13 McDonald’s franchise areas within the Pittsburgh space are accused of violating youngster labor legal guidelines by allegedly using 101 14- and 15-year olds exterior of permissible work hours, the Division of Labor introduced Monday.
Santonastasso Enterprises LLC, which is owned and operated by John and Kathleen Santonastasso and based mostly in Bridgeville, Pennsylvania, a borough about 10 miles southwest of Pittsburgh, paid a penalty of $57,332 after investigators with the division’s Wage and Hour Division allegedly