Rural kids, parents angry about Labor Dept. rule banning farm chores
A proposal from the Obama administration to prevent children from doing farm chores has drawn plenty of criticism from rural-district members of Congress. But now its attracting barbs from farm kids themselves. The Department of Labor is poised to put the finishing touches on a rule that would apply child-labor laws to children working on family farms, prohibiting them from performing a list of jobs on their own families land. Under the rules, children under 18 could no longer work in the storing, marketing and transporting of farm product raw materials. Prohibited places of employment, a Department press release read, would include country grain elevators, grain bins, silos, feed lots, stockyards, livestock exchanges and livestock auctions. The new regulations, first proposed August 31 by Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, would also revoke the governments approval of safety training and certification taught by independent groups like 4-H andFFA, replacing them instead with a 90-hour federal government training course. .. Boswell chafed at the governments rationale for bringing farms strictly into line with child-labor laws. They have said the number of injuries are higher for children than in non-ag industries, she said. But everyone in agriculture, Boswell insisted, makes sure youth work in tasks that are age-appropriate. The safety training requirements strike many in agriculture as particularly strange, given an injury rate among young people that is already falling rapidly. According to a United States Department of Agriculture study, farm accidents among youth fell nearly 40 percent between 2001 and 2009, to 7.2 injuries per 1,000 farms. Clark said the regulations are vague and meddlesome. Its so far-reaching, he exclaimed, kids would be prohibited from working on anything power take-off driven, and anything with a work-height over six feet which would include the tractor Im on now. The way the regulations are currently written, he added, would prohibit children under 16 from using battery powered screwdrivers, since their motors, like those of a tractor, are defined as power take-off driven. And jobs that could inflict pain on an animal would also be off-limits for kids. But inflicting pain, Clark explained, is left undefined: If it included something like putting a halter on a steer, 4-H and FFA animal shows would be a thing of the past. http://dailycaller.com/2012/04/25/rural-kids-parents-angry-about-labor-dept-rule-banning-farm-chores/2/ J - Ninety percent of politicians give the other ten percent a bad reputation. - Henry Kissinger Politicians are people who, when they see light at the end of the tunnel, go out and buy some ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:350241 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
