Wage and Hour Division (WHD)

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HARTFORD -- With summer days behind them, most young people are back in the school routine. Many have after-school and weekend jobs. The Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor urgently wants to remind employers in Connecticut and Rhode Island about their responsibility to provide their young employees with safe and legal workplaces.

“We have witnessed a recent flurry of incidents in both states in which young workers have been seriously hurt on the job,” said Dianne Miller, district director for the Wage and Hour Division in Hartford. “We want to remind employers that federal law has very specific prohibitions against young workers performing hazardous jobs. The law also has requirements concerning the number of hours and time of day they can work.”

The Fair Labor Standards Act’s (FLSA) youth employment provisions prohibit minors less than 18 years of age from working in any occupation that the U.S. Secretary of Labor deems to be hazardous. These occupations include construction, excavation, manufacturing explosives, mining, and operating many types of power-driven equipment.

Miller noted that two young workers in Rhode Island were recently injured while using a power driven meat slicer in a restaurant. At a Connecticut landscaping company, one minor was run over by a bobcat loader, while a young employee of a roofing company in Connecticut fell off a roof while performing prohibited work.

“If all the parties in these cases had been aware of their rights and responsibilities under the law, these serious accidents could have been prevented,” Miller said. “Employers should be especially aware that, when such workplace accidents happen to minors, both the Wage and Hour Division and the Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) can investigate and take enforcement action against irresponsible employers.”

Miller stressed that there are several ways that employers, young workers, and their parents, can obtain information about the youth employment requirements under the FLSA. Information is available on the internet at the Wage and Hour Division’s YouthRules! Web site: www.youthrules.dol.gov; at the Wage and Hour Division’s main Web site: www.wagehour.dol.gov; and at the U.S. Department of Labor’s Web site at www.dol.gov (search for: child labor or youth and labor).

Finally, Miller noted, interested persons can call the Wage and Hour District Office in Hartford at (860) 240-4160 or the Department of Labor’s toll-free help line at 1 (866) 4US-WAGE (487-9243).

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U.S. Department of Labor releases are accessible on the Internet at www.dol.gov. The information in this news release will be made available in alternate format (large print, Braille, audio tape or disc) from the COAST office upon request. Please specify which news release when placing your request at (202) 693-7828 or TTY (202) 693-7755. The Labor Department is committed to providing America’s employers and employees with easy access to understandable information on how to comply with its laws and regulations. For more information, please visit www.dol.gov/compliance.