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.
“Pott, the general counsel for Tuff Torq’s majority owner, said the child workers were temporary and were not hired directly by Tuff Torq. He said they used fake names and false credentials to obtain jobs through a temporary staffing agency, and said Tuff Torq is ‘transitioning’ away from doing business with the staffing company.” They’re just passing the blame now that they got caught; otherwise, I’m sure they’d continue to turn a blind eye.
Yeah, they didn’t stop and go… “The staffing agency says you’re 18, I don’t buy it. Where’s your ID?”
They can’t attend school as often if they work, so an additional benefit in some circles.
Some call it a slingblade, some call it a kaiserblade.
Companies found using child labor should have their business license revoked and forced to liquidate.
And the CEO / Board members jailed or sent to a forced labour camp. Either way I would be happy
Just thinking about some shitstain CEOs having to work an actual job instead of tea parties and coke and hookers, makes my day so much brighter. Thank you.
No prob, in these dark days we need some joy, even if it’s not from reality
talk about freedom and democracy 🦅
Liber-tea! Ahahahahahahaha
“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.”
Mostly immigrants I’d bet
Also illegal immigrants
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)
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.
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?
Mobsters didn’t have Citizens United.
If CU were around in the 1920s, we’d still be in prohibition.
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.
but children crave the mines
$300k is a joke. Every manager should be in prison and the factory should be nationalized. Keep the legit (adult) employees there, and transition the business to worker ownership.
Do that a few times and you’ll see some changes in how businesses behave.
Sooo … the solution to children workers is … communism?
Capitalism demands profits, which demand mistreatment, which results in this.
But keep banging your drum, guy. You’re the reason nothing changes.
☺️
Nothing wrong with a bit of communism. You know unless you like your politics dog whistle simple, in which case i guess you do you.
I don’t think you know what the words “nationalize” or “communism” mean.
Seize the means of production! Power to the people!
Abolition of child labor is one of the traditional demands of the American communist movement. Children should be taught a broad base education and be given time to play and rest and parents shouldn’t feel financial pressure to make their child work
Maybe the answer is violence.
to them, turning a business into a co-op is top-tier violence.
Don’t need to nationalize it. Turn it into a cooperative instead. Every worker owns shares within the company. Profits are shared.
That’s the “transition to worker ownership” part. IANAL but I think that the government taking it over might be a necessary intermediate step if you’re compelling transition to a co-op.
Great suggestions. Worker ownership would fix a LOT of things in this country.
Wow!
300k is so cheap to commit child labor! What an “affordable fee” to pay children like $5/hr and put them in dangerous situations. Best of all, they don’t know any better and you just lie to them!
Yay thank you America!!!
Saw the headline, said, “I bet they’re immigrant children.”
Surprise, surprise.
https://www.npr.org/2023/05/04/1173697113/immigrant-child-labor-crisis
Yup. Republicans claim they want to close the border, but have no problem exploiting the labor supply.
What a shit hole country
Just wait until conservatism gets back in charge. K-6 can look forward to the coal mines.
I have been told they do yearn for them…
Oh but c’mon, it’s a country where undiagnosed schizophrenics have the freedom to buy semi-automatic firearms, proudly rapist lying bankrupt fraudsters can become the president and guns are the leading cause of death for children!
What’s not to like?
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Actually, there’s not a single mountain in the whole country.
Norway wanted to give us one but it didn’t work out in the end.
Also, compared to American Redwoods, our trees really aren’t that tall.
So it’s more like us over here with our thick, short forests and our potato fields.
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Lack of mountain business*
Heh.
yet we have freedom and China doesn’t /s
well, at least none of those kids were being endangered by hormones!1!!11!
Just think of all the valuable work experience these children are missing out on due to the nanny state! /s (the actual thought of rightwing ghouls).
The reason businesses and right wingers are so pro border enforcement is so they can abuse children like this. Threaten deportation and you don’t have to follow labor laws.
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it’s probably difficult to perform background checks on people who are illegally entering the country.
So the default is to just hire a literal child and hope for the best? Do you not see how stupid that is.
Let the free market decide.
Well to work with heavy machinery, you have to be 18. You’ve clearly never met a 14 year old, but 4 years and puberty at that age make a BIG difference. These children were very obviously, well, children.
I’ve seen people over 18 work on heavy machinery who I wouldn’t consider mature enough to do so. The older you get the more you cringe when you see someone work and know they’re gonna get hurt before they have a chance to live.
Let’s see what happens when Reps close the border… LMAO…
