Employer Fined After Young Employee Dies in Auto Accident

$12,000 penalty sheds light on Fair Labor Standards Act regulations for young workers.

Published December 05, 2005

Fla 

Business owners employing minors must pay special attention to U.S. labor laws. Charm Pools of Waverly, N.Y., is facing $12,320 in fines after a Department of Labor (DOL) investigation into the death of a 17-year-old employee. A news announcement on the DOL’s Web site says the employee’s job responsibilities were in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act, leaving the employer liable.

The DOL’s Wage & Hour Division accused the Charm Pools of violating federal youth employment regulations. According to Michael Fitzgerald, assistant district director in Wage & Hour's Buffalo office, the young worker was on the job driving a pickup truck owned by Charm Pools on Aug. 29 when he and a fellow worker were killed in a traffic accident.

"Our investigation determined that the young employee was driving the truck in violation of a hazardous order regulation under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) that prohibits 17-year-old employees from driving a vehicle for their employer beyond a 30-mile radius from their place of employment," Fitzgerald says.

The company is appealing the penalty.

According to Section 13(c)(6) of the Fair Labor Standards Act, federal law allows workers age 17 years of age to drive during daylight hours in a vehicle of 6,000 pounds or less, but there are restrictions. For example, the worker is prohibited from driving beyond a 30-mile radius from the workplace; and the driving must be "occasional and incidental" to the minor's employment (i.e., constituting no more than one-third of the employee's working time in a day and 20 percent of working time in a week). The full text of this FLSA section is in the sidebar below.

Fitzgerald noted that his agency also found that, earlier the same day, the young worker had been driving a large dump truck owned by the company, also a violation of the FLSA’s youth employment restrictions. “I can’t stress too strongly that these regulations are in place to protect our young workers from workplace hazards,” he said. “Employers, teens and parents must be familiar with these rules, and employers must understand their responsibilities under the law.”

Numerous resources are available online and through Wage & Hour offices to help employers comply with the FLSA. For more information about the requirements of the FLSA, call the DOL’s toll-free help line at 1-866-4USWAGE. Information is also available on the Internet at www.wagehour.dol.gov. Information on youth employment is available at www.youthrules.dol.gov.

FAIR LABOR STANDARDS ACT: Section 13(c)(6)

    “In the administration and enforcement of the child labor provisions of this act, employees who are under 17 years of age may not drive automobiles or trucks on public roadways. Employees who are 17 years of age may drive automobiles or trucks
    on public roadways only if –

(A) such driving is restricted to daylight hours;
(B) the employee holds a State license valid for the type of driving involved in the job performed and has no records of any moving violation at the time of hire;
(C) the employee has successfully completed a State approved driver education course; Sec. 13(c)(5)(B)(ii)
(D) the automobile or truck is equipped with a seat belt for the driver and any passengers and the employee’s employer has instructed the employee that the seat belts must be used when driving the automobile or truck;
(E) the automobile or truck does not exceed 6,000 pounds of gross vehicle weight;
(F) such driving does not involve –

(i) the towing of vehicles;
(ii) route deliveries or route sales;
(iii) the transportation for hire of property, goods, or passengers;
(iv) urgent, time-sensitive deliveries;
(v) more than two trips away from the primary place of employment in any single day for the purpose of delivering goods of the employee’s employer to a customer (other than urgent, time-sensitive deliveries);
(vi) more than two trips away from the primary place of employment in any single day for the purpose of transporting passengers (other than employees of the employer);
(vii) transporting more than three passengers (including employees of the employer); or
(viii) driving beyond a 30 mile radius from the employee’s place of employment; and

(G) such driving is only occasional and incidental to the employee’s employment.

    For purposes of subparagraph (G), the term “occasional and incidental” is no more than one-third of an employee’s worktime in any workday and no more than 20 percent of an employee’s worktime in any workweek.”

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