Sweatshops Not Thing of Past, Report Finds Three Industries Worst : Offenders, U.S. Says

Sweatshops continue to exist in the United States, with businesses in the restaurant, apparel manufacturing and meat-processing industries the worst offenders, said a government report released Sunday.

The General Accounting Office report said Hispanics and Asians were the ethnic groups most heavily represented among workers in restaurant and apparel sweatshops.

The GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, based its assessment on interviews with more than 100 federal and state officials nationwide surveyed between January and May of this year.

The report said some of the reasons cited for multiple labor-law violations were similar to those that existed in the 19th Century: a large immigrant work force and low profit margins in labor-intensive industries.

Strict Penalties Urged

Rep. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), who requested the GAO study, said the results show “the ugly side of the Reagan legacy.”

“I think most Americans believe sweatshops vanished generations ago, but they are here today, in all parts of the country,” he said in a statement released with the report.

Schumer supported the report’s conclusion that penalties for labor law violations must be increased to deter abuses.

The GAO described a sweatshop, a term not defined in federal law or regulations, as “a business that regularly violates both wage or child-labor and safety or health laws.”

The agency excluded from its study industries such as construction and agriculture where work is performed outside of enclosed structures. It also excluded work done in employees’ homes.

The agency said it received responses to its survey from officials in the District of Columbia and all states except Oregon. The GAO also surveyed 10 regional administrators of the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division, 10 Occupational Safety and Health Administration regional officials and 33 Immigration and Naturalization Service district directors.

Alaska, Hawaii OK

The restaurant, apparel manufacturing and meat-processing industries were most often cited by officials as having the most serious problems with labor law violations, the GAO said. Other industries cited were hotel and motel maid services, security agencies, footwear and supermarkets.

Officials reported problems in every state except Alaska and Hawaii.

The results of the surveys “suggest that many workers may be underpaid and working in unsafe or unhealthy conditions,” the GAO said.

The agency gave no estimate of the total number of workers affected.

The report said officials estimated that Hispanics represented an average of 53% of workers in restaurant sweatshops and an average of 60% of workers in apparel manufacturing shops that are chronic labor law violators. The comparable figures for Asians were 25% in restaurants and 35% in apparel.