Fundamentalist Mormon leaders fined $1.9 million over child labor violations

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last updated 10 September 2015

The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) has been fined $1.9 million by the Department of Labor for illegally hiring young children to harvest pecans by hand in southern Utah and northern Arizona.

FLDS leaders are accused of having schools in Hilldale, Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona, closed in order for children to help adults collect pecans during the 2012-13 harvest, The Hill reports. During an investigation, the department says it found at least 175 children under the age of 13 harvesting pecans, and at least 1,400 FLDS children and adults allegedly worked in the fields and were never paid.

The $1.9 million for child labor violations was collected from FLDS members Brian Jessop and Dale Barlow and Paragon Contractors Corp. "For years, these employers have trampled on the rights of workers, both children and adults, and violated our child labor laws forcing minors to work for them," said David Weil, administrator of the Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division. "Such disregard for the rights of all workers, especially children, will not be tolerated."

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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