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.
So I was a teenager in the early 2000s and many, many of my teenage classmates including myself had jobs. Some full time some part time.
Personally I worked at a paper mill from the age of 15 until I moved out of state.
But the minimum age was 14 to be able to work at that time.
I’ve just been seeing a lot of posts like this indicating young teenage children working and I don’t see why this is all of the sudden an issue?
Do you mean you don’t think it’s a problem at all? Or you’re angry that it’s only just become an issue?
Employing illegal underage migrant workers is definitely a problem and needs to be addressed.
And I’m not angry not sure why you interpreted my comment in that capacity.
I simply posed a question why employing teenagers has suddenly become an issue. Apparently people found my question offensive and assumed a position that I don’t hold.
My question wasn’t directly commenting on the article cited in this post but was in general since I have seen multiple posts indicating that more companies are employing more teenage workers not necessarily illegal migrant workers.
My question is why is this suddenly a problem since employing teenagers has been something that has been going on in this country since its conception.
Sure ok. There’s lots of things society used to tolerate but no longer does.
Different states have different laws but generally there are strict limitations on the types of jobs that a person under 18 is allowed to work. It used to be really popular for manufacturing companies to hire kids because they are small and can fit into tight spaces in the heavy equipment. Plus they were considered expendable.
There are also tight regulations on the hours they can work. Because those children are supposed to be attending school. In all of the cases I’ve seen recently the kids are illegal immigrants who are not in school at all. They’re just working full time jobs with extremely dangerous machinery in violation of pretty much every regulation around child employment. So yes it’s a problem.
I see. Then I agree. That is something that should not be happening. Exploiting children of migrant families is despicable.
Yes. This is also an immigration issue.
You ever seen a kid get killed in heavy machinery? Have you ever seen a kid get permanently maimed on heavy machinery? That shit changes you. As a society we’re all supposed to learn from those horrors but instead we stay real myopic and say I’ve never been hurt, I’ve never seen anything bad happen and ignore that all regulations were written in blood and lifelong trauma. Then there’s the myriad situations where migrant children can be abused because they’re low risk victims.
Right! This seems to be the prevailing missing puzzle piece to most of these people’s thought process. They’re skipping over the fact that CHILDREN are WORKING instead of, oh I don’t fucking know, BEING CHILDREN?
So your logic is, “some kids die and get hurt working, so no kids should work”?
Precisely. They should have a childhood.
Right now 14 year olds just look at phones and go on social media which is a direct harm. Working would be more healthy for their body and their mind.
we’re exploited enough as is and corporate greed is only getting worse, there’s absolutely zero need to put children in a position to be exploited.
If they dont want to be “exploited” then they shouldnt apply for the job.
What the fuck? You think employees should be exploited because they need money to survive? Force them to work 80-hour weeks for minimum wage? Scream racist epithets at them if they aren’t productive enough? How about beat them with a metal rod if they step out of line?
I disagree with the “exploited” phrasing. And if someone is willing to work 80 hrs per week then they can make money doing other things.
I actually think they should be beaten with a wood broom handle. Quicker swings.
Yes, getting caught in a large factory machine and being ground up and spat out into a puddle of mush would be much more healthy for their body and their mind.
Times change. I was running a forklift at 14 and working construction at 16. Society has decided that it isn’t the way it wants things to happen anymore.
I imagine you are reading more stories because the economic downturn has pushed more families to do this.
I guess the point I’m trying to make is that teenagers have always been working this isn’t a new phenomenon that has just now started to happen regardless of how many teenagers are working even if that number has increased.
I’ve seen some legislation in recent years where they dropped the minimum wage to work down which I don’t agree with but other than that where’s the problem here that’s what I’m asking?
Moral ought from an is
“People have always kept slaves, so there’s nothing wrong with slavery.” The sentiment of people like you a couple of hundred years ago.
Ever heard of a false equivalency? Because your above statement is a text book definition.
Also go fuck yourself for inferring that I somehow support slavery and for comparing legally employing teenagers and compensating them for their labor to buying, selling and torturing human beings and making them work for free.
(I understand that the company in the post was illegally employing underage migrants. I’m making a general statement concerning the entire teenage work force in American.)
There’s nothing wrong with employing teens within a set of standards and reason.
And you had all the protections afforded a citizen. You could speak up and not worry about deportation. If they didn’t pay you, you had recourse. These people don’t. So don’t kid yourself when you think you’ve worked similar conditions.
Deportation the hell are you talking about?
If the company is hiring illegal underage immigrants they themselves are breaking the law.
Moreover even though they might be illegal underage immigrants they still have protections under us law child labor laws don’t change due to your status as an individual in the United States.
Yeah, that’s kinda why the company is getting fined. For the crimes.
Companies like this operate like an umbrella and hide people from the protections our laws offer them, frequently holding leverage over workers in ways that cross international boundaries.
People aren’t getting work visas to do grunt work in manufacturing or meat slaughter houses. This is America. No one needs a temp service to hire teenagers if you’re doing things legally in those industries.
There’s a reason this company used a hiring service, you see it in every industry that needs hard labor in this country. Its the elephant in the room. Wake up.
And the fine they got was less than the revenue generated by one of those children.