The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "federal labor law" ...
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The Blueberry Children
This investigation reveals that child labor is still a large issue in the United States. They found children “as young as 5 years old” in the fields picking fruits and vegetables. The child labor laws are rarely enforced, which is why nothing was being done to stop this practice. Further, many of these children were picking blueberries, which were some of the largest blueberry fields and were supplying national grocery store chains.
Tags: agriculture; operations; federal; human rights; lawmakers; regulators; kids; supermarkets; farmers
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Less than minimum
Reporter Chris Mahon discovered that ORC Industries, Inc., a Brownsville, TX, nonprofit, paid 20 percent of its employees less than minimum wage because they were disabled. That practice is legal, but one employee who was not disabled received less than minimum wage, and another whose disability did not affect work performance was paid under minimum. Both examples violate federal law.
Tags: labor; minimum wage; disabilities; Americans with Disabilities Act; labor law; nonprofit; compensation; wages; ORC Industries
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"Destructive construction"
A lawsuit involving the electrocution of a crane worker prompted this investigation that uncovered a loophole in the enforcement of safety laws. Texas law requires an electrical insulation device be used when cranes work near power lines. But because Texas relies on OSHA, a federal agency, to regulate and enforce workplace safety, the Texas law wasn't enforced. A spot check by reporters of numerous crane operators in the area showed they were not using the insulation device as required by law. The story prompted changes at OSHA and at the county level.
Tags: cranes; electrocution; OSHA; Department of Labor; NIOSH
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Workers: We Were Cheated Out of Pay. Restaurant Cleaning Company Says Pay Deductions Legal. Labor Experts Not So Sure.
This investigation found that "CanAmera, a Canadian-based company that cleans restaurants in four states and Ontario, violated a host of state and federal labor laws, including laws governing minimum wage, overtime, a day of rest and federal and tax withholdings. The company also illegally withheld money from workers' paychecks. The company hired worked with limited English skills with promises of a good job. But, in fact, the mostly Spanish speaking workers found themselves fighting for money they said was owed to them."
Tags: taxes; pay withholdings; wages; Wal-Mart
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Hotel Workers Held in IRS Sweep
This story exposes new ways that employers and big business use to get around laws to recruit and retain illegal immigrant labor. Specifically, the story focuses on the practices of National Sales and Service LLC. What sets this story apart is how it takes a thoughtful look at the lives of the workers and their family members in Mexico, and the hardships they suffer.
Tags: immigration; illegal alien; federal racketeering law; RICO; FOIA
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Indentured in America
A federal law permits certain Pacific Islanders the right to work in America without visas. That law gives some employers just what they need to entice Micronesians and Marshall Islanders to move to the US to handle certain jobs that Americans just don't want to do, like change bedpans and work at McDonalds. Often the workers are told they will be learning a new trade in America, and when they sign a contract to come to the US for at least two years, they are, essentially, stuck.
Tags: labor; immigration
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American Dreams
"Each year, hundreds of non-English speaking Mexican men and women are recruited by one of the largest landscaping corporations in the U.S., Torre & Bruglio of Pontiac, MI. T&B brings them in the U.S. under the special federal 'Guestworker' program to live and work in suburban Detroit for eight months. They are promised good housing and wages of $9 to $12 and hour to trim shrubs and cut grass --a fortune for most, who live in a country where the minimum wage is $5 a day, if they can find work." This report shows how these people were living in dangerous and deplorable houses, with major health code and zoning violations. The reporters also found that T&B would make all kinds of deductions from their salaries to pay for rent, refrigerators, furniture, television sets, uniforms, boots and equipment necessary to perform the work they were hired for. They also found that these workers were making less than minimum wage. All this on top of several violations of federal labor law.
Tags: Mexican workers; federal labor law; illegal deductions; fraud; Torre & Bruglio; Michigan; Detroit; TAPE; TV; TRANSCRIPT
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Made in the USA
A three-month investigation by U.S. News & World Report found that as many as half of all women's garments made in America are produced in whole or in part by factories paying less than minimum wage, flout federal safety laws and require workers to spend 60 hours or more at their sewing machines per week.
Tags: Immigrants; sweatshops; garment workers; federal labor laws; child labor; U.S. Labor Department; contractor; apparel industry
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Sweat and Tears (Sweatshop series)
A Daily News investigation reveals that "New York City's garment industry routinely violates federal and state wage and hour laws." All major retailers sell clothes made in New York sweatshops by exploiting illegal Chinese immigrants. Garment workers work long hours for seven days a week, and get wages below the minimum of $5.15 per hour. Federal labor officials, as well as a state labor task force, keep "violations secret from retailers to protect brand name reputations and preserve business for local manufacturers and contractors." The investigation examines the price-making principles of the apparel market, and finds that avoiding illegal practices will have to either raise the clothes' prices, or cut the retailers' profits.
Tags: CAR; business; wages; unions; Chinese immigrants; illegal immigration; Federal Trade Commission; FOI requests; exploitation; teen fashions; Jenna LaneRampage; Dollhouse; Periscope; Asian Americans; civil rights violations; INS; OSHA; workplace safety; database mapping project
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Death in the air: Asbestos Exposure
An American-Statesman investigation discovers that most asbestos removal projects in major Texas cities are "violating state and federal safety laws without getting caught, thereby exposing thousands of construction workers to dangerous levels of the health-damaging fibers." As most building owners and construction contractors are leery to get their buildings inspected for asbestos before starting renovation or demolition, construction workers get repeated long-term exposure that is likely to cause asbestos diseases, the newspaper reports. The unprotected employees have been "mostly Hispanic day laborers hired to do the dirtiest jobs." After the series was published, the state enforced new laws that prohibit "city building officials from issuing permits for renovations or demolitions unless the building owner shows they have had the building surveyed for asbestos by a licensed inspector."
Tags: health; occupational safety; federal FOIA requests; Texas Open Records law; building permits; immigrants; Latinos; cancer; Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); asbestosis; lobbying; politics