect children equally, regardless of the industry they work in. Two in three survey respondents “strongly agreed” that protections should be equal. Only 1 in 7 favored lesser protections for children working in agriculture.

According to the survey of 1,011 adults fielded June 3-6, 2011 by ORC International, only 3 percent of those with children in the house would let their own children under the age of 14 work more than 40 hours a week in the fields. Yet, federal law currently allows farmworker children to work an unlimited number of hours in the fields (outside of school hours), and many farmworker children report working as many as 60 or 70 hours a week.

Many migrant farmworker children work long hours in the fields alongside their parents, harvesting fruits and vegetables. The children often begin working at the age of 12 because of exemptions in U.S. child labor law that excludes the agriculture industry from many labor protections.

The vast majority surveyed—83 percent—agreed that it is “not okay” for children as young as 12 and 13 to work long hours in the fields. Only 1 in 8 surveyed—and only 1 in 10 female respondents—said that the practice is okay. When asked what age they would let their own children work in the fields after school and during weekends, only 13 percent—or 1 in 8 respondents—said that they would allow a child under the age of 14 to work—a common practice in the agriculture industry today.

When it comes to working more than 40 hours in the fields, the majority of those with children in (64 percent) said that they would only let their children work if they were over 18.

“These survey results demonstrate that the public feels strongly that young children should not be toiling in the fields,” said Sally Greenberg, the Executive Director of NCL and a Co-chair of the NCL-coordinated Child Labor Coalition. “Legislation that would provide much needed protections for farmworker kids has languished for more than a decade. Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard has tirelessly tried to remedy this tragic problem through the Children’s Act for Responsible Employment (CARE), which would remove the exemptions that threaten the health, safety, and education of these children. The passage of the CARE Act is long overdue.”

The survey also confirmed that Americans seem concerned that the food they purchase is not tainted by child labor. Nearly 6 in 10 survey respondents—59 percent—disagreed that “it is acceptable for a child under 14 to work for wages in the fields, harvesting produce to be sold in grocery stores.” An even larger percentage—67 percent—said that the United States should not import products made or harvested by children under the age of 14.

Americans expressed their desire that adult farmworkers earn a livable wage—87 percent agreed that the men and women who harvest fruits and vegetables should receive a sustainable wage. Despite this finding, government data suggests that most farmworker families get by on $17,000 a year—about one-third of the living wage calculated for a family of four in typical farmworker community (data based on Eagle Pass, Texas).

“If Americans knew what truly dangerous workplaces farms are, they would be even more outraged by this form of child labor,” said Reid Maki, Coordinator of the CLC and NCL’s Director of Social Responsibility and Fair Labor Standards. “One of our main concerns is the impact pesticides might be having on these kids who work long hours in treated fields, often with little or no protection.”

For several years, NCL has listed “harvesting work in agriculture” as one of the five most dangerous jobs for teen workers in an annual report on teen occupational safety. Currently, U.S. law allows children as young as 12 years old to legally work in commercial agriculture, while children of the same age are prohibited from working in nearly all other industries (with only a few exceptions such as delivering newspapers). An estimated 400,000 children work in America’s fields, often working 8-, 9-, and 10-hour backbreaking shifts in intense heat, often exposed to pesticide application, runoff, and drift. While only about eight percent of youth are employed in agriculture, the industry comprises 40 percent of child worker fatalities.

NCL, which coordinates the 28-member CLC, commissioned the national random-sample telephone survey to gain an understanding of consumers’ views on child labor in American commercial agriculture. The margin of error of the phone survey sample of 1,011 adults is plus or minus 3 percent. Smaller subgroups have larger error margins.

For additional information regarding the survey results, visit www.nclnet.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.

June 10, 2011

Contact: NCL Communications, (202) 835-3323, media@nclnet.org

Washington, DC—As World Day Against Child Labor on June 12 approaches, the Child Labor Coalition (CLC) is alerting the public that more than 200 million children still toil around the world, often in dangerous jobs that threaten their health, safety, and education.

Here in the United States, the CLC is applauding the anticipated re-introduction of the Children’s Act for Responsible Employment (CARE), which Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA) plans to sponsor once again next week. The legislation would close loopholes that permit the children of migrant and seasonal farmworkers to work for wages when they are only 12 and 13 years old, often in harsh conditions—10- to 12-hour days of bending over and performing repetitive tasks in 90- to 100-degree heat.

