Farmers Contest Child-Labor Rules

(by Ana Compoy, Wall Street Journal. WSJ.com) – Some farmers are opposing new rules proposed by the federal government that would restrict the chores children can be hired to perform in the nation’s fields, including driving tractors and rounding up cattle in corrals on horseback.

The U.S. Department of Labor says its proposal aims to look after children’s safety in a dangerous industry. The rules would bar most farm hands younger than 16 years old from jobs such as operating power equipment, branding and breeding farm animals, and working atop ladders at heights over six feet.

Farmers say the planned regulations are overreaching.

“Are we going to outlaw children helping mom bake cookies in the kitchen because they might get their hand in the blender?” asked Scott Neufeld, a farmer in Major County, Okla., who said he worked 10-hour days driving a combine at age 14. “That’s the equivalent of what we’re doing with youth in the farm.”

He said that under the regulations he wouldn’t be able to hire local kids to move hay or pull the grain cart at harvest time.

The Labor Department is reviewing thousands of comments on the proposed rules, including objections sent last week by farmers including Mr. Neufeld, along with responses from dozens of trade groups and some politicians.

Of the two million U.S. farms, about 98% are family owned, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation, a trade group. The new rules would apply to children under 16 who are hired by farming operations, not those who work at farms owned and operated by their parents. But many teens work at farms not owned by their immediate family, such as uncles or grandparents.

Mike Spradling, president of the Oklahoma Farm Bureau and a pecan farmer, said he worries the proposed rules would reduce the number of future farmers by limiting the exposure kids have to the agricultural industry.

“If we don’t have the next generation to come in, will we have enough farmers?” he asked.

Although the childhood injury rate on farms fell 59% from 1998 to 2009, according to the National Farm Medicine Center in Marshfield, Wis., agriculture still has the second-highest fatality rate among youth workers after mining, and that rate is nearly six times the average across all industries.

Current labor laws, which allow children under 16 to work at farms when they aren’t in school, already limit the tasks they can do. But the Labor Department said the rules need updating to improve safety. Most fatal accidents involve machinery, particularly tractors, the department said.

Supporters of the rules say the changes are modest and make common sense.

“Children are banned from working in coal mines, construction and even at the meat slicer in a deli,” said Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, a Los Angeles Democrat who has filed legislation to toughen up protection for young farm laborers. Hazardous work in farms “should be no different,” she said in a statement.

But farmers say they are in a better position than city folk to determine what kinds of farming activities are safe for children.

Lorinda Carlson, who has a small orchard in Chelan County, Wash., said the law would make it harder to hire the five 13- to-15-year-old workers who usually help her load cherries during harvest season, a job she said few adults are willing to do. …

—Scott Kilman contributed to this article.

Write to Ana Campoy at ana.campoy@dowjones.com.

Copyright 2011 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Reprinted here for educational purposes only. Visit the website at wsj.com.