Paul DeCamp, Member of the Firm in the Employment, Labor & Workforce Management practice, in the firm’s Washington, DC, office, was quoted in Law360 Employment Authority, in “How Child Labor Enforcement Will Change Under Trump,” by Daniela Porat. (Read the full version – subscription required.)
Following is an excerpt:
President Donald Trump's administration, driven by a desire to give certain employers the benefit of the doubt and a general aversion to government overreach, will change tack on child labor enforcement, attorneys say. …
Every administration has sought to enforce child labor standards, said Paul DeCamp, a former administrator for the Wage and Hour division and a member of management-side firm Epstein Becker & Green PC.
“The question is, in what ways do they do it? How do they go about it, and which industries do they focus on?” he said. “The difference, I think, between the last administration and this administration is there won't be an effort to jump straight to punishment and straight to embarrassing businesses and assuming the worst about businesses.” …
The new DOL will continue heavy enforcement and penalties against employers who put minors to work in dangerous jobs when they should have known, for example, that the age documentation a minor provided was clearly false and the product of potential labor trafficking, DeCamp said.
“You're going to see more of an understanding that we need to differentiate between the businesses that knew they were hiring minors and did it anyway, versus those who themselves were a victim of criminal activity,” DeCamp said.
