Alleged Child-Labor Violators Named
In an effort to keep public attention focused on the issue of child labor-law violations, the Labor Department on Tuesday released the identities of the first 170 businesses investigated in the wake of a three-day, nationwide sweep of 3,776 employers last month.
Normally, the identities of companies fined by the department for violations of its employment-standards rules are not disclosed until the employer has a chance to appeal to an administrative law judge. But in what a veteran Labor Department spokesman described as a virtually unprecedented action, Labor Secretary Elizabeth Dole has quickly begun releasing preliminary investigative data.
Of the 170 investigations that have been completed so far, the largest fine is $29,050 against the GFF Foods grocery store in Moore, Okla., for employing children 12 or younger in after-school jobs. Labor Department records said 47 youngsters were involved. Youngsters under 14 are permitted to work only at a few specific jobs, such as newspaper delivery.
A spokesman for GFF said the firm’s owner was unavailable for comment.
An Arby’s fast-food restaurant in Santa Fe, N.M., and a Sizzler restaurant in Omaha, Neb., were both fined $12,350 for allowing 70 youngsters under 16 to work in unspecified hazardous conditions.
In California, 28 companies were cited for violations that resulted in fines totaling $28,000. They ranged from a $3,300 fine against the Arco Arena, Sacramento’s professional basketball complex, to an independent taco stand in San Jose that was fined $360. Except for one Taco Bell in San Diego, all the firms identified Tuesday are in Northern California. A Labor Department spokesman said this was simply because of the order in which the complaints were investigated.
National and regional fast-food chains, including McDonald’s, Taco Bell, Jack in the Box and Burger King, made up a substantial number of the firms initially cited.
When the Labor Department first announced the results of its sweep by 500 investigators, it said it found 7,000 child-labor violations that carried an estimated $1.8 million in fines. But on Tuesday, William C. Brooks, the department’s assistant secretary for employment standards, said that after further study of the cases, investigators concluded there were 11,000 violations carrying about $2.9 million in fines.
With the additional violations, the total number uncovered during the three-day sweep equaled nearly half of the 22,508 violations found by inspectors during all of 1989.
About 80% of the violations involved 14- and 15-year-olds whose hours of work violated strict federal limits. But 1,450 of the violations involved teen-agers who were illegally employed in hazardous occupations, which included operating a motor vehicle.
Federal law forbids 14-year-olds and 15-year-olds from working more than three hours on a school day or 18 hours a week during the school year.
