The Department of Labor and Road Crews

At the present time, unless a minor is hired into a traveling sales crew, there is almost no labor regulation of this industry at either the state or federal level.

Government is not taking responsibility for what happens to young people who are recruited into traveling sales crew operations. When a bad event happens, the companies themselves seldom take responsibility unless they are taken to court and forced to.

The actual status of workers, who are hired as independent contractors under the Outside Sales Exemption of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, has never been examined by the U. S. Department of Labor. Likewise, there is little civil case law on the matter. The owners of many crews are comfortable in the certitude that no one can make them take responsibility for the well-being of their workers.

This means that the question of responsibility for what happens to traveling sales people currently lies with us; the former sales people, the parents, the consumers, and other watchdog groups. We must make the problem visible enough that ultimately government will act to provide these young workers with the legal protection they need.