8 Local Firms Cited Over Child Labor Violations

A Wendy’s restaurant in Oxnard and a Santa Paula firm that sells newspaper subscriptions door-to-door were among eight Ventura County businesses cited for violating child labor laws, federal labor officials said Wednesday.

But representatives of Wendy’s Old Fashion Hamburgers in Oxnard and Ramirez & Sons Promotional Service in Santa Paula say they tried to comply with the law, but were caught between conflicting state and federal regulations.

The violations were found during a nationwide survey of employers during a two-week period ending in April, said Gerald Hall, an assistant regional director for the U. S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division.

Of 20 companies surveyed in Ventura County, eight companies were cited for 62 violations, with fines totaling $40,250, Hall said.

In Southern California, one or more violations were found at 45% of all the companies that were surveyed, he said. Most of the violations were for excessive daily and weekly hours for 14- and 15-year-old employees, he said.

Federal law limits the number of hours for 14- and 15-year-olds to three hours a day or 16 hours a week and no later than 7 p.m. while school is in session. The law bars employment of children younger than 14 in most jobs, with agriculture and newspaper delivery the major exceptions.

Hall said the rules are intended to help keep children in school. “The administration is concerned about the effect work can have for a 14- or 15-year-old,” he said. “They can either become ineffective in school or drop out altogether if they work too many hours.”

The strike force made the sweep this spring after several years of less-aggressive enforcement, Hall said. Besides educating employers about federal labor laws, the survey has also “raised the level of our investigators’ consciousness,” Hall said.

In Ventura County, Wendy’s on Saviers Road in Oxnard received the largest fine, $14,025, and Ramirez & Sons the second highest, $14,000.

Both companies disputed the violations.

“We believe a lot of the violations were in error,” said Don Beck, president of Southern California Food Services, a company in Newbury Park that owns 10 Ventura County Wendy’s restaurants.

Beck said most of the alleged violations occurred because the restaurant manager hired students who furnished work permits from their schools. Prominently displayed on the front of each permit are state labor laws that allow more hours of work for students than federal law permits, he said.

“Some of the supervisors may have looked at the work permit that says the employee can work until 9 p.m., but wouldn’t look at the back of the permit that says federal rules limit the workday to 7 p.m.,” Beck said.

Since the company was notified of the violations, Beck said special efforts have been made to educate managers about the federal rules, including the color coding of time cards so that underage workers are not mistakenly assigned illegal hours.

“It is our intention to be in full compliance with all labor rules, and we’ve brought people in to help us comply,” Beck said.

He added that hiring teen-agers has social benefits of employing young people who want a job. “The obvious response would be to just not hire anyone under the age of 16, but I wonder if that is the best thing for the community,” Beck said.

The Labor Department fined Ramirez & Sons Promotional Services $14,000 for employing 20 door-to-door solicitors under the age of 14 over a nine-month period.

But Ramirez, who set up his small newspaper sales company a year ago following state guidelines, said the citation has angered him because he believes that state and federal rules allow children as young as 10 to sell and distribute newspapers.

“We thought we were in good faith,” Ramirez said, saying the boys he employed worked in pairs and were supervised by adults as the rules stipulate. “The last thing I needed was for the federal government to come after me.”

Ramirez said that he has appealed the violations and that a Labor Department divisional director lowered his fine to $280.

Labor officials were unavailable late Wednesday to comment on Ramirez’s appeal or on the status of the fine.

Ramirez said the dispute with federal officials may force him to abandon his business. “You set yourself up according to state laws and you set yourself up for a federal fall,” he said. He declined to name which newspaper has hired his services.

Other Ventura County firms cited and fined: Barber Auto Parts of Oxnard, $3,300; Uncle Herb’s Restaurant & Pancake House of Oxnard, $600; Subway Sandwiches & Salads of Simi Valley, $1,200; Pleasant Valley Flowers of Oxnard, $675; Chi Chi’s Pizza of Simi Valley, $600; and Pleasant Valley Convalescent of Oxnard, $600.