Idea for Educating Farm and AG Workers Rights:

Teach them how to check if employer is actually submitting their Social Security payments to the government.

Child labor is used by some employers here in the US to fly under the radar. I worked from age 10 to 17 in fields and no accounting for deducted Social Security. Also some, not all workers can not read or read and understand their rights. I am not talking about foreign... more »

1. Adopting the economic law of supply and demand.

My personal experience; I was offered a job from the Philippines, I exited the Philippines and entered USA legally with a working visa but I am not educated enough on the consequences next. I am ignorant about this country, labor law, definitely about human trafficking.

A. Seasonal workers should be provided and required to attend for seminars and orientation about... more »

Children may be coerced into forced labor alongside immigrant community groups or family members. Healthcare, child welfare and school based professionals need industry sector specific screening tools to identify possible child victims. Opportunities to pilot studies in urban and rural may lead to identifying more adult victims from the same sector much like efforts to identify child sex trafficking victims often leads... more »

Local NGOs and community-based organizations should be funded to provide Know Your Rights trainings to farmworkers at their place of work. Employers should be required to include these presentations as part of the employee training, and should be required to pay the farmworkers for attending the training. This establishes a local contact for workers for a variety of needs, including support if workers are abused or exploited.... more »

Justice at Work has extensive experience with survivors of trafficking within the temporary work visa system (including H2-A, H2-B and J-1 workers). Many aspects of the current system lend themselves to trafficking and other abuses; we urge DOL to enforce existing regulations and strengthen worker protections in each of these areas.

First, many temporary workers are recruited by third party intermediaries, some of whom... more »

December 14, 2020

Submitted via IDEAS page

Mark Mittelhauser

Associate Deputy Undersecretary for International Affairs

U.S. Department of Labor

RE: U.S. Department of Labor's Efforts to End Labor Trafficking National Online Dialogue

Dear Associate Deputy Undersecretary Mittelhauser:

This comment is being submitted by Centro de los Derechos del Migrante, Inc. (CDM), a binational non-profit with operations in the... more »

Instead of making a separate training, add a policy to the already mandatory sexual harrasment: 1 hour employee training every 2 years and 2 hour supervisor annual training. Also, the state should provide an emergency assistance plan to remove employees who report trafficking to a safe environment immediatly. Also, a response team dedicated to providing safety to those that report anonymously, on behalf of victims, or... more »

ETA should ensure sufficient funding is available to reach farmworkers and should seek to cooperate with legal services organizations and other farmworker-serving organizations on the ground to provide education to farmworkers on labor trafficking in their own language and in adequate formats.

In some instances, Agriculture employers in the U.S. may be unaware of the exploitation taking place at the level of labor recruitment overseas with regard to their specific workforce. ETA and state farmworker agencies should partner to develop a system to ensure that ag employers are made aware when they are engaging in a business relationship with a recruiter that has been identified as an exploitative or labor trafficking... more »

In 2020, Georgia's Statewide Human Trafficking Task Force's Work Group 6, which focuses on foreign nationals and labor trafficking, released a groundbreaking new report on labor trafficking in Georgia. The report is the first of its kind in Georgia and marks a renewed commitment to end human trafficking in all forms in the state, including forced labor.

The origin of the report stems from the important conversations... more »

The Advocates for Human Rights strongly encourages DOL to ensure any protocols guarantee the involvement of social service providers and advocates early and throughout the investigation. The individuals help aid the investigation by providing needed services to make victims safe and comfortable. They also have training and skills in trauma-informed interviewing techniques and understand nuances facing special populations.... more »

The Advocates for Human Rights recommends DOL set-up and follow procedures for collaboration with ERO/ICE, which focus on the rights of victims and ensuring witness protections. In our experience, DOL ability to investigate has been impinged by ICE/ERO actions that apprehend victims, re-traumatizing them and making investigations/support more challenging due to possible deportation. DOL should work with ICE officials... more »

In our experience, DOL should work to protect J-1 visa holders from trafficking and exploitation in farm work and agriculture . This should be done through cooperation with DOS on pre-departure training, consistent and timely investigations and screening of all host programs, reliable reporting resources for complaints, and more. In our experience, the J-1 program can be valuable; however, it involves significant opportunity... more »

We need to train farm workers on all forms of recruitment, employers on the consequences on trafficking a farm worker and breaking the law

The Little Hoover Commission recently released a series of three reports aimed at strengthening the State of California's response to labor trafficking. These reports were developed with contributions from numerous expert stakeholders across the state and the nation - victims and their advocates; prosecutors; labor inspectors and other critical local, state, and federal government employees; academic and legal researchers;... more »