TALHASSEE – Florida House Speaker Daniel Perez says he has “personal concerns” about the proposal to loosen the state’s child labor laws and allow many teenagers to work overnight during their school days without a meal break.
The proposal, which is moving in the Florida Senate, but stagnant at Florida homes, removes state labor protections that will keep children aged 14 and 15 in the late night and early morning if you are homeschooling or attend virtual school. It would remove all restrictions on how slow and how much work a 16- and 17-year-old child is, and end the teenage workers’ guarantees for meal breaks.
“Personally… my biggest concern is to let my kids work late or early on school days,” said Perez, a Miami Republican. “I don’t want to take that from our young children or from our kids.”
According to Florida law, teenagers ages 16 and 17 cannot work during school hours unless they are unable to work before 6:30am or after 11pm on school days and are participating in a career education program. Additionally, unless the parent or school principal waives that limit, it is limited to work up to 30 hours a week when school is in traffic.
Under changes approved by Congress last year, 16-year-old homeschooling or virtually school-based young teenagers are now exempt from these time restrictions. The proposal would expand those exemptions to 14-year-old young teens.
The debate on the proposal attracted national attention after Times/Herald reported that Governor Ron Desantis could help industries that lose workers as a result of crackdowns on migrant labour.
“Why do we need to import foreigners, why do we say we need to import them illegally? When you know, teenagers worked at these resorts, so college students should be able to do something like this,” DeSantis said last week during a panel discussion with President Donald Trump’s border emperor Tom Homan.
The governor said some employers are concerned about the impact on businesses due to the state’s push to require large businesses to screen workers through e-verify, a federal database that confirms workers’ citizenship status. However, he said the state would not stop efforts to crack down on illegal immigration.
“Yes, we had people who left because of those rules, but you could have hired others, and what’s wrong with expecting our young people to work part-time now?
Perez refused to comment on the governor’s remarks when asked by a reporter Wednesday, saying he did not have full context in his statement.
Senator R-Tampa, sponsor of the Senate bill, said people are “taking excerpts from the governor’s statements and trying to demonize them for politics.”
“I don’t think that’s what he was talking about,” Collins said when asked if he thought the younger workforce could illegally compensate for the work of immigrants in the country. “What he’s talking about is the benefits of soft skills for growing children.”
The governor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether Desantis would support Collins’ bill.
The governor has not yet commented on the proposal to move to Congress, but his comments are currently colouring Tallahassee’s debate. The proposal has been considered by state legislators. On Tuesday, the proposal passed the Senate Commerce and Tourism Committee, earning five votes in favour of the bill and four members against it.
“I think we need to have children become children,” Sen. Joe Gruters of R-Sarasota told the committee before joining three Democrats opposed the bill.
Other Senate Republicans, including Senator R-Indian Rocks Beach, R-Indian Rocks Beach and Tom Wright of R-Port Orange, voted for the bill, but expressed concern about some of the provisions and said they needed work.
The bill must move through two more Senate committees. You can then consider it on all floors of the room.
The House has not yet received a hearing for a similar proposal. This is another signal that you are facing a difficult battle in the room. Perez said there is still time to change the proposal if Chamber of Commerce members want to move it forward.
Last year, lawmakers introduced similar proposals to roll back similar child labour laws, but after facing intense opposition, it was heavily watered down.
