Home Workers Win Case Against Feds, Labor

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It was billed as a case of big government and big labor vs. "the little people," and it appears that the little people have prevailed.

The issue was whether people in Vermont would have to conform to labor laws that prevented them from working at home, knitting hats and other clothing for a garment distributor. Officials from the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union told officials of the Department of Labor, during hearings last winter, that such work encouraged the spread of sweatshops. Home workers, the union claimed, often labored in unsafe or unhealthy places and were paid less than the minimum wage.

The knitters, however, maintained that they preferred working at home to traveling to and from a factory over icy Vermont roads, and that they were paid more than the minimum wage for their piecework. The department agreed with the knitters, and on May 1 announced a proposal to life the 40-year-old ban on homework for the knitted outerwear industry and six other industries.

"They scrubbed a rule that should hve been scrubbed a long time ago," says David Putnam, president of Stowe Woolens Ltd. of Stowe, Vt. Putnam began fighting the rule two years ago after a Labor Department compliance officer told him he was violating the homework regulation. "This is where we should have been 18 months ago," Putnam says. "I plan to catch up with the marketplace and build my company," he says, now that he's won his fight.

At press time, union officials were considering a court challenge of the proposed change, after having testified before a House Labor Subcommittee.