Agricultural labor reforms to be re-evaluated

Stephanie Smolek, a junior agricultural journalism major, laughed as she talked about her boyfriend's love of the farm life.

"I don't know what my boyfriend would have done if he hadn't been able to drive a tractor when he was, like, five," Smolek said, "I think his whole life would have been different."

On Feb. 1, the Department of Labor announced that it would re-evaluate several items on the controversial agricultural labor reforms, targeted toward kids under 16.

In particular, the DOL said that it would revisit the parental-exemption clause, to which, it had proposed changes.

In a press release, the Secretary of Labor, Hilda Solis, cited the DOL's respect for the traditions of rural America and the traditions of farming families and its continued effort to keep children safe on the farm as part of the DOL's decision to reconsider some of the proposed restrictions.

According to Jordan Dux, the national affairs coordinator at the Nebraska Farm Bureau, the DOL had a fairly hands-off policy in the past regarding young family members working on farms. Prior to this change in regulation, permission to work on the farm could be given by parents, grandparents, aunts or uncles.

In the original wording of the DOL's restrictions, children under age 16 would not have been able to work on a farm if it was not directly owned by the parents.

Dux said that the DOL had decided to reconsider its position after seeing the large number of business models family farms can follow — including limited liability companies, owned and operated by several family members.

Melisa Konecky, a junior animal science and agricultural leadership major, is the oldest of four siblings and grew up on a dairy farm in Wahoo, Neb.

"Farming is what I like to call our ‘family job,'" Konecky said. "My family has been involved in agriculture for at least three generations. My 15-year-old brother can probably do more stuff than most kids in his class. This last spring he planted crops, he harvested them himself with the combine and (he) can work cows like a champ."

Konecky, like other farm kids, said that her good grades and work ethic relate directly to growing up doing farm work.

Konecky said she agrees with the idea behind the restrictions but doesn't think that the DOL should be able to tell farmers who they can and can't hire.

"The restrictions are kind of bogus, but the idea is good," Konecky said.

According to Agri-Pulse magazine, the original proposals generated more than 10,000 public comments and a variety of letters from lawmakers and agricultural interest groups.

"Many people see this as an attack on the way that farmers and ranchers raise their kids," Dux said.

According to the DOL, these proposals would not have prohibited in any way, students' ability to work on their parents' own farms.

Also, according to the DOL fact sheets, the proposal would not have limited students in 4-H and Future Farmers of America in terms of raising, showing and selling livestock at county fairs on their own behalf. Nor would it eliminate agricultural education programs.

"Trying to keep kids safe is important," Dux said, "but letting kids get their hands dirty is also very important. Farming is something you learn by doing."

In the Feb. 1 DOL press release, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack said, "The Labor Department listened to farmers and ranchers across the country. This announcement and the additional opportunity for comment represent a common-sense approach to strengthen our agricultural economy while keeping farm kids safe. It reflects the Obama administration's commitment to the American values that will keep our rural and agricultural economies growing, and keep rural communities and families prosperous."

"It's really a slap in the face for us," Dux said. "In the 15 or 20 pages of concerns that agricultural groups submitted to the DOL for consideration, they chose just this one; and then they said they heard us."

The proposed changes would also prevent teenagers from operating most large equipment without a permit, given after the individual had completed appropriate training courses. According to the DOL this rule is very similar to one that has existed in non-agricultural youth employment for more than 50 years.

"The equipment that we use is bigger than in the past, but it is also safer," Dux said. "Most is now equipped with roll bars and seatbelts."

In a 1998 study, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health estimated 14,590 individuals under age 19 were injured in agriculture-related accidents.

The DOL's restrictions also include prohibiting children under the age of 16 from entering a pen with a sow and suckling pigs, a cow with a calf (umbilical cord attached) and also bulls and horses used for breeding operations.

The new regulations would also prohibit students from working in feedlots or for county grain elevators or in and around silos.

According to NPR's "Talk of the Nation" on Dec. 28, 2011, the restrictions were aimed at farmers who employ migrant laborers and their families, but family farms and farmers who employ relatives got caught up in the broad description of the new regulations.

The new regulations would not, according to the DOL, interfere with chores or providing help to neighbors.

For families like Konecky's, the farm goes beyond just the immediate family and provides employment for other kids in the area, many of whom wouldn't otherwise have jobs.

"These restrictions would definitely hurt my family," Konecky said. "We have local kids that work for my family year round. They help us to put up hay and silage, they come over to help fix our machinery, they milk cows for us."

ashleyburns@dailynebraskan.com