“It’s time to level the playing field by closing these loopholes, which go all the way back to 1938, when the Fair Labor Standards Act was introduced,” said CLC Co-Chair Sally Greenberg, the Executive Director of the National Consumers League, a consumer advocacy organization that has worked to eliminate abusive child labor since its founding in 1899. “We must offer these children the same protections that all other American kids enjoy.”

“Working migrant children pay a heavy price educationally for their labor,” said Antonia Cortese, a Co-Chair of the CLC  and the Secretary-Treasurer of the American Federation of Teachers, which represents 1.5 million public service employees. “Many farmworker children leave school before the school year ends and return after it begins. The constant travel and work wears many children out. They struggle to catch up academically, but for many it’s a losing battle—and more than half never graduate high school.”

The CLC also joins its member organization, Human Rights Watch, and other advocacy groups in urging the adoption of the Convention on Decent Work for Domestic Workers  to protect some of the world’s most vulnerable child workers—the estimated 15 to 30 million children who perform domestic duties in homes around the world. Many domestic workers are girls and begin work as early as age 6 and work up to 16 hours a day, 7 days a week. Many are vulnerable to physical and sexual abuse.

On June 16^th, members of the International Labor Organization (ILO) will vote on the convention, which will establish the first global standards for domestic workers. “Instead of being in school, millions of girls work for extremely long hours and little pay, at risk of abuse and invisible to the outside world,” said Jo Becker, Children’s Rights Advocate at Human Rights Watch in a statement issued today. “This Convention would require governments to include these child domestic workers under their child labor laws and to step in to prevent them from being exploited.”

The proposed ILO Convention would require governments to protect domestic workers from violence and abuse, and provide equal treatment with other workers in working hours, overtime compensation, and daily and weekly rest periods. It would oblige governments to set a minimum age for domestic workers and to ensure that work by child domestic workers above that age does not interfere with their education. An accompanying recommendation urges governments to limit strictly the working hours of child domestic workers and to prohibit domestic work that would harm their health, safety, or morals. The CLC also joins its member organization, the International Labor Rights Forum, as well as Anti-Slavery International and other groups in calling for an international investigation to expose the use of forced child labor in Uzbekistan’s cotton industry. According to Human Rights Watch, a high-level ILO monitoring mission would be the necessary first step in providing an independent credible assessment of child labor in the Uzbekistan. Human rights groups have called for such an investigation numerous times in the past and recently made the request again at the ILO’s annual conference currently taking place in Geneva.

Each autumn in Uzbekistan, schools are closed down and hundreds of thousands of children are forced out of their classrooms and into the fields to pick the cotton. Uzbekistan, the world’s third largest exporter of cotton, officially denies the use of forced child labor in its country, and has so far failed to invite an ILO monitoring mission. Uzbek officials did pledge on June 6 to have a government controlled trade union act as an official monitor. The ILO’s Committee on Application of Standards, in a decision issued on Wednesday 8 June after an earlier hearing, questioned the credibility of Uzbekistan’s proposal and also called for the government to accept a high level ILO monitoring mission.

Speaking in Geneva, Brian Campbell, Policy Director at International Labor Rights Forum, and the Chair of the CLC International Committee said: “Uzbekistan’s intention to monitor its own harvest for a problem it denies is ludicrous. Such monitoring cannot be considered credible in a country where independent civil society is controlled and critical media muzzled. If the government has nothing to hide then it should allow the ILO access during the harvest.” The European Union, a major destination for Uzbek cotton, currently grants preferential trading access to exports from Uzbekistan under a program to support developing economies. However, advocates argue this should be suspended in cases of serious human rights violations. “It’s time for Uzbekistan to let independent monitors in or face trade consequences,” said CLC co-chair Sally Greenberg.

About the Child Labor Coalition

The Child Labor Coalition is comprised of 28 organizations, representing consumers, labor unions, educators, human rights and labor rights groups, child advocacy groups, and religious and women’s groups. It was established in 1989, and is co-chaired by the National Consumers League and the American Federation of Teachers. Its mission is to protect working youth and to promote legislation, programs, and initiatives to end child labor exploitation in the United States and abroad. For more information, please call CLC Coordinator Reid Maki at (202) 207-2820 [reidm@nclnet.org].

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