Tampa Democrat changes tune after initially lining up behind Florida's controversial child labor law changes

The Florida House on Wednesday voted in favor of a controversial bill that would allow teenagers 16 and older to work jobs on residential construction sites, at the behest of industry groups that wrote the legislation.

Members of the Republican-dominated Florida House voted 84-30 to approve the bill (HB 917), with most Democrats opposed. Democratic State Reps. David Silvers, Katherine Waldron and Lisa Dunkley crossed party lines to vote in favor of the bill, while GOP Rep. Mike Beltran was the only member of his party to vote the bill down.

Democratic State Rep. Johanna López, a former teacher and Orange County school board member elected to the House in 2022, not only voted in favor of the bill—which largely concerns Career and Technical Education programs in schools—but signed on to co-sponsor the legislation literally nine minutes before it passed.

López, who represents parts of Orange County, did not respond to our emailed request for comment on her vote or co-sponsorship of the bill, which has been criticized for rolling back child labor protections. Tampa's Democratic Rep. Susan Valdes, who previously voted in favor of the legislation during committee stops, changed her vote on the House floor to “No.”
House Bill 917, filed by GOP Rep. John Snyder, has raised alarm bells for a short section of the bill that would ease restrictions on the types of work older teens are legally permitted to do in construction.

Most jobs in construction are considered “hazardous occupations” that are barred to minors under federal and state law, with limited exceptions for students of government-approved student learner programs or apprenticeships.

Snyder described the goal of his bill earlier this month as “opening a pathway” for older teens who don't plan on going to college and wish to pursue work in the trades. Critics have blasted the proposal as just plain dangerous and unnecessary.

“I'm familiar with construction job sites, and job sites—even residential job sites—are dangerous,” Jim Junecko, a certified tower crane operator, said during public testimony on the bill earlier this month. “We don't need a 16-year-old kid—that's what they are, they're kids at age 16—on a job site.”

The construction industry drives the highest number of unlicensed activity complaints in the state, and is the deadliest industry for youth nationwide, behind agriculture. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, construction is also one of the most common industries in which child labor violations occur already, in addition to wage theft—which the state of Florida does not have a good track record on combating.

Supporters of the legislation have desperately attempted to downplay the provision of the bill affecting child labor standards—which admittedly makes up just a small section of the 26-page bill.

They’ve also defended the bill by pointing to proposed “safeguards” that are meant to help increase safety for teens on the job.

Under the proposal, teens aged 16 and older would need to obtain OSHA-10 certification (a 10-hour training course) to work in residential construction, and would have to work directly under the supervision of someone at least 21 years old who has received the same certification and has at least two years’ work experience.

The bill has been amended to remove the legalization of non-administrative work on commercial construction sites. Like its Senate companion, the bill also now clarifies that minors would not be permitted on any roofs, ladders, scaffolding, or superstructures more than six feet off the ground (so, nope, no more teen roofers).

Workers in the trades, however, have argued these “safeguards” to protect kids on the job are insufficient. “To see in this bill that you don't even need someone to have a journeyman with you while you're doing this job, and it's just someone who has taken their OSHA 10, is very worrying,” said trades apprentice Kevin Lawhorn, 19, during a committee stop for the Senate bill last week.

“If I would have started maybe three years ago, and no journeyman ...” the 19-year-old paused, then continued, “I don't know how I would be today, if I would have been injured, if I would even be here. It's a very dangerous job.”

There are also very few people involved with oversight to ensure construction companies and contractors are following the law as it exists now.

The agency in charge with regulating child labor in Florida told Orlando Weekly in December that they have just seven personnel dedicated to enforcing child labor standards, covering thousands of job-sites statewide.

Federal investigators, employed by an agency that's been nearly flat-funded by Congress over the last decade, are also dealing with historically low staffing levels, as the Biden administration scrambles to implement a stronger action plan to combat child labor violations.

Industry groups, however, have been all in on the legislation. Email communications obtained by Orlando Weekly through a public records request show the Senate version of the bill was fed to its sponsor, Sen. Corey Simon, by a lobbyist for the Associated Builders and Contractors, an industry trade group that represents thousands of employers across the state.

The same lobbyist, Carol Bowen, showed up in support of the legislation in both House and Senate committees. So has a lobbyist for the Florida Home Builders Association, which also contributed to drafting the bill language. “I told him [Snyder] we were going to give him an easy bill this session,” Bowen admitted during the bill’s first committee stop in January. “Clearly I lied, and I owe him a free year without us next year,” she joked.

Florida’s bill is one of several industry-backed bills recently introduced or enacted in state legislatures that seek to expand youth employment in hazardous occupations.

According to the Economic Policy Institute, many are backed by state affiliates of industry groups like the National Restaurant Association, the Associated Builders and Contractors, Chambers of Commerce, and special interest groups like the Naples-based Foundation for Government Accountability, which has been a driving force behind child labor rollbacks across the country.

Florida’s not missing out. Public records show the FGA drafted another child-labor related bill (HB 49) advancing through Florida’s state Legislature targeting youth work hours and mandatory breaks on the job.

That bill — and the teen construction legislation — has been watered down following significant pushback from the public. There were also concerns voiced that the legislation could conflict with federal law, as lawmakers in Iowa were made aware following the enactment of their own rollback to child labor law in 2023.

Florida’s House Bill 917, now that it’s passed the House, will head to a state Senate committee for their approval. Its Senate companion (SB 460) got its own vote of approval from the Senate last week. Both chambers need to OK legislation before it’s sent to the Governor’s Office for final approval.

This post first appeared at our sibling publication, Orlando Weekly.

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