Family owned farms are a part of life for many Upstate communities. Albany County alone is home to about 400 farms, and surrounding counties are even richer with farmland. Around 99 percent of them are family owned. For generations, farmers have passed down skills and knowledge to their children.
That story could change under proposed regulations from the U.S. Department of Labor aimed at minors who work on farms. On Thursday, April 12, the New York Farm Bureau held a press conference in Albany to address the proposal.
At the core of the proposed regulation are restrictions on what kind of work children under the age of 18 will be able to do. Farming advocates say they’re overly restrictive.
“We’re here today to talk about the impact of a federal regulation that’s being proposed by the U.S. Secretary of Labor. … The impact of this proposal is two-fold. One, it changes the way the hazardous occupations orders are currently structured for our family farms,” said Julie Suarez, New York Farm Bureau’s director of public policy. “The hazardous occupations orders have been changed around to prohibit the ability of a minor working on a farm to do very simple tasks. They can’t for instance use a wheelbarrow, they can’t use anything that can hoist or lift an object, they cannot load or unload a truck … they can’t lift a flat (of plants). … This issue is of extreme importance to New York’s family farms.”
When contacted, a Department of Labor spokesperson would not issue a statement, but said some of the claims outlined by the Farm Bureau, such as minors not being allowed to use hoses or screwdrivers, are “false.” The new regulations are aimed at keeping minors safe from workplace injuries.
The department has extended the comment period on the changes and has to date received over 10,000 comments.
Many family farms have formed corporate structures to protect their assets. Under the new regulations, a child of a farmer who has a corporate structure would not be able to work on the farm or perform simple tasks on the farm.
A portion of text from the new rules, first presented in September, reads in part, “The proposed agricultural revisions would impact only hired farm workers and in no way compromise the statutory child labor parental exemption involving children working on farms owned or operated by their parents.”
Congressman Bill Owens, D-Plattsburgh, talked about the restriction of minors working on their family farms at the Thursday press conference, relaying a personal story. He had heard from an 11-year-old boy who was concerned that he would no longer be able to work on his family’s farm. In response to the boy’s concern, and others, Owens asked the secretary of labor to reexamine some of the provisions.
“We asked that they address a couple of issues. One, to make sure the children could in fact work on the farms and make sure that the definition of a family farm include … corporations, but also related folks (adjoining farms owned by a large family). This rule would prohibit the child working on various farms. We want to make sure that they’re still able to do that,” said Owens.
“It shows a lack of understanding on the part of the government about what’s happening on the ground. Clearly we want to make sure the children work in safe environments, but the number of injuries has been declining… We really should be moving toward sensible regulatory structures,” Owens continued.
Sarah Gordon Avery grew up on Gordon Farms, her family farm in Knox, helping out from the time she was about 11 years old. She feels that some of the newly proposed rules have their place for safety reasons while others seem to make more broad prohibitions and could be written to promote safety through proper supervision and training.
“Kids shouldn’t be allowed to do certain things alone; working in a small pen with a jumpy cow is dangerous. However, with supervision and assistance, farm kids and junior summer help contribute greatly to small family farms’ survival,” she said.
Gordon Avery added that she spent a lot of time tractors as a teenager, but also received proper tractor training.
“Perhaps requiring a junior tractor operator’s certificate could help promote safety rather than banning everyone under the age of 16 from operating a tractor. I worry that the absolute prohibitions the new rules propose will make it hard for farmers to find summer help that can substantively contribute to farmers’ operations. … The new rules also inhibit young farmers from being able to learn the skills they will need as future farmers to sustain the dwindling family farm population,” she said. “Family farms depend on help from the family. It also taught me a lot of life skills besides those specific to farming, like work ethic, the importance of exercise, business management, environmental systems science and food awareness.”
Part of the DOL’s proposal includes a restriction that minors would not be able to work with animals for educational purposes, such as showing their prize calf at a county fair.
Frank Gaspirini, vice president for the National Council of Agricultural Employers, said his group is also concerned.
“The real potential impact is still with family farms. From the comments we continue to see and hear, although many groups have expressed concern, those involved in animal agriculture have been most vocal in opposition because they appear to be faced with almost all the proposed restrictions, and because of the longtime importance of showing, breeding, raising, stewardship issues that have been so traditionally a part of the life of dairy, beef, sheep, swine, horse and other livestock farmers,” said Gaspirini.
There has been no timeframe set for when the next step in the proposal process will happen or when the proposed regulations, if passed, would potentially take effect.
