Maximum Child Labor Penalty by DOL

I recently attended the annual meeting of the Employers Counsel Network, which is an organization composed of the editors of employment law newsletters for all 50 states, plus the District of Columbia and Canada. As you might expect, we spent a fair amount of time talking about what the Obama administration means for labor and employment law and human resources and the possible passage of several employment bills presently pending in Congress.

Although there was consensus that these bills may be slowed down by our economic crisis, an important point was made and shouldn’t be overlooked by employment lawyers or human resources professionals. Regardless of whether these bills become law anytime soon, the various federal agencies that regulate employers are going to be much more aggressive under the Obama administration than has been the case during the previous eight years.

This point was brought home with yesterday’s announcement by the U.S. Department of Labor that it had imposed the largest penalty possible ($50,000) against an employer due to the death of a teenage worker. This was also the first penalty imposed under the relatively new Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, which increased the maximum level of civil money penalties to $50,000 for each child labor violation that results in a work-related death or serious injury of a minor.

The employer was also fined for failing to keep accurate records and for allowing the minor in question to work in one of the designated hazardous occupations identified by the Secretary of Labor. Finally, the employer was also cited for failing to pay 126 workers overtime compensation as required by the Fair Labor Standards Act.

It’s a new day for the Department of Labor, which means it’s a new day for all employers.