(Des Moines)– A local lawmaker at the statehouse in Des Moines says it’s high time Iowa’s wage and child labor laws be toughened.
State Senator Jack Kibbie of Emmetsburg points to controversy surrounding violations of child labor laws and other regulations at the AgriProcessors meatpacking plant in Postville and a group of men that lived in deplorable conditions while working at a turkey processing plant in Muscatine county as examples.
Kibbie says failing to enforce wage laws and follow minimum standards cheats legal workers, drives down wages and is unfair to Iowa businesses that play by the rules.
Kibbie says he supports putting real teeth into Iowa’s wage and overtime laws, adding Iowa’s enforcement efforts of those laws is among the weakest in the nation.
Kibbie says violators should be punished and employees who blow the whistle on dishonest companies should be protected.
