Wage and Hour Division (WHD)

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WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. -- U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao today lauded findings that the safety and health of teenagers working at two major shopping malls in New York's Hudson Valley region have been enhanced in recent months as employers improved their compliance with federal child labor requirements.

"Businesses at these malls provide great opportunities for teens to learn good work habits and important skills," Chao said. "We want to be sure that such early work experiences are safe, positive and rewarding for young workers."

The White Plains office of the Labor Department's Wage and Hour Division recently completed a child labor initiative and found that child labor compliance increased substantially following 29 child labor investigations of retailers at the Hudson Valley Mall in Kingston and 42 investigations at the Poughkeepsie Galleria.

According to Sonia Rybak, assistant district director of the White Plains office, the increase in compliance at the Hudson Valley Mall is particularly significant. "This improvement is attributable to an active and productive partnership between mall management and the Labor Department," she said. "The mall has regularly disseminated child labor information provided by the department to all retailers in the mall and has posted warning stickers on all hazardous equipment."

The biggest factor in this mall's success in virtually eliminating child labor violations was in making cardboard compactors, the type of hazardous equipment underage workers are most frequently exposed to in retail stores, totally inaccessible to minors.

Mall management installed locks on all the compactors. Keys were issued to all tenants, and they were advised that no one under 18 years of age could utilize a compactor for any reason. Stores were told that any infractions would be reported to the Labor Department. Because of this action, the number of civil money penalties assessed for violations dropped from $95,100 in 2001 to only $9000 this year.

Rybak said that while compliance has also increased at the Poughkeepsie Galleria since 1999, over $53,000 in penalties were assessed last year against 12 stores for violations involving the use of freight elevators and cardboard box compactors. She noted steps the mall is taking to raise awareness among employers, such as including reminders about child labor in its monthly tenant newsletter, affixing warning signs to all compactors and freight elevators, and distributing child labor pamphlets from the department to all tenants.

Additional information on federal child labor laws can be found at the Labor Department's YouthRules! web site at http://youthrules.dol.gov/ or the Wage and Hour Division web site at http://www.wagehour.dol.gov/.

The White Plains Wage and Hour Division office may be reached at (914) 682-6348.

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