Evers vetoes bill that would have eliminated work permits for younger teens

With participants at a state council meeting of the Machinists Union looking on, Gov. Tony Evers vetoes legislation Monday that would have eliminated work permits for 14- and 15-year-olds. (Governor's Facebook page photo)

As expected, Gov. Tony Evers vetoed legislation Monday that would have eliminated the requirement for work permits for 14- and 15-year-old teens who take a job.

“Asking more kids to work is not a serious plan or solution to address our statewide workforce issues,” Evers said in his veto message for SB-436 .

Evers took the action at a statewide union meeting in Madison. The bill “isn’t a serious proposal to address generational statewide issues,” Evers said in his remarks at the spring conference of the Wisconsin State Council of Machinists. “This bill is wrong for our kids and wrong for our state.”

Even before the veto was announced, the state Department of Workforce Development (DWD) sent out a press release promoting a webinar April 16 for teens, parents and employers about the rights and responsibilities of each in the workplace. The announcement also highlighted a series of DWD “Welcome to the Workforce” videos aimed at young workers and their families.

In his veto message, Evers said he opposed “eliminating a process that ensures our kids are protected from employers that may exploit youth and inexperience or subject children to hazardous or illegal working conditions.”

While parents and guardians can apply online directly for a work permit on behalf of a 14- or 15-year-old, backers of the legislation eliminating them argued that the work permit requirement added needless bureaucracy and intruded on parents’ rights.

“The state does not need a hand and every single thing that we do as parents, they don’t need to help us raise our children in every single way,” said Rep. Amanda Nedweski (R- Pleasant Prairie), during the Assembly floor debate in February. “This bill simply removes the state from the parenting process where they do not belong.”

Evers wrote in his veto message that under the current law,  parents are already involved by necessity “because the minor’s parent or guardian must consent to the employment.”

The bill, however, “eliminates a process that ensures parents and guardians have knowledge of employment so they can, in their judgment, determine whether a job may be detrimental to their young worker’s health, safety, social development, or academic success,” Evers wrote.

In addition, he noted, the bill eliminated child labor permit fees, which support a staff position at DWD to monitor child labor law compliance.

Evers’ veto of the bill was never in doubt. The measure passed both houses of the Legislature without support from any Democratic member, and it was broadly condemned by labor unions, who have been among the governor’s most vocal supporters.

Opponents of the legislation also criticized GOP lawmakers for having eliminated work permits for 16- and 17-year-olds in the second term of Republican Gov. Scott Walker.

It was introduced amid reports of increased child labor law violations in Wisconsin and nationally and moves in some states to relax child labor laws . It was prominently backed by a Florida-based lobbying group that has advocated for various business deregulation proposals, along with increasing barriers to voting and to social safety net programs.

The legislation also eliminated a permit requirement for businesses employing minors in door-to-door sales, so-called “street trades,” eliminated a requirement that the minors who work for them obtain a DWD identification card, and eliminated fees and penalties associated with those requirements.

“Street trade jobs pose heightened dangers to child workers,” Evers wrote, noting that young people hired for door-to-door sales “often are unsupervised while interacting with strangers.”

Evers added that the ID requirement makes it easier for regulators to ensure minors aren’t working outside the legal working hours under state and federal laws and to check whether a job is harming a young person’s school attendance, academic performance or welfare. “I object to eliminating the department’s ability to track and monitor these kids and their employment.”

Evers’ veto message took note of a notorious 1999 van crash in Wisconsin that killed seven people ages 16 to 25 who were part of an Oklahoma magazine sales operation. The crash also injured five others, including a 15-year-old girl who was left a quadriplegic. The incident “continues to be a reminder that we must fiercely protect child workers because not all employers have kids’ best interests in mind,” Evers wrote.

The crash led to the passage, a decade later, of legislation requiring employers who use traveling sales crews to register with DWD .

The DWD webinar announced Monday “will help teens, parents, and employers understand their rights and responsibilities while in the workforce and employing new workers,” said the department announcement. It will cover getting a job and obtaining a work permit, worker rights, employer responsibilities, career pathways and youth apprenticeship.

“The sessions also will touch on ensuring safety at work and keeping school a priority when classes are in session,” according to DWD.

The DWD webinar will include representatives from the U.S. Department of Labor and the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction as well as from DWD’s youth apprenticeship and equal rights offices. The webinar is free and open to the public and will run from 2-3 p.m. on Tuesday, April 16.

The department plans a series of job fairs in April and May with community organizations and Wisconsin Youth Apprenticeship programs in Green Bay, Janesville, Evansville, Monroe, Turtle Lake, West Salem, Melrose, Gillett and Tomahawk.

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