Labor Law Poster Compliance; An Employer’s First Line of Defense

PRLog (Press Release) – Jun 04, 2008 – With summer time right around the corner, it’s important to be ready for the surplus of potential teenage employees.  Despite a slow economy, it’s estimated that businesses nationwide will hire millions of teens this summer, not knowing that they bring a set of issues they would not face when hiring adults.  If a laundry list of state and federal child labor laws is not adhered to, the consequences for employers include potential costly litigation and fines of up to $11,000 per violation.

According to Ashley Kaplan, compliance attorney for G.Neil (http://www.gneil.com), which offers Poster Guard Compliance Protection (http://www.gneil.com/posterguard), a posting service that guarantees businesses are up-to-date with labor law posters, proper posting is an employer’s first line of defense.

“Having the right labor law posters displayed eliminates the possibility of fines.  By ensuring teen employees are notified of their rights, labor law posters can support an employer’s case in a lawsuit. Also, labor law posters help owners understand the rules and can prevent accidents and injuries,” says Kaplan.  She details a few of the specific federal rules regarding teens that businesses need to keep in mind:

1. Scheduling – Federal law limits the hours 14 and 15-year-olds can work for non-agricultural employment.  When school is in session, they cannot work more than 3 hours per school day and no more than 18 hours per school week.  When school is not in session, they cannot work more than 8 hours per day and no more than 40 hours per week.  Also, 14 and 15-year-olds cannot work before 7 a.m. or after 7 p.m., except from June 1st through Labor Day, when hours are extended until 9 p.m.

2. Hazardous equipment - The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) prohibits workers under 18 from using hazardous equipment and operating power-driven machines, including meat-slicers, forklifts, cardboard compactors and bakery equipment. This year, according to the Department of Labor, 160,000 minors are expected to be injured or even killed at work, due to some form of child labor law violation.

3. Labor law posters – The law requires conspicuous posting of the FLSA poster, as well as other federal and state labor law posters, meaning it is clearly visible to all employees.  To find out if your company is compliant with all federal and state postings, visit http://www.freeposteraudit.com.

“Many employers turn to third-party labor law poster sellers to save time, avoid scams, and stay in compliance with current laws,” noted Kaplan.  For an annual fee, third-party labor law poster sellers can keep track of pertinent labor law poster changes and automatically send companies updated labor law posters when necessary.