A Louisiana House committee voted Thursday to repeal a law requiring employers to give child workers lunch breaks and to cut unemployment benefits — part of a push by Republicans to remove constraints on employers and reduce aid for injured and unemployed workers.

The House Labor and Industrial Relations panel advanced the child labor legislation, House Bill 156, along with House Bill 119, which would slash the amount of time for which people can collect unemployment aid. A third bill the committee approved, House Bill 529, would change how workers’ compensation wages are calculated in ways that could reduce benefits received by some injured laborers.

  • @jeffw@lemmy.world
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    28 days ago

    First-term state Rep. Roger Wilder, R-Denham Springs, who sponsored the child labor measure and owns Smoothie King franchises across the Deep South, said he filed the bill in part because children want to work without having to take lunch breaks. He questioned why Louisiana has the requirement while other states where he owns Smoothie King locations, such as Mississippi, don’t have them, and criticized people who have questioned the bill’s purpose.
    “The wording is ‘We’re here to harm children.’ Give me a break," he said. "These are young adults.”

    O_O

    Edit: you heard it here first, one day there will be a news article about this guy flirting with underage workers (possibly something darker)

    • Nougat
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      3428 days ago

      So … they’re here to harm young adults? How is that better?

      • Jojo, Lady of the West
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        27 days ago

        I love how when they don’t want lunch breaks they’re practically adults so they shouldn’t need them. But when they want life changing (life saving) medical care, suddenly they’re kids that need protecting.

  • @raspberriesareyummy@lemmy.world
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    28 days ago

    The cruelty is the point. At this point, voting republican in the US is equal to voting for German Nazis in 1933, when they were still working towards a totalitarian terror state.

  • @Cruxifux@feddit.nl
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    2928 days ago

    When I was a kid I worked at a full service gas station. We didn’t get lunch breaks, or any sort of breaks, and I didn’t know that’s how things were supposed to work until I became an adult and started to work construction.

    This law absolutely will be used to take advantage of kids, because companies do not give one single fuck about children and kids don’t know any better.

      • @stembolts@programming.dev
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        28 days ago

        As US citizens, we should praise the Lord for the privilege of giving our time to our employers. I think that workers who accept pay are greedy, and if you do manage to receive pay, after donating it to your landlord, the rest should go to the church. Child rape trials and relocating sex offenders can get quite expensive. Help a local church! /s

  • @ParabolicMotion@lemmy.world
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    2328 days ago

    Well, I’m not planning to ever visit Louisiana, and if I do, I won’t be visiting Smoothie King. Maybe all of the “young adults” in Louisiana will apply for jobs out of state.

  • @xantoxis@lemmy.world
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    428 days ago

    They’re also introducing new regulations that require regular maintenance to keep the thumbscrew-tightening machines in proper working order. In the next session, they’ll be deciding whether to allow employers to hit babies in the face with bats.