Charm Pools of Waverly, New York, is facing $12,320 in fines after a Department
of Labor investigation into the death of a 17-year-old employee.
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Download NowThe department's Wage and Hour Division accused the company of violating federal
youth employment regulations. According to Michael Fitzgerald, assistant district
director in Wage and Hour's Buffalo office, the young worker was on the job
driving a pickup truck owned by Charm Pools August 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," says
Fitzgerald.
The company is appealing the penalty.
Federal law allows workers 17 years old and older 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).