The letter from ranking Democratic members of the House committee on education and the workforce, the congressman Robert “Bobby” Scott and the congresswoman Dr Alma Adams, cites testimony from farm workers and advocates in California and a New York Times article on child labor in which an employer in South Carolina admitted to ordering workers to clean up and prepare for an inspection after receiving a tip-off about an upcoming inspection from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Osha).

“Cristina Gonzalez, a Madera farmworker who picks figs, testified that last August a foreman told workers to spend the first two hours of the next workday picking up trash and cleaning the bathrooms in advance of an inspection,” stated the letter on the California account.