Alabama House committee delays consideration of child labor bill

Rep. Susan Dubose, R-Hoover, greets a person on the floor of the Alabama House of Representatives prior to the start of the House session on April 13, 2023. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector)

An Alabama House committee Wednesday delayed consideration of a bill that would eliminate a school permission form required for 14- and 15-year-old minors to work.

The House Children and Senior Advocacy Committee carried over HB 102, sponsored by Rep. Susan DuBose, R-Hoover, after Rep. Ginny Shaver, R-Leesburg, the committee chair, expressed reservations that schools may not be informed when a minor has been hired by an employer.

The Senate passed a companion bill, SB 53, sponsored by Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, on Tuesday.

“If we are going to amend it, let’s do it in committee and get it out and get it on the floor,” Shaver said. “We have time since it already passed the Senate. It will just have to go to the Senate for concurrence.”

The bill strips language from the statute that mentions the work eligibility form, as well as a section that prohibits minors younger than 16 years old from working without the work eligibility form.

“This bill eliminates a barrier to work for teenagers and lets parents make that decision,” Dubose said.

The legislation retains a requirement that businesses obtain a state Class I Child Labor certificate if they hire someone between 14 years old and 15 years old, and a Class II certificate if they plan to hire a minor who is either 16 years old or 17 years old.

The certificates provide the employer’s contact information, the type of business and other information required by the Department of Labor. It would also include the name, address and telephone number of the company where the minor will work.

The bill also retains language in current statute allowing the Department of Labor to revoke or suspend the employment of minors who are either 14 years old or 15 years old if their performance in school becomes less than satisfactory or if they stop attending school on a regular basis with notification by the school.

“We have seen roll-back bills in states across the country, and 2024 is no exception to that,” said Nina Mast, state economic analyst for the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank and research organization, in an interview Tuesday. “There are bills to roll back child labor protections in 11 states alone, and five states have active bills to eliminate work permits or similar forms, so Alabama is really just one of those states.”

According to a report from EPI published in February, 28 states have introduced bills to weaken child labor laws since 2021. Most of them, according to the accompanying graphic in the report, are located throughout the Midwest and along the south.

“The move to get rid of work permits is really part of this much broader agenda that is being led by right-wing advocacy groups, namely the Foundation for Government Accountability, to get rid of these work permits more broadly deregulate employment and expand employers’ access to youth with fewer guardrails,” Mast said.

This has troubled human rights advocacy groups, who said the effort to roll back child labor protection laws stems from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

“We are seeing a resurgence in a labor movement where people are not willing to work for minimum wage that isn’t enough to pay for housing, that isn’t enough to cover medical bills and a decent cost of living,” said Skip Mark, assistant professor and director of the Center for Nonviolence & Peace Studies at the University of Rhode Island. “One option would be to pay people more, and the other option is to hire children who are willing to work for less.”

Eliminating the work forms could also negatively affect the children, according to Mark. The proposal eliminates a step that allows a school to check if a student is receiving an education.

“If children shouldn’t be working because it adversely affects their schooling, and schools are not being consulted, we won’t know whether that is ever the case,” Mark said. “The only time you will ever find it are cases where parents decide that this is having an adverse effect on their schooling, and if a child’s labor is the difference between them being able to afford their mortgage or paying health care costs, which bankrupt the most people in this country, a dip in grades is fine all things considered.”

Some on the committee expressed reservations for the bill.

“How do they revoke something in a process they have nothing to do with,” said Rep. Barbara Drummond, D-Mobile. “This bill would take them out of the process, correct?”

The post Alabama House committee delays consideration of child labor bill appeared first on Alabama Reflector.