OSHA: Boy injured at construction site was 13 (child labor outlawed 1938)

[Omaha Steve]

Source: WTHR

Kris Kirschner/Eyewitness News

Greenwood - A forklift accident two weeks ago claimed the life of a Greenwood construction worker. His teenage son was also on the site, and was also injured. Now OSHA officials may be looking into more violations.

As the new Value Place hotel takes shape in Greenwood, so too are state officials making progress on their investigation into an accident on the site two weeks ago.

Three tile workers were coming off the fourth floor into an aerial basket when, according to police reports, two of the workers, 31-year-old Jose Delgado, Sr. and his son, slid off the forks and the forklift fell to the ground. Delgado later died from his injuries. His son, at first reported to be only 15 years old, was also hurt.

"A construction site like this is not a place for a child like that to be working," said OSHA deputy commissioner Jeff Carter.


Read more: http://www.wthr.com/global/story.asp?s=8910976

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Fair Labor Standards Act

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_Labor_Standards_Act

The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA, ch. 676, 52 Stat. 1060, June 25, 1938, 29 U.S.C. ch.8), also called the Wages and Hours Bill,<1> is United States federal law that applies to employees engaged in interstate commerce or employed by an enterprise engaged in commerce or in the production of goods for commerce<2>, unless the employer can claim an exemption from coverage. The FLSA established a national minimum wage,<3> guaranteed time and a half for overtime in certain jobs,<4> and prohibited most employment of minors in "oppressive child labor," a term defined in the statute.<5>

[JonLP24]

1. I remember growing up

There was a couple times where I'd help out at a construction site for 30-40 dollars. It was just moving wooden boards up to the 2nd floor of the house being built. I was 14 years old, maybe it was illegal for me to work, but it was just simple lifting and carrying and enjoyed the money I got at the end of the day. I'm just recalling.

I have no idea about this boy's situation or what he was actually doing for work. If he is a employee that is there all the time yes that is very wrong but if he was doing something simple for a few dollars, building character. It's not so bad Which leads me to a question. Is it illegal for them do any kind of work and what are the limits? Are kids allowed to mow the lawn?

[Omaha Steve]

5. Farm chores are exempt too etc

Six children that I know of have died doing chores on farms this summer. One was 8 years old in Ne. He was operating machinery when his arm got caught. He was pulled in in died before help arrived.

[hedgehog]

8. A lot of farmers use old equipment or cobble something together to get the

job done. Machine guards may be out of date, non-existent or long ago discarded.

[Hotler]

2. Thanks for posting Steve.

All I can do is shake my head.

[ben_meyers]

3. So are you saying that the kids father broke the law?

I'm not sure what to make of this. Was he on the payroll at 13 or what.

[JonLP24]

6. The father is dead

Wonder who they charge if they do.

[Purveyor]

4. Hell, I was driving tractor and running a hammermill was I was 13.

Of course there was no OSHA back then but I wonder if they even have justidication on the 'family farm' these days.

[happyslug]

10. But most, if not all states, banned children of that age from working around machinery,

Even the Supreme Court of the early 1900 accepted restrictions as to child labor (While the same court declared it was unconstitutional to pass such laws fro adult males, the court reversed these decisions in the late 1930s but even before that the court permitted the states to outlaw minors working around machinery).

In my home state of Pennsylvania it is illegal for any one under 18 to work any type of machinery, including a box crusher used to crush carbon boxes in most retail outlets today. OSHA big advancement was OSHA enforced these laws BEFORE someone was hurt (i.e. of OSHA caught an employer employing a minor they could fine the employer, prior to OSHA unless a Union or other person brought it up to the local court such bans were hard to enforce.

As to farms, that is a different story, farmers have always been excepted from such restrictions mostly do to the lack of any enforcement mechanism then anything else (unions were rare on the farm). Remember if no one enforced a law, the law is as dead if it never was passed. The only exception is where the law can be used in some sort of lawsuit against the employer AFTER an accident occurs. The age can be used to get around the assumption of the risk test, the fellow servant rule and the contributory negligence test. These three tests (Called the Three Evil Sisters of the Common law, through none were known before 1800, all were a product of industrialization of the 1800s) cut out most employees ability to sue their employer for injuries that occurred on the job. In the late 1800s as juries learn of these rules and started to find as a matter of fact that there was no assumption of any risk (It had to be no assumption of ALL risks, any risk no matter how minor cut off liability of the employer), that fellow employees had nothing to do with the accident (and again it had to be 100% no fellow employee's fault, even 1% would cut off the ability to recover) and that the employer himself did NOT cause any part of the Accident (again even if 1% at fault, and the employer 99% at fault, the employee lost his claim against his employer). As the jury started to make such findings, the employers agreed to cut back the jury's award by accepting workmen's compensation.

The Workers also agree to Workmen's comp for the workers were more afraid of finding a jury sympathetic to themselves then the lower benefits Workmen's comp provided). As workmen's comp became the rule employer found it reduce unionization efforts by the workers. The chief reason for this reduction is that the workers had, before workmen's compensation, relied on their fellow workers for aid if anything should happen to them. This dependence on fellow workers for aid lead to the development of beneficial association to address such aid, which then lead to unionization efforts. Thus workmen's comp was an attempt to undermine the beneficial association and the unions that spawn from them. The Unions and the Workers liked workmen's comp for it provided more care then the Union could do, thus the Unions supported Workmen's comp even as it reduced the Union ability to get members.

None of the above applied to farmers, especially before the invention of the three point hitch in 1939 (Which lead to the final replacement of the Horse by the tractor after WWII). Thus farmer workers had no way to force their employer to do what is proper except by quiting. The state refused to investigate Farmers and the farmer lobbied the state legislature to be except from most labor laws. As long as the farmers were still family owned and operated not much of a problem, but as farmers became more corporate, the newer corporate farms used the same laws to protect themselves. This needs to be changed, with farm machinery being subject to inspection (Dairy farms are now to make sure the milk supply is fresh, but most other machinery is NOT inspected except by the farmer). I have no problems with hand tools, but anything that has an engine should be subject to annual inspection (An exception may be made for tools one can carry in one hand i.e a drill or even a chain saw, but anything bigger should be inspected annually no matter who owns it or uses it).

[LiberalFighter]

7. FYI - It is in Indiana... On another note-- WTHR sucks as far as access

Took forever for the page to show up.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

9. The employer is at fault for hiring an underage person for construction work

or at least he would be, if we had a labor-friendly government.

[fasttense]

11. Just another example of republicon economics.

If corporations and Construction firms hire 15 year olds, all that money they save on paying wages, workmen's compensation, disability, unemployment, and social security taxes (because 15 year olds come very cheap) is passed onto the consumer and the kids paltry wages can be passed onto their starving family. It is a win-win for everyone involved.

:sarcasm:

[Thothmes]

12. During the Summer when I was 15, 16, and 17

I set chokers behind a cat tractor at a logging operation in Washington State.