Dateline: 08/09/02

The U.S. Senate has unanimously approved a child labor safety law designed to protect under-age children from the dangers of working in the traveling sales industry.

The Traveling Sales Crew Protection Act, sponsored by U.S. Senator Herb Kohl (D-Wisconsin), prohibits children under the age of 18 from selling door-to-door as part of a traveling sales crew that takes employees away from their residence for more than 24 hours.

Sen. Kohl was moved to sponsor the law designed to make the traveling sales industry more safe, accountable and responsible seven young people recruited to sell magazines door-to-door were killed in a tragic van crash in 1999.

"The horrible van crash that claimed those young lives shed light on an industry that too often tolerated the exploitation of children. We have heard cases of industry recruiters preying on kids with false and misleading promises. We have seen instances of verbal and physical abuse of these young workers. And we have found working conditions that should be illegal, and will be soon. I'm pleased that we have made progress in going after the bad actors in the traveling sales industry," Kohl said.

The new law would amend the Child Labor section (29 U.S.C. 212) of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 by specifying that no "individual under 18 years of age may be employed in a position requiring the individual to engage in door to door sales or in related support work in a manner that requires the individual to remain away from his or her permanent residence for more than 24 hours."

Since the van crash in Wisconsin, other workers have died in crashes elsewhere involving young people from all over the country. In all of these cases, reckless driving, speeding or sleep deprivation were factors.

According to Sen. Kohl, approximately 30,000 people annually work in traveling sales crews, yet do not receive even the most basic protections of federal or state labor law.

Kohl cited investigations of the traveling sales industry revealing widespread abuse of workers, including:

• Employees physically assaulted by supervisors
• Child workers being abandoned on the road for failure to meet "performance goals"
• Children as young as 15 being removed from their local neighborhoods mere hours after being hired
• Threats of physical abuse from supervisors to workers who attempt to quit

A similar bill in the House, The Young American Workers' Bill of Rights, is currently before the House Subcommittee on Workforce Protections.