WASHINGTON — Children as young as 10 were found working past midnight at a McDonald’s restaurant in Louisville, Kentucky, the U.S. Department of Labor said in announcing numerous civil penalties levied on fast-food franchises.
As part of an investigation into federal child labor law violations in the Southeast, the Department of Labor said that three separate franchises that operate a total of 62 McDonald’s restaurants across Kentucky, Indiana, Maryland and Ohio “employed 305 children to work more than the legally permitted hours and perform tasks prohibited by law for young workers,” the agency wrote in a Tuesday press release.
All together, those franchises, Bauer Food LLC, Archways Richwood LLC and Bell Restaurant Group I LLC, were fined $212,744 in civil penalties, the agency said. The Department of Labor listed the franchise locations but did not specify which violations occurred where, other than saying the 10-year-olds were found working in Louisville.
McDonald’s corporate office as well as the three employers who were fined did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday from States Newsroom.
“Too often, employers fail to follow the child labor laws that protect young workers,” Wage and Hour Division District Director Karen Garnett-Civils in Louisville said in a statement. “Under no circumstances should there ever be a 10-year-old child working in a fast-food kitchen around hot grills, ovens and deep fryers.”
Garnett-Civils said the agency is seeing an increase...
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