Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 15, 1990 TAG: 9003152411
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE: JESSUP, MD. LENGTH: Medium
Violations of the laws, including working long hours on school days and operating hazardous machines like meat slicers and paper balers, climbed to a record level last year and were at twice the level they were in the first half of the 1980s.
"We instituted more than 1,000 investigations just on Monday," said John R. Fraser, a deputy assistant secretary for employment standards.
"We've hit all kinds of places: fast-food stores, grocery stores, bakeries, restaurants, manufacturing places, laundries, candy businesses."
Pressed by lawmakers and child-advocacy groups, Labor Secretary Elizabeth Dole last month promised to step up enforcement and to triple or quadruple the violators' fines, which are the department's principal enforcement tool.
The three-day nationwide sweep concluded Wednesday, so its results will not be known until today, when Dole is to hold a news conference.
The operation, which covered every state and the New York metropolitan area, is likely to displease a few groups who argue that working at legitimate jobs teaches children free enterprise and provides an alternative to selling drugs.
But many more people, including educators, say working long hours tires children too much for their studies and thwarts their progress toward better jobs when they are older.
With some special exceptions, like delivering newspapers and acting, paid work is illegal for children under 14.
Investigators say budgetary constraints usually force them to investigate only those violations reported by a parent or a schoolteacher.
They have enough to do, the investigators say, with chores like enforcing the minimum wage law and pay standards for federal contractors.
by CNB