UPDATED::Court hears Utah child-labor case tied to polygamous group - New Jersey Herald -

UPDATE:: New polygamous-sect-connected company that broke child labor laws is the old polygamous-sect-connected company that broke child labor laws, judge rules

In 2014, as his company Paragon Contractors Corp. was being investigated for breaking child labor laws, Brian Jessop was ramping up a new company.

That company was called Par 2. According to court documents, Par 2 had at least 19 employees who worked for Paragon, still used some forms with Paragon letterhead and began sending construct job bids to general contractors who didn’t even realize Jessop had formed a new company. Par 2 — like Paragon — also employed juveniles in ways that violated federal law.

And so, U.S. District Court Judge David Nuffer ruled Monday, Par 2 is a “successor” company to Paragon, and Par 2 and Jessop are in contempt of previous rulings against it forbidding the unlawful employment of children.

UPDATE::  Utah company that used child labor from polygamous sect to pick pecans must still pay $200,000 to compensate kids, federal appeals court rules

A federal appeals court has upheld most of the ruling against a company affiliated with a polygamous church and which was found to have used child labor, though the company did win one point. 

The contempt of court finding against Paragon Contractors Corp. and its owner, Brian Jessop, stands, and they still must pay $200,000 into a fund to compensate the children who harvested pecans on a ranch near Hurricane in 2012.

But the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals said a federal judge in Salt Lake City was wrong to make Jessop and Paragon report to what is called a special master — someone who would monitor their business practices. That could be an important ruling for Jessop. Last month, he appeared at a new court hearing where he was accused of failing to comply with that special master.

Lawyers for a Utah contractor with ties to a polygamous group appeared in court Monday to challenge a judge's finding that the company put nearly 200 children to work picking pecans for long hours in the cold, without pay.

Rick Sutherland, a lawyer for Paragon Contractors, argued in front of three federal judges at the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver that the children, some as young as six, were volunteering with their families to pick up fallen nuts for the needy.

He added that the children looked forward to the break from home-schooling and that this kind of work has been going on for decades in polygamous sects like this one.

"The children were not forced to work by Mr. Barlow. They were asked by the church," Sutherland said of one of the company's owners.

"So if the children were asked to work and were not paid, you get off scot-free?" Judge Carlos Lucero snapped back in the courtroom.

Paragon is challenging a ruling from U.S. District Judge Tena Campbell, who found the company forced kids to work in hazardous conditions during a 2012 pecan harvest in southern Utah. There's no timeframe on when the panel of judges may rule.

Court hears Utah child-labor case tied to polygamous group - New Jersey Herald -

UPDATED::Upstate religious cult allegedly beats kids, forces them into labor

UPDATE::  Twelve Tribes community pushes back against labor violation accusations

The Twelve Tribes community near Albany is pushing back against labor violations involving children.

Members say there weren't 12 people, let alone 12 children at the Common Sense packaging facility when the Department of Labor visited this week, so they don't know how they received 12 violations.

Investigators visited the community after "Inside Edition" aired hidden camera footage showing alleged child labor.

UPDATE::  Officials probe commune after illegal child labor claims

Video purporting to show a 6-year-old old boy picking potatoes at a farm run by a religious community and other children working at the group’s high-end cosmetics factory has prompted an investigation by New York state labor officials.

The state’s labor commissioner said the department will investigate the Twelve Tribes community in Cambridge, New York, after the TV show “Inside Edition” aired hidden camera footage appearing to show child labor. The show said Common Sense Farm packages cosmetics for companies like Acure and Savannah Bee that are sold by major retailers.

A former worker wore a hidden camera and pretended to go back to work in the commune near the Vermont border. She was filmed talking to children in the factory who said they were 11 and 10. A producer filmed what the syndicated show said was a 6-year-old boy struggling to push a wheelbarrow and pick potatoes.

Twelve Tribes/Yellow Deli seems to be making some waves,,,

The factory, in rural Cambridge — a small town an hour northeast of Albany — is owned and run by a controversial international religious cult called Twelve Tribes.

The cult has been fined by New York authorities at least twice before, in 2001 and 2006, over child labor-law violations.

Its charismatic octogenarian leader, Gene Spriggs, preaches a home-spun fundamentalism that promotes corporal punishment, racism, homophobia, and a return to 1st century Christian values.

“They preach peace and love. But there’s another side of these people they don’t want you to see,” says a promo for the “Inside Edition” report, which airs 7 p.m. Frida
,,,
Ex-member Sarah Williams, 34, “rejoined” the group to record hidden-camera footage of children, ages 9 and 10, working an assembly line for the factory, which packages soaps for major brands, including Savannah Bee and Acure.

Williams recorded a girl who said she was 11 pulling small white boxes from a larger box and lining them up on a conveyor belt.

Upstate religious cult allegedly beats kids, forces them into labor

See also::  
Twelve Tribes is subject of upcoming investigative podcast

Yellow Deli's Twelve Tribes back in the spotlight as subject of new podcast, documentary

Authorities: Cumberland religious group held children as slaves :: WRAL.com

An "alternative religious group" held children as young as 9 years old as slaves, forcing them to work in fish markets to fund the group's operations, Cumberland County authorities said Wednesday.

Authorities have arrested four members of the group as part of an 11-month investigation and have outstanding warrants for six others.

The group lives on a compound off McCollum Road in Godwin known as McCollum Ranch and operates at least three John C’s Fish Markets and mobile grills in Fayetteville and one in Lumberton, authorities said. Several former residents told authorities that children of members had to work full time in the fish markets with little to no compensation, lifting heavy boxes, keeping fish iced, cutting fish and cleaning, as well as performing construction and maintenance on the mobile grills after hours.

Authorities: Cumberland religious group held children as slaves :: WRAL.com

See also::  Minister forced kids to work at fish markets, deputies say

Catholic Church linked to child labor in Uganda. | Occupy The Vatican

During his November visit to Africa, the continent which now counts nearly 200m Roman Catholics, Pope Francis said that children were some of the greatest victims of Africa’s historical exploitation by other powers. He also urged young Africans to resist corruption. But should the Vatican be doing more to put its own house in order? A BBC investigation has uncovered evidence that church land in Uganda is being used for child labour.
,,,
Now, aged 32, Mr Turyaritunga’s view on the Catholic Church has changed.

Earlier this year, Mr Turyaritunga made allegations to the BBC about child labour taking place on Church-owned land in Kabale.

He alleged that children as young as 10 were working on a tea plantation on the land, and that the Catholic Church was profiting.

Catholic Church linked to child labor in Uganda. | Occupy The Vatican

Thousands Of Children Risked Their Lives In Tanzania's Gold Mines For $2 A Day | ThinkProgress

More than 12,000 children have been freed from life-threatening work in gold mines in Tanzania over the past three years according to Plan International, the children’s rights organization that spearheaded the initiative. The children, some of whom were as young as eight years old, have been reintegrated back into schools as part of the effort to curb child labor in the dangerous industry.

“When my mother died our father abandoned us and he never supported us,” Antonia Benedict, a 13-year-old who was rescued from work in a gold mine said during a discussion on child labor in the Tanzanian capital, Dar es Salaam.

Benedict’s only option was to work in a mine, despite the fact that her mother was killed while doing so.
“I had to work to get a little money to buy food for my siblings,” she said. “With the little I earned I had to buy maize flour and some vegetables to feed my younger brother and sister.”

Through PLAN International’s work, nearly 5,000 of the rescued children’s families have been offered access to credit so that they can create alternative revenue streams to keep their children from having to mine.

Thousands Of Children Risked Their Lives In Tanzania's Gold Mines For $2 A Day | ThinkProgress

FLDS Church Members Fined $2 Million for Alleged Child Labor Violations - ABC News

The brother of the controversial Fundamentalist Church of Latter-Day Saints leader Warren Jeffs is among several high-profile FLDS church members facing nearly $2 million in fines for alleged violations of federal child labor laws, ABC News has learned.

The U.S. Department of Labor confirmed fines totaling $1,964,450 were filed against FLDS church members Lyle Jeffs, Dale Barlow, Brian Jessop, the FLDS and Paragon Contractors Corporation. The department launched an investigation in December 2012, after private investigator Sam Brower uncovered what he called FLDS-organized child labor at orchards near the town of Hurricane, Utah.

FLDS Church Members Fined $2 Million for Alleged Child Labor Violations - ABC News

Rep. Jack Kingston Proposes That Poor Students Sweep Floors In Exchange For Lunch

"It is sad that trying to have a productive conversation about instilling a strong work ethic in the next generation of Americans so quickly devolves into the usual name-calling partisan hysteria. Having worked from a young age himself, Congressman Kingston understands the value of hard work and the important role it plays in shaping young people."

Uhm,,,no! Dude was born with the proverbial silver spoon. What I don't get, and the article does points this out, what is with this regurgitation of worn out rhetoric? If one reads between the lines of Gringrich's claptrap, it is a means of busting unions. He wants to shift the load from higher paying jobs down to what would amount to slave labor. Yea, that will help the economy,,,NOT!

And kudos to Sesame2009 in the comments section, s/he sums it up well: "Sweeping and mopping for your children when they've done nothing wrong. Spa treatment with horsey rides for ours when they end the lives of 4 innocent people." ...The Republican mantra.

Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) wants kids to learn early in life that there's no such thing as a free lunch. To make sure they absorb that lesson, he's proposing that low-income children do some manual labor in exchange for their subsidized meals.

On Saturday, Kingston, who is vying to be his party's nominee in Georgia's Senate race next year, spoke at a meeting of the Jackson County Republican Party about the federal school lunch program.

[,,,]
But on Saturday, Kingston came out against free lunches, saying that children should have to pay at least a nominal amount or do some work like sweeping cafeteria floors.

"But one of the things I’ve talked to the secretary of agriculture about: Why don’t you have the kids pay a dime, pay a nickel to instill in them that there is, in fact, no such thing as a free lunch? Or maybe sweep the floor of the cafeteria -- and yes, I understand that that would be an administrative problem, and I understand that it would probably lose you money. But think what we would gain as a society in getting people -- getting the myth out of their head that there is such a thing as a free lunch," he said.

Rep. Jack Kingston Proposes That Poor Students Sweep Floors In Exchange For Lunch