[Code of Federal Regulations]

[Title 29, Volume 3]

[Revised as of July 1, 2006]

From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access

[CITE: 29CFR570.108]



[Page 283-284]

 

                             TITLE 29--LABOR

 

         CHAPTER V--WAGE AND HOUR DIVISION, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

 

PART 570_CHILD LABOR REGULATIONS, ORDERS AND STATEMENTS OF INTERPRETATION

--Table of Contents

 

   Subpart G_General Statements of Interpretation of the Child Labor 

     Provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, as Amended

 

Sec.  570.108  ``Produced''.



    The word ``produced'' as used in the Act is defined by section 3(j) 

to mean:



* * * produced, manufactured, mined, handled, or in any other manner 

worked on in any state; * * * \12\

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    \12\ The remaining portion of section 3(j) provides: `` * * * and 

for the purposes of this Act an employee shall be deemed to have been 

engaged in the production of goods if such employee was employed in 

producing, manufacturing, mining, handling, transporting, or in any 

other manner working on such goods, or in any closely related process or 

occupation directly essential to the production thereof, in any State.''



    (a) The prohibition of section 12(a) cannot apply to a shipment of 

goods unless those goods (including any part or ingredient thereof) were 

actually ``produced'' in and removed from an establishment where 

oppressive child labor was employed. This provision is applicable even 

though the under-age employee does not engage in the production of the 

goods themselves if somewhere in the establishment in or about which he 

is employed goods are ``produced'' which are subsequently shipped or 

delivered for shipment in commerce. In contrast to this restrictive 

requirement of section 12(a), it will be noted that the employees 

covered under the wage and hours provisions as engaged in the production 

of goods for commerce are not limited to those in or about 

establishments where such goods are being produced. If the requisite 

relationship \13\ to production



[[Page 284]]



of such goods is present, an employee is covered for wage and hours 

purposes regardless of whether his work brings him in or near any 

establishment where the goods are produced. \14\

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    \13\ See footnote 12.

    \14\ See part 776 of this title (interpretative Bulletin on the 

coverage of the wage and hours provisions) issued by the Administrator 

of the Wage and Hour Division. Also, see Sec. Sec.  570.112 and 570.113.

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    (b) Since the first word in the definition of ``produced'' repeats 

the term being defined, it seems clear that the first word must carry 

the meaning that it has in everyday language. Goods are commonly spoken 

of as ``produced'' if they have been brought into being as a result of 

the application of work. The words ``manufactured'' and ``mined'' in the 

definition refer to special forms of production. The former term is 

generally applied to the products of industry where existing raw 

materials are transformed into new or different articles by the use of 

industrial methods, either by the aid of machinery or by manual 

operations. Mining is a type of productive activity involving the taking 

of materials from the ground, such as coal from a coal mine, oil from 

oil wells, or stone from quarries. The statute also defines the term 

``produced'' to mean ``handled'' or ``in any other manner work on.'' 

\15\ These words relate not only to operations carried on in the course 

of manufacturing, mining, or production as commonly described, but 

include as well all kinds of operations which prepare goods for their 

entry into the stream of commerce, without regard to whether the goods 

are to be further processed or are so-called ``finished goods.'' \16\ 

Accordingly, warehouses, fruit and vegetable packing sheds, distribution 

yards, grain elevators, etc., where goods are sorted, graded, stored, 

packed, labeled or otherwise handled or worked on in preparation for 

their shipment out of the State are producing establishments for 

purposes of section 12(a). \17\ However, the handling or working on 

goods, performed by employees of carriers which accomplishes the 

interstate transit or movement in commerce itself, does not constitute 

production under the Act. \18\

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    \15\ For a more complete discussion of these words, see Sec.  776.16 

of part 776 (bulletin on coverage of the wage and hours provisions) of 

chapter V of this title.

    \16\ In Western Union Telegraph Co. v. Lenroot, 323 U.S. 490, the 

Supreme Court stated that these words bring within the statutory 

definition ``every step in putting the subject of commerce in a state to 

enter commerce,'' including ``all steps, whether manufacture or not, 

which lead to readiness for putting goods into the stream of commerce'' 

and ``every kind of incidental operation preparatory to putting goods 

into the stream of commerce.''

    \17\ Lenroot v. Kemp and Lenroot v. Hazlehurst Mercantile Co., 153 

F. 2d 153 (C.A. 5), where the court directed issuance of injunctions to 

restrain violations of the child labor provisions by operators of 

vegetable packing sheds at which they bought, then washed, sorted, 

crated, and packed cabbage and tomatoes for shipment in interstate 

commerce.

    \18\ Western Union Telegraph Co. v. Lenroot, 323 U.S. 490.

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