The company, Tuff Torq, was fined nearly $300,000 for hiring 10 children. It must also set aside $1.5 million to help the immigrant minors who were illegally employed.

Immigrant children as young as 14 were found working illegally amid dangerous heavy equipment at a Tennessee firm that makes parts for lawn mowers sold by John Deere and other companies, according to Labor Department officials.

The company, Tuff Torq, was fined nearly $300,000 for hiring 10 children. As part of a consent agreement with the federal government, the company is also required to set aside $1.5 million to help the children who were illegally employed. Ryan Pott, general counsel for Tuff Torq’s majority owner, the Japanese firm Yanmar, acknowledged the violations to NBC News.

  • @jordanlund
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    799 months ago

    “The Labor Department has prioritized child labor enforcement since last spring amid a 152% increase in children found to be illegally employed since 2018, according to department figures.”

    • FenrirIII
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      289 months ago

      Mostly immigrants I’d bet

        • @[email protected]
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          9 months ago

          Of course they are. Why else would you oppose immigration, except to be able to exploit illegal immigrants?

          By virtue of being here unlawfully, they have little recourse. That fact alone is essentially leverage for any “employer” to exploit them over.

          It’s clearly not because they are a drain on the system, because that’s been disproven time and time again. Their economic contributions far outweigh whatever little social programs they’re able to obtain.

          So it must be because they are a great pool of cheap, under-the-table, sub-minimum-wage, exploitable labor. Just like prisoners and prostitutes (except for the sans sub-minimum wage part. Plenty of illicit sex workers that are unpaid victims of trafficking, but if the John is paying less than $7.25 an hour, they should really know better)

          • @afraid_of_zombies
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            69 months ago

            Why else would you oppose immigration, except to be able to exploit illegal immigrants?

            Bigotry for one. You should talk to my father, since you know I don’t talk to him, he ran for town mayor on a campaign to get rid of Latinos by changing zoning laws forbidding multifamily residential units. He didn’t win and I am glad I wasnt 18 since it would have been awkward voting against him.

          • @dejected_warp_core
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            29 months ago

            By virtue of being here unlawfully, they have little recourse. That fact alone is essentially leverage for any “employer” to exploit them over.

            Ah yes, keep your employees at least as culpable as yourself, and thus exploitable. These are mob tactics. Hey, maybe slapping these monsters with a RICO suit is the way to go here?

            • @[email protected]
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              9 months ago

              Mobsters didn’t have Citizens United.

              If CU were around in the 1920s, we’d still be in prohibition.

      • @[email protected]
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        99 months ago

        Indeed, and this is what the vast majority of human trafficking actually is. But you may have noticed that very few conservatives are calling for the blood of these factory owners.