Iowa allows hazardous work by teens amid safety fears

One of the companies, Camblin Mechanical of Atlantic in Western Iowa, said it has yet to find teens willing and able to train in its warehouse fabricating ductwork for heating, cooling and ventilation systems. The other, an electrical contractor from Ionia in Eastern Iowa, hired a part-time high school senior interested in becoming an electrician who worked this summer before going into the military.

Documents obtained by The Gazette under a public records request show Iowa Workforce Development Executive Director Beth Townsend signed off on the companies’ youth employment wavier applications with conditions, despite recommendations to the contrary from the Iowa Department of Inspections, Appeals and Licensing and Iowa Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Iowa Workforce Development said comments from DIAL and Iowa OSHA were part of an initial review, and the department subsequently took additional steps and address specific concerns.

The workforce department said the intent of the waiver is to provide additional training opportunities for youth to gain hands-on skills for a limited amount of time, under close supervision and appropriate training and safety conditions, and with parental permission.

Waivers were approved on the condition hazardous work activities be performed only for an “intermittent” period of time, occurring no more than one hour per day or no more than 20 percent of one shift, whichever is lesser. To date, however, the department has received fewer than three parental permission forms.

Camblin Mechanical, a commercial HVAC installation and repair contractor, applied for a waiver to allow 16- and 17-year-olds to operate power-driven metal forming, punching and shearing machines related to fabricating ductwork in its warehouse.

The company’s application states teen workers would use foot-operated sheet metal shears, electric drive bender, a sheet metal forming machine, gas-powered whacker and a reciprocating and chop saw. “This will set up these student-employees to be better prepared for entering an apprenticeship,” the company wrote.

Teens would be supervised by two adult employees, one of whom has been with the company for 11 years, and “are well-versed in the equipment they run,” according to materials provided by the company to the state. That included a safety training packet.

Camblin said it also would create in-house training videos for specific machines that students would be required to watch.

“Each youth will be given direct, close-contact training on any and all machinery they would be using in the shop, including the aforementioned safety training video,” the company stated. “They would be directly supervised until (warehouse employees) are satisfied that the youth knows how to safely use the machinery. After that, at least one of them would be within 10 to 20 feet should the youth need assistance.”

Teens would also be provided with personal protective equipment, including hard hats, gloves, safety glasses, lifting belt, hearing protection and safety harness.

A safety assessment from Iowa OSHA, the state’s regulatory agency charged with enforcing worker safety laws, notes: “Potential injuries would include amputations” from saws and machinery. Other hazards identified by OSHA included falls from elevated work tasks.

The company told the workforce agency that students would be using ladders of 6 to 8 feet in height, and receive training on ladder safety, usage and inspections. “Goal is to keep them on the ground! NO SCAFFOLD of any height,” the company responded in a request for additional information from Iowa Workforce Development.

Iowa OSHA, though, determined “from a safety perspective, the above hazards are substantial and more than incidental to employment and Consultation would not support a waiver for this application,” according to the records.

According to U.S. Department of Labor, Camblin was cited and issued a $350 penalty in 2017 for a safety violation related to scaffolding at a job site during an OSHA inspection. The company was inspected again by OSHA in 2019, and no violations were found. The company has not been inspected by OSHA since, according to a search of online records.

Townsend approved the company’s application with conditions:

The two-year youth employment waiver applies only to the operation of power-driven metal forming, punching and shearing machines in its warehouse (smaller in scope versus the initial application). Teens could not work at job sites.

One-on-one supervision is required when teens are performing approved hazardous work activities.

A parent or guardian must visit the site to view the location of the hazardous work activity to be performed before signing a consent form.

Iowa Workforce Development said OSHA’s comments were based on initial information and it incorporated some of the recommendations. “After a thorough review, IWD found that the applicant had provided sufficient compliance with the program’s requirements,” the department said in an emailed response to questions by The Gazette.

Townsend also granted a request by electrician Greg Hennings, owner of Hennings Electric in Ionia, allowing 16- and 17-year-olds to operate a scissor lift, circular saws, band saws, guillotine shears and ladders.

Hennings said he hired a17-year-old part-time high senior who later turned 18 over the summer. The teen no longer is working for him.

Hennings, the company’s only full-time employee, has 18 years of experience and a Master Electrician license. In his application to Iowa Workforce Development, he states he would be present at all times the equipment was being used to ensure all safety requirements, and that a safety harness would be worn at all times.

He also said a written OSHA training guide on ladder and scissor lift safety will be provided to the student, along with on-the-job training.

“As we are a small company, we do not have a formal job hazard analysis position or program, as larger companies might, but Greg’s many years of experience in this field enables him to properly and safely train new employees,” Hennings wrote to the state.

But DIAL raised concerns Hennings would provide adequate training.

“(T)he employer has only provided information from the OSHA website — although we appreciate the use of this informational material being used by the employers or handed to employees for their review, this would not meet the requirements of the OSHA training,” according to documents. “Based on the information provided, DIAL would not recommend this employer receive a waiver.”

Townsend approved Hennings’ application with conditions:

Safety training conducted is documented.

Approved hazardous work activity is intermittent, for short periods of time and performed with one-on-one supervision.

A parent or guardian must visit the site to view the location of the hazardous work activity to be performed before signing a consent form.

Iowa Workforce Development approved the application for 100 consecutive days. The high school student was approved as an “Unclassified Person” — a designation that allows a person to train under a licensed electrician for up to 100 days before needing to obtain a license from the electrical examining board.

Hennings, speaking with The Gazette, said he submitted all required safety and training information to Iowa Workforce Development. He said he received parental permission for the student to work for him.

He declined to answer further questions from The Gazette.

Iowa Workforce Development said it took the recommendation of DIAL into account while also acknowledging Hennings had met legal requirements that the training provide “adequate safety precautions.”

“The safety of all Iowa workers is at the top of IWD’s priorities,” the department said. “We continue to communicate with employers across the state in providing a safe working environment and address any concerns that are brought up during the application review.”

Lawmakers in Iowa and other states have rolled back long-standing child labor protections as employers struggle to fill jobs and critics complain that many safeguards on child workers are outdated.

State lawmakers last year passed a law allowing teens to work longer hours and at more jobs, including those formerly off-limits as being hazardous. Those jobs include roofing, woodworking, metal fabrication, demolition and excavation.

The changes conflict with stricter federal requirements. Federal rules specifically prohibit the use of power-driven hoisting apparatus (scissor lift), power-driven metal forming machines, circular saws and band saws by anyone under 18.

The rules provide a limited exemption for apprentices and student-learners who are at least 16 and enrolled in approved programs.

Federal rules say student learners must be enrolled in a course of study and cooperative vocational training program under a recognized state or local education authority, or a course of study in a substantially similar program by a private school. The work granted in the waivers, however, is not part of a school training program.

Federal guidelines say teens may work with certain types of hazardous equipment only if they are apprentices in a federally-approved program and all the following conditions are met:

The student is employed in a recognized apprenticeable trade.

The permitted hazardous work is incidental to the student’s training.

The work is intermittent and for short periods of time. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division considers otherwise prohibited work as intermittent if it occurs no more than one hour per day or at most 20 percent of one shift, whichever is lesser.

The work is under the direct and close supervision of a journeyman.

The apprentice is registered with the U.S. Department of Labor, a state agency or employed under an apprenticeship agreement that conforms to approved federal or state standards

“I am totally stunned,” said Debbie Berkowitz, a former senior official of the Federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration from 2009-2016.

“These jobs are among the most dangerous jobs that exist in industry today,” Berkowitz said. “ … People get killed on them. They have very high amputation rates, and this is among adult workers. And we already know that new workers and young workers are injured at higher rates and have much more severe injuries.”

Young workers get injured at much higher rates than other workers. And OSHA has warned about devastating injuries in the metal fabricating business. Additionally, over a one-year period, OSHA investigated 10 preventable fatalities and more than 20 preventable injuries resulting from a variety of incidents involving scissor lifts.

Berkowitz added: “This is a recipe for disaster for these young workers. … This is how kids die on the job.”

Supporters have said the law provides more flexibility in work schedules and more opportunities for young Iowans who want to work and learn important skills while keeping them safe.

Democrats, labor unions and others have criticized the measure for putting young Iowans at risk in dangerous jobs and creating confusing rules for Iowa businesses to follow.

“I stand disappointed, but also just concerned for the young folks doing this dangerous work under these waivers,” said state Rep. Jeff Cooling, a union electrician and Democrat from Cedar Rapids who spoke against the law on the Iowa House floor.

Cooling said state lawmakers need to bring Iowa back in line with federal child labor regulations. He said construction and manufacturing are no place for teens to be employed.

“As a professional electrician who’s worked on a lot of construction sites over the last almost 20 years, I know OSHA’s ‘Fatal Four’ issues that come up” are falls, being struck by traffic or moving equipment, electrocutions and being caught in, squeezed, pinched or crushed by machinery or between hazards, Cooling said.

“And these two waivers will expose these children to some or all of these dangers on their job sites,” he said. “So even if it’s for an hour a day, I think an hour is too long.”

State Sen. Adrian Dickey, a Republican from Packwood who floor managed the youth-labor expansion bill in the Iowa Senate, said the law was never intended to solve the state’s workforce shortages.

“This law was designed to create new opportunities for Iowa youth to pursue potential career paths, earn more money” and save for college, Dickey said.

He and state Rep. Dave Deyoe, a Republican from Nevada who led passage in the House, said the bill modernized Iowa’s youth labor laws to resemble those of surrounding states. And in doing so, it strengthened oversight and put more guardrails around teens in work-based learning settings.

“Parents have more input by granting permission for their child to work in certain areas that did not require parental permission before this law was passed,” Dickey said. “This law makes our youth much safer by dramatically updating our youth labor laws and eliminating many dangerous and unacceptable jobs that our youth were currently allowed to work in prior to its passage.”

The two companies are the only employers to apply for and be accepted for the new youth employment waiver created by the 2023 law, according to records provided by Iowa Workforce Development.

Four other companies filled out an online questionnaire but either did not need or did not qualify for the waiver. A fifth employer that completed the questionnaire did not apply for a waiver for 16- and 17-year-olds to use a skid steer loader and telescopic forklift.

Asked about the low number of waiver requests and seeming lack of interest by businesses, Deyoe said some companies became concerned about running afoul of federal regulators and possible lawsuits. “… I’m not necessarily surprised that there has been a limited number of waiver requests,” he said. “I think that speaks to the fact that most folks are finding that they are able to work well within the law without requiring a waiver.”

Iowa House Republicans Communications Director Melissa Saitz said the law leaves flexibility for businesses, teenagers and their parents to find a plan that works for them.

“We want to make sure that we’re expanding opportunities for young Iowans to learn valuable life skills, save for the future, and explore possible career paths,” Saitz said.

Jennifer Sherer, senior state policy coordinator with Economic Policy Institute, which examines how policies affect low- and middle-income workers, condemned Iowa officials for “thumbing their nose” at federal laws that prevent teens from risking injury or death.

The federal Fair Labor Standards Act covers most, but not all, private and public sector employees. The federal law generally applies to businesses with annual sales of at least $500,000 or that are involved in interstate commerce. Some businesses, including independent contractors like Hennings, are exempt. Camblin Mechanical, however, is not, according to the company’s human resources director.

Townsend, in her letters to Camblin and Hennings, noted the waiver does not waive the employers’ requirement to follow federal law.

Sherer said high-quality registered apprenticeship programs already are available across Iowa that meet federal requirements for preparing young people to enter skilled trades careers safely and with training from qualified instructors and journeymen.

Camblin Mechanical Human Resources Director Laura Falk said the HVAC installer has had difficulty finding 16- and 17-year-olds “who fit the job.” She said the company had some interest from high school students who already were working other jobs and interested in picking up additional work in the warehouse. Their limited availability, however, made it too difficult to schedule them for work.

In another case, she said a parent would not visit the warehouse to see where the teen would be working before signing a consent form.

The shortage of skilled trades workers in the United States is a growing concern for industries, particularly in manufacturing and construction. U.S. construction industry needs to attract about a half million new workers in 2024 to balance supply and demand, according to the national Associated Builders and Contractors.

Falk said her company works with the Atlantic and Red Oak school districts through the Iowa Jobs for America’s Graduates. The program partners with Iowa schools to deliver career development, leadership training and career education. Falk said Camblin Mechanical saw Iowa’s new youth employment waiver as an opportunity to build on that work with a pre-apprenticeship program.

“With having this waiver now, it gives us the opportunity to teach those students more aspects of the job,” she said. “It gives them more of an opportunity at a younger age to see what those trades look like … and see if it is something they want to do long-term.”

Falk lauded the change in the law as an opportunity for her company and others to make vocational fields an attractive alternative to college, its rising cost and ensuing debt — providing another way for students to learn while they earn, and see the opportunities to pursue blue-collar jobs that offer good pay and job security.

Falk said the company has made sure all warehouse workers and supervisors are fully aware of work that 16 and 17-year-olds can and cannot legally do.

“It’s a huge deal for us making sure everyone who works for us is safe,” she said. “As a parent, I would hope I could trust my child’s employers. And, for some, maybe they can’t. That’s why it’s part of the process to have a parent come in, see and approve what their students would be doing.”