[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 70 (Wednesday, June 8, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: June 8, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                       SUMMER JOBS FOR TEENAGERS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Illinois [Mr. Ewing] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. EWING. Mr. Speaker, during June millions of American teenagers 
are finishing their school year and are looking for summer jobs to help 
save up for college, to buy a car, or to help their families make ends 
meet. It is important for Congress to do whatever it can to encourage 
businesses to hire these teenagers for summer jobs. Not only do jobs 
help keep teenagers out of trouble, but jobs give them important work 
experience and habits.
  In the past the administration has fought for policies to promote 
summer jobs for teenagers, and I applaud them for their efforts to get 
the message out about the importance of summer jobs.
  But by the same token, I am dismayed over conflicting regulatory 
policies that can actually discourage businesses from hiring young 
people.
  Here is one classic example. Back in 1954, the Department of Labor 
promulgated a regulation called Hazardous Occupation Order 12, or H.O. 
12, which prohibits teenagers from operating cardboard baler machines. 
That is okay to have H.O. 12, but that was in 1954. Today that same 
regulation is imposed when teenagers are asked to simply toss a box 
into a baler which is not even operating.
  I am sure that in 1954 this regulation was necessary to protect the 
health and safety of youngsters. However, technology over the past 40 
years has brought significant safety improvements. Perhaps the most 
important safety advancement is that modern balers cannot be engaged 
and operated when boxes are being loaded into the machine. Likewise, if 
a baler is being operated, cardboard cannot be placed into the 
equipment. In other words, it is like a microwave oven. If you open the 
door to a microwave, it stops operating. The same principle applies to 
modern paper balers.

  I have toured a grocery store in my district which has a modern 
baler. I encourage my colleagues to look at one of these machines and I 
guarantee you will conclude that the machines are much safer than they 
were in 1954. However, DOL is using this regulation to go after grocery 
stores, both large and small with a vengeance.
  Fines in excess of a quarter of a million dollars have been levied 
against a number of supermarket operators for situations where young 
workers have either tossed or placed cardboard into a nonoperating 
baler. This heavy-handed enforcement has been going on for several 
years now, despite the lack of conclusive data showing that young 
persons have been injured. DOL claims that violations of H.O. 12 have 
resulted in injuries, but cannot show that injuries were caused by 
paper balers rather than some other equipment. In fact, a review of 
8,000 worker compensation cases involving injuries over the past 7 
years conducted by the Waste Equipment Technology Association did not 
find a single injury involving a paper baler that meets current safety 
standards.
  As a result of the inflexible enforcement of H.O. 12, and the massive 
fines levied by DOL, many grocery store owners have simply chosen not 
to hire teenagers in their stores, because they fear that any violation 
of the regulation will bring down the heavy hand of the Federal 
Government. This means that there are fewer summer jobs available to 
teenagers in grocery stores, which traditionally have been heavy 
employers of teenagers.
  Mr. Speaker, this is an example of how Washington, DC bureaucrats are 
out of touch with the real world. H.O. 12 is a regulation that clearly 
has not kept pace with technological advancements. Unfortunately, it is 
still 1954 at the Labor Department, but it is 1994 for the rest of us, 
and young people are looking for jobs.
  I encourage my colleagues who are interested to visit a grocery store 
in their district to see a modern baler first hand. They will reach the 
same conclusion that I did. A baler cannot injure a young person when 
it is not being operated. Then, I encourage my colleagues to join me in 
calling on the Labor Department to start using some common sense in 
their enforcement of H.O. 12.
  Mr. Speaker, I would like to include in the Record the following copy 
of a new Department of Labor directive, which is an insert in the Wage 
and Hour Division's Field Operations Handbook. At a time when some in 
Congress are calling on the Department to review H.O. 12, this 
directive expands its jurisdiction by covering compactors as well as 
balers.
  Apparently this expansion of the authority of H.O. 12 has been done 
without the benefit of the regular public notice-and-comment procedures 
which most regulations undergo.

                  Field Operations Handbook:--12/28/93

       Add the following new section to Chapter 33a:


           33a12c Scrap paper balers and paper box compactors

       Scrap paper balers are specifically identified in HO 12 as 
     prohibited paper products machines. Paper box compactors 
     generally perform the same function as scrap paper balers 
     (even if they do not wrap the bale with wire or metal 
     straps), and present the same danger of being caught in the 
     machine during the compression process. Therefore, paper box 
     compactors that utilize the same process of compacting and 
     bailing as scrap paper balers (i.e., those using power-driven 
     high pressure compression to convert loose paper or paper 
     products into dense masses or bales) are the type of machines 
     contemplated in the report implementing HO 12. Where such 
     machines are used for compacting paper boxes or other paper 
     products, HO 12 coverage will be asserted.
       (Note.--The requirement that paper products machines must 
     recycle paper products or remanufacture them into a furnished 
     product for HO 12 coverage was eliminated with the amendments 
     to HO 12 effective December 20, 1991. As of that date, the 
     named paper products machines used to prepare paper for 
     disposal are also covered by HO 12.)

                          ____________________