The Nation - News from April 7, 1987

Some companies that recruit young people to sell magazine subscriptions and household cleaners door-to-door are violating laws by subjecting the youths to working conditions “harkening back to a harsher era,” New York State Atty. Gen. Robert Abrams testified before the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs permanent subcommittee on investigations. He and other witnesses described schemes in which young people are hired on a commission basis but are never actually paid because expenses are held out of their commissions. Young witnesses said they were assaulted, sexually harassed and kept as virtual slaves while in such groups.