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A U.S. Labor Department investigation found 227 children were working at Sears in violation of child labor law, department spokeswoman Susan King said Friday. The 1998 investigation in 23 states involved 71 of the nation's 825 stores, King said. Violations were found in 44 stores, including nine in Connecticut. The department lumped the Connecticut stores in with two Rhode Island outlets and said between the two, a total of 46 minors were found working in violation of the labor laws. In addition to paying the fine, the department store company agreed to audit its more than 800 major stores for problems each year. In most cases, 16- and 17-year-olds were found loading and operating power-driven paper balers, a machine that flattens cardboard boxes, or operating freight elevators or forklifts, King said. Under federal law, children are not permitted to operate this sort of hazardous equipment. In a few cases, some 15-year-old workers were working more hours than permitted under law, King said. Sears, the nation's largest department store and second-largest retailer, will pay a $325,000 fine, King said. Sears did not admit to any wrongdoing. "It's very, very important that our young people have constructive early work experience, but it is equally important that their jobs are safe," Labor Secretary Alexis Herman said. "I quite frankly hope that this case will send the signal to other employers so that we don't have more cases like this." Child labor laws have become a pet issue for Herman and are particularly topical given that the tightest labor market in three decades has the retail, food service and farm segments scrambling to find workers. Nationwide, the company has 11,150 workers under age 18. Sears spokeswoman Jan Drummond had no comment on the charges leveled but said the company hopes to use the agreement to improve working conditions for teens. "We have an opportunity to be a model in the retail industry in making an attractive and safe workplace for teen-agers," she said. The Labor Department initiated the investigation because Sears is such a large company and because 60 percent of teen-age workers work in retail, King said. She said the investigation and the settlement are important in the department's effort to enforce child labor laws. "Sears is the American pie of retail stores," she said. "It's not Susan's 5 and 10 or Susan's Dress Shop. It's Sears." Towns where Sears stores are located:
©1999 WTNH/WTNH-DT |
Nine Connecticut Sears stores among those found with child labor violations