The family-friendly reputation of fast-food giant McDonald’s was recently spoiled when three franchises that own more than 60 Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland and Ohio locations were found by the U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division investigators to be in violation of federal labor laws.
The restaurants illegally employed 305 children, some as young as 10, according to the Labor Department.
The Labor Department said May 2 the adolescents worked “more than the legally permitted hours” and performed “tasks prohibited by law for young workers.” The Labor Department’s news release stated the unpaid 10-year-olds “sometimes worked as late as 2 a.m … they prepared and distributed food orders, cleaned the store, worked at the drive-thru window and operated a register. The division also learned that one of the two children was allowed to operate a deep fryer, a prohibited task for workers under 16 years old.”
“It’s a tragedy that we are seeing a return of child labor in this country,” Clayton Sinyai, executive director of the Catholic Labor Network, told OSV News. “Ten-year-old children belong in school, not operating the deep fryer in a restaurant.”
Fines totaled $212,544 in civil penalties against the employers. The McDonald’s locations are operated by Bauer Food and Bell Restaurant Group, both based in Louisville, Kentucky, and Archways Richwood based in Walton, Kentucky.
The Labor Department reports that more broadly, it “found 688 minors employed illegally in hazardous...
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