Employment of minors: agricultural packing plants.

Existing law prescribes limits on the hours of employment of minors, but authorizes the Labor Commissioner to grant an exemption to employers operating agricultural packing plants for the employment of minors 16 and 17 years of age for up to 10 hours on days when school is not in session, during the peak harvest season. Existing law provides an exception to those provisions relating to Lake County by limiting the employer exemption that may be issued by the Labor Commissioner to the employment of minors, 16 or 17 years of age, who reside in Lake County, and only on days when school is not in session, for up to 10 hours a day, as well as for more than 48 hours but not more than 60 hours in a week, upon prior written approval of the Lake County Office of Education. Existing law also requires the Labor Commissioner, prior to issuing the Lake County exemption or renewing an exemption, to inspect an affected agricultural packing plant, and to file a written report with the Legislature on or before March 1 of each year describing the general working conditions of minors employed in the agricultural packing industry during the past year, as specified. Existing law further requires an affected employer, on or before March 1 of each year, as a condition of receiving that exemption or a renewal of that exemption, to file a written report to the Labor Commissioner, as specified. These provisions are set to expire on January 1, 2012. This bill would extend the operation of the exceptions pertaining to the employment of minors in Lake County until January 1, 2017. This bill would also change the written reporting requirements of affected employers to require a written report regarding payroll to be filed annually on or before October 1. This bill would also change the requirements for the Labor Commission to issue instead of an annual report, a single written report on the working conditions of minors employed in the agricultural packing industry, which would be filed by November 1, 2016, and cover the previous 512 year period from March 1, 2011, to October 1, 2016.