'School First' employers to learn child labor ABCs

Nation's Restaurant News, June 1, 1992 by Alan Liddle

WILSONVILLE, Ore. -- Restaurateurs and other employers in this state have banded together with teachers and parents to promote School First, a new program that could head off restrictive youth-employment legislation by protecting and enhancing the scholastic performance of student workers.

Modeled after Indiana's 2-year-old Education First, Oregon's School First asks employers to provide minor job applicants and their parents and teachers with information about proposed hours, wages and duties.

If a School First employer agrees to the conditions for employment imposed by a minor-applicant's parents or teachers, the employer may hire the student. Besides pre-employment screening and contact with a minor's parents and teachers or counselors, participating employers are expected to reduce a student worker's hours and even consider terminating the employee if work begins to interfere with school.

"There have been some students who can't handle both [work and school] or who, at the very least, need to address school activities when they enter the work force," Bill Cross, executive vice president of the Oregon Restaurant Association, said.

"We wanted a voluntary program that would help us, as employers and teachers and parents, to design work programs for individual students," Cross said, explaining why his organization worked to develop School First with other employer groups and Mary Wendy Roberts, commissioner of the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries.

School First resulted from a "challenge" Roberts made to employers on the day a task-force she appointed issued a report that concluded "youth work was not inherently good or bad, but that getting an education should be the No. 1 job of young people." Cross and a high-ranking regional official of McDonald's were both on the task force, which recommended that Roberts get employers to voluntarily adopt guidelines for youth employment.

Cross and his peers at many restaurant associations and companies nationwide are increasingly voicing a concern that overly restrictive youth-employment regulations might be enacted on the state or national level if voluntary efforts are not adopted first. The Restaurant Association of the State of Washington unsuccessfully sponsored legislation to enact a "voluntary" youth-employment program during the most recent legislative session.

In a letter of explanation used to solicit employer participation, School First organizers state: "Citing declining academic performance as the primary reason, labor officials and other lawmakers are considering different methods to restrict or prohibit students in the workplace." They go on to conclude, "Your [employer] participation is vital to the success of this program and to stop blanket restrictions on this valuable portion of our work force."

On the employer front, School First has been endorsed by the National Federation of Independent Business, Association of Oregon Food Industries, Oregon Lodging Association and Oregon Gasoline Dealers Association. Educational groups -- including the Confederation of School Administrators, Oregon School Boards Association, Oregon Education Association and Parent Teacher Association -- have also thrown their weight behind the endeavor.

Plans call for 10,000 School First packets to be distributed to employers and schools. Commissioner Roberts said the private sector has provided most of the funding for the weeks-old program, which is symbolized by a bright red apple and yellow pencil.

Roberts said the response to School First has been "good," but she stressed that the program has not been under way long enough to speculate about the level of participation it might elicit. Cross, too, indicated it was too early to make predictions.

Besides opening the lines of communication between a student's parents, teachers and boss, School First Strives to educate employers by providing participants with a summary of the state's child labor laws.

Surveys of employers and students also helped shape School First, commissioner Roberts said.

She said the surveys found that 50 percent of Oregon's 16-and 17-year-olds were working and that another 9 percent were looking for work during the school year. According to Roberts, about 30 percent of the young people surveyed said they were saving just "some" of their wages for future education, and more than 50 percent indicated that very little or none of their earnings was being squirreled away for higher education.

"The myth that all these kids are saving money for college was exploded," Roberts remarked.

School First encourages employers to "make the youth work experience more valuable" by doing such things as taking time to explain to young employees how a business got started and what keeps it going; encouraging youth workers to participate in goal setting and problem solving; and underscoring the importance of health and hygiene at work and school.

"I think this voluntary program could be quite exciting," Roberts said of School First. "I think most employers are just like me and the other people of Oregon who are trying to do the best job we can for young people."