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 "labor laws" ...
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Wage Theft In the Fields
American farmworkers have often experienced egregious abuses, but nothing is more pervasive, nor harder to ferret out, than the wage theft that results from a practice called farm-labor contracting. Found in the fields of every handpicked crop in the country, farm-labor contractors not only provide growers with crews, but also handle wages and manage everything from verifying immigration status to providing workers' compensation. The problem is, the contractors systematically underpay the workers. “Farm labor contractors,” says writer Tracie McMillan, “give American produce growers what companies like China's Foxconn offer to Apple: a way to outsource a costly and complicated part of the business, often saving money in the process and creating a firewall between the brand and the working conditions under which its products are made.” And yet McMillan — a fellow with both the Knight-Wallace program at University of Michigan, and the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism at Brandeis University — found that enforcement is rare: In 2008, inspectors visited only 1,499 of the more than 2 million farms nationwide; in 2011, California inspectors found just seven minimum wage violations on the state’s 86,000 farms. Fines are minimal: “It's cheaper to violate the law than to follow the law,” says one farmworker advocate. And wage theft is tedious to prove, requiring inspectors to interview workers, analyze time cards, and collect payroll records. That's why workers and their advocates in California are counting on a lawsuit brought earlier this year on behalf of two farmworkers against the contractors who hired them—as well as the growers who outsourced the work. The suit alleges that the contractors routinely undercounted the hours worked, failed to pay minimum wage or overtime, failed to provide safe or sanitary working conditions, and housed the workers in unsafe and unsanitary living quarters. The “collective action” suit—open to anyone who can prove he or she experienced the same treatment—may cover thousands of workers and deliver awards substantial enough to deter other employers from the same practices.
Tags: Labor; farms; working conditions; wage
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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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Blue Bin Kids
KOB looked at children "working alone and late at night on Albuquerque streets and at gas stations." The children said they were part of a group called "'South West Pride,' a so-called after school program that allows kids to make money." However, New Mexico Labor Department had never licensed the group, and the group broke laws by having children work so late and alone.
Tags: child labor exploitation; New Mexico; South West Pride; labor; gas station
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Investigative Report: Foreign Labor
While investigating "the system that allows companies to bring skilled foreign workers into the country on both a temporary and permanent basis," a pattern is documented of "out-of-state companies slipping through loopholes in U.S. law, allowing them to ignore protections set up to shelter American workers from unfair competition." The story also details possible national-security risks that can come from abuse of the foreign-worker system.
Tags: Immigration; foreign workers
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Dying For a Job
While workplace insurance boards across Canada claimed workplaces are safer, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation investigated workplace safety. They found that "the number of workplace deaths had increased by about 7 percent from 1993 to 2004." In addition, coroners' suggestions on making workplaces safer for workers have largely been ignored, and are "not shared from jurisdiction to jurisdiction in a manner that would help make their workplaces safer." The investigation also found that health care and social services workers were in more danger than others, "anywhere from six to 12 times more likely to file claims related to violence on the job, mainly from patients." This is higher than even the rate for police and security.
Tags: Worker's compensation; workplace safety; worker safety; labor laws; on-the-job injuries; Canadian workplaces
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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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Dateline NBC: Clothes Line
The authors investigated the true cost of the global trade in clothing, focusing on the price international communities pay so that U.S. consumers can continue to pay bargain prices for their clothes. The investigation traced the life of a pair of pants from Wal-mart to the company in Bangladesh that makes them. The authors followed the life of a worker in that factory and explored the violations of domestic law and international corporate codes of conduct by the company owners.
Tags: Garment; textiles; international trade; Wal-mart; Bangladesh; labor laws; corporate codes of conduct; retailers
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Unpaid Wages
The author found that thousands of Maryland workers relied on the Maryland Employment Standards Service to help them file claims for unpaid wages. The office's funding was cut in 2005, and many workers who need to recoup unpaid wages do not have any where else to turn for help.
Tags: Maryland Public Information Act request; Sunshine Law; data analysis; state government; Maryland Employment Standards Service; data negotiation; labor
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Sheriffs' Exposes
This investigation of two sheriffs in Georgia who used inmates housed in their jails for their own personal and private gain, essentially making slave laborers out of county prisoners, shocked many. Under Georgia law, it is a felony-violation of oath of office-punishable by up to five years in prison each time a sheriff uses inmate labor for personal gain. As a result to this investigation, one sheriff resigned after FBI opened investigations on him.
Tags: sheriffs; inmates; abuse; Georgia; jail; prison; county; slave laborer; prisoner
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America's border: Who left the door open?
This investigation found that the borders of the United States, rather than becoming more secure since 9/11, have become more porous. Time estimates that the number of illegal aliens coming into the US in 2004 will total 3 million, the largest wave since 2001 and about triple the number of legal immigrants. Politicians are dodging the issue of fixing it because the supply of cheap labor helps keep down the cost of goods and services. Many big companies rally against the enforcement of laws that would shut down their supply of illegal workers.
Tags: immigration; illegal immigration; Mexican border; illegal immigrants; cheap labor