The United States Department of Labor announced on Wednesday that investigations at more than a half dozen McDonald’s restaurants in Pennsylvania revealed that minors under the age of 16 were allowed to operate deep fryers and work during hours that violate federal law.
According to the findings of the investigation, 154 minors were working at seven different restaurants across the state at times when they should have been at home concentrating on their schoolwork.
McDonald’s Franchise Owner Hit With Child Labor Fines
More than 23 underage workers, some of whom were as young as 14 years old, were discovered performing illegal labor at five of the locations.
In particular, the McDonald’s restaurants that were located in the towns of Erie and Warren hired children to work in excess of 18 hours per week in some cases, as well as before 7 am and after 7 pm during the school year.
During the school year, the McDonald’s restaurants in question also hired children. On the days that they were not in school, some of them were asked to work more than eight hours per day, and during the summer, they were asked to work after nine o’clock at night, which is against the law according to the federal government.
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Minor Employees Assigned To Operate Deep Fryers
According to the release, two of the restaurants had assigned nine employees younger than 16 years old to operate manual deep fryers. These employees were working at two of the restaurants.
Employees who are younger than 16 years old are only permitted to use deep fat fryers if those fryers are equipped with mechanisms that can automatically move the food baskets into and out of the oil for frying.
According to the information provided by the department, the owner of the franchises, Thomas DuCharme Jr., was required to pay a total of $92,107 in civil penalties as a result of a federal investigation.
DuCharme said in a statement that was provided to Insider that he is deeply committed to the safety and well-being of all my employees and that he has learned an important lesson from this experience.
“Since then, I have implemented a few improved procedures in order to address issues with scheduling and to make certain that my organization is meeting the high standards that we set for ourselves,” he added.
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