Oct 31, 2011

Ag Secretary says child labor rules won’t impact farm kids

The U.S. Department of Labor is proposing new restrictions on child labor on farms, but U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says the rules would not apply to farm kids doing work on their family’s farm. The rules would only apply to children under the age of 16 who are hired to do farm work, according to Vilsack.

“When you take a look at the number of injuries that occur, there’s a fairly significant number of people who get hurt on the farm,” Vilsack says, “and anything we can do to make it safer, as long as they’re reasonable, we should at least be talking about and considering.” Radio Iowa

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