Top Florida lawmaker has ‘personal concerns’ about a push to loosen child-labor laws

Florida House Speaker Daniel Perez says he has “personal concerns” about a proposal that would loosen the state’s child labor laws and allow many teenagers to work overnight jobs on school days without a meal break. 

The proposal — which is moving in the Florida Senate but has stalled in the Florida House — would remove the state’s labor protections that keep children as young as 14 and 15 from working late nights and early mornings, if they are home-schooled or attend virtual school. It would remove all limitations on how late and how much 16- and 17-year-olds can work and end those teenage workers’ guarantee to a meal break.

“Personally… my greatest concern with that is having children work late hours or early hours on a school day,” said Perez, a Miami Republican. “I don’t ever want to take that away from our young children, or really any children for that matter.”

Florida law currently says that teenagers ages 16 and 17 can’t work before 6:30 a.m. or after 11 p.m. on a school day and can’t work during school hours unless they are in a career education program. They are also limited to up to 30 hours a week of work when school is in session, unless their parent or a school superintendent waives that restriction.

Home-schooled or virtually schooled teenagers as young as 16 are currently exempt from those time regulations, under a change approved by the Legislature last year. The proposal would expand those exemptions to teens as young as 14.

The debate over the proposal gained national attention after the Herald/Times reported that Gov. Ron DeSantis talked about how a younger workforce could help industries that lose workers as a result of a crackdown on migrant labor.

“Why do we say we need to import foreigners, even import them illegally, when you know, teenagers used to work at these resorts, college students should be able to do this stuff,” DeSantis said last week during a panel discussion with President Donald Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan.

The governor said the state’s push to require large companies to screen workers through E-Verify, a federal database that confirms a worker’s citizenship status, has had some employers concerned about its impact on their business. But he said the state would not stop in its efforts to crack down on illegal immigration.

“Yes, we had people that left because of those rules, but you’ve also been able to hire other people. And what’s wrong with expecting our young people to be working part-time now? I mean, that’s how it used to be when I was growing up,” DeSantis said.

Perez declined to comment on the governor’s remarks when asked by reporters on Wednesday, saying he did not have the full context on his statements.

Sen. Jay Collins, R-Tampa, the sponsor of the Senate bill, said people were “taking an excerpt from the governor’s statements and trying to demonize those for politics.”

“I don’t think that’s what he was talking about at all,” Collins said, when asked if he thought a younger workforce could supplement the work of migrants in the country illegally. “What he’s talking about are those soft skill benefits to children growing.”

The governor’s office did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment on whether DeSantis supports Collins’ bill.

While the governor has yet to comment on the proposal moving in the Legislature, his comments are now coloring the debate in Tallahassee as the proposal is considered by state lawmakers. On Tuesday, the proposal passed through the Senate Commerce and Tourism Committee with 5 votes in favor of the bill and 4 members against it.

“I think we need to let kids be kids,” Sen. Joe Gruters, R-Sarasota, said in the committee before joining three Democrats in voting against the bill.

Other Senate Republicans, including Sens. Nick DiCeglie, R-Indian Rocks Beach, and Tom Wright, R-Port Orange, voted for the bill but expressed concern about some of its provisions, saying it needed work.

The bill still has to move through two more committees in the Senate before it can be considered by the full floor in the chamber.

In the House, a similar proposal has yet to get a hearing, another signal that it faces an uphill battle in the chamber. Perez said there is still time to make changes to the proposal if members in the chamber want it to move forward.

Last year, lawmakers introduced a similar proposal to roll back child labor laws, but after facing intense opposition, it was significantly watered down.

Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article302920599.html#storylink=cpy