To think that the US should abolish child labour?

[KatraAllandra]

Just read this story on the BBC www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-27350413 about children as young as 12 spending their holidays (up to 72 hours a week) picking and processing tobacco in the USA.

I'm utterly appalled that an apparently civilised country can allow this? How can they possible oppose child labour in the developing world while this is still legal in their country?

I grew up in a rural area. By the age of 11 many of us were working on farms. We got paid and it kept us from hanging around the parks or getting up to mischief.

Don't kids on Australian cattle stations work too, though?

I went to 'the berries' at that age, and younger. Loved it. Not for 72 hours a week though.

They do on sheep stations hellokitty.

My kids don't know they are born.

A bit different though.

Morloth

The kids can't talk, so they may or may not known they are born...

This would be illegal in the US state I live in.

I'm not completely opposed to child labour either, I used to work at the stables when I was 11 till about 13, after that I got a job after school and weekends in a chippy on £2 an hour but still did the stables during the day at weekends and holidays. Taught me the value of money and allowed me to save up and buy things I wanted that my gran couldn't afford to get me or to shop in all the fashionable shops like tammy girl and bay trading. It has to be fair and there have to be rules such as break time and caps on how many hours they do etc but children learning to work for a wage is no bad thing. If I bought it myself I knew how much it cost and looked after it, I had experience to put on my CV when I left school, I knew what it was like to be in a workplace environment and I knew about turning up on time, taking breaks etc.

Kids now are handed pocket money and gadgets and iphones with contracts but don't do any chores, cant cook, cant manage their finances, cant save money, cant get a job because they have no experience. What America should end is their unpaid internships - like the ones that are coming over here, working for free as work experience.

And remember the US has both state and federal laws, and usually the state laws are more rigorous. The story here fails to mention that most states have laws prohibiting this kind of abuse of children.

It's not work instead of school, though, so it's rather unfair to imply it is child labour in the proper sense, which does blight children's opportunities.

US schools have a very long summer holiday, traditionally for this very reason (agricultural labour).

72 hours a week? Bloody hell! Standard full time is around 35 hours a week, 7 hours a day five days a week. That is twice that, 10 hours a day 7 days a week. Of course it should be illegal, fucking hell.

Standard full time is around 35 hours a week

To be pedantic, standard full time in the US is 40 hours plus.

Christ just read it, dangerous too.

Wouldn't be legal in EU and a good thing too.

I just knew someone would say something like that.

What fucking difference does it make whether average is 35 or 40 or 37.5 when children are working 72???

Why even bother making that point? What do you feel it adds?

I worked at weekends and school holidays for the family business from when I was 13. I enjoyed it. It taught me about money and gave me a sense of responsibility. By 16 I was managing one of our small shops for a week when the usual manager went on holiday. "Child labour" is only a bad thing if it is exploitative.

EU law:

"The Working Time Directive, 2003/88/EC, is a Directive of the European Union. It gives EU workers the right to a minimum number of holidays each year, rest breaks, and rest of at least 11 hours in any 24 hours; restricts excessive night work; A day off after a weeks work; and provides for a right to work no more than 48 hours per week.[1] It was issued as an update on earlier versions from 22 June 2000 and 23 November 1993.[2] Excessive working time being cited as a major cause of stress, depression and illness; the stated purpose of the Directive is to protect people's health and safety."

UK opts out of 48 hour maximum though.

I do not know anyone who is contracted to work a 72 hour week.

I do know some people who probably put that in, for various reasons, but they are not children, and none of them are working with hazardous substances.

Jesus christ.

Kids should have part time jobs and summer time, but these hours are extreme.

And why are people saying "oh well I'm not against children working" as if that is the point?

If these children were working 10 hours a day 7 days a week making bricks in Afghanstan would people be so casual about it? I don't understand. Is it because it's the US?

Certainly should be a limit on hours and strict regulation on breaks, safe conditions and exactly when they can work... max 6 hours a day including breaks, max 30 a week, max 8 weeks a year or something... and fewer hours the younger they are. I had summer jobs from age 13 too, not in agriculture but quite physical, in catering ... some opportunity to work is not all bad, but 72 hours a week for a child is not healthy.

because the question was to abolish child labour - which I don't thin should happen but I agree with introducing better regulations on things such as time off between shifts, breaks, total hours worked etc as I said before. Children working is not necessarily a bad thing but working for those hours in poor conditions is. Instead of banning them from working which will leave them in a worse position than they started (lets face it no one works those hours because they want to - they usually have to) why not impose better legislation for younger workers to make things better for them such as maximum working hours, minimum time between shifts even maybe a minimum wage etc? seems like a better option to me

Nothing wrong with them working ,but the hours are far too long. My eldest son had his 1st job at 11, that was only just an hour or so a day.
I think it's a shame that there are so few Saturday and part time jobs around for teenagers to do in this country nowadays.They were so good for work and life experience.

The information in the BBC article focuses only on the tobacco industry, which is likely why it's stats are off, because in the food industry, the US is known to use children as young as 6 to pick up up to 25% of the food depending on the year. Child migrant workers are used in all 48 contiguous states, and over half of these will not finish high school and this labour is a big part of it - and a big part of the US economy that is exported around the world.

This isn't about a family's children working on the local farm, this is about the system moving and using the poorest families to reap profits. The visas often used to move these families, the visas are connected to the employer who hold the debt of them over their heads which allows the family - and these children - no legal recourse. It's indentured servitude that these children will likely be forced to continue when their parents are worked to death or deported when the employers give them up which happens all the time in the US food industry.

The tobacco industry is hazardous by the look of it and should be specially regulated - doesn't look as though kids should be harvesting tobacco at all, even for very short hours. I didn't realise the plants were actively releasing nicotine in the fields!

LoveSardines - if it doesn't make a difference what the average is then why even bring it up yourself?

Of course it's outrageous that children are working 72 hours - no one is arguing with that.

I brought it up to bring home to some posters just how long these hours are.

35 hours a week is fairly standard in the UK, this is TWICE that. It is an easy yardstick to illustrate just HOW LONG these hours are, I wasn't making a specific point about average hours in different industries in different countries, I was saying that this is TWICE what many ADULTS in the UK are contracted to work in a full time role.

You seem to have missed the point spectacularly. I can also say that it is 1.8 times more than the average US working week of 40 hours, if that assists.

I mean FGS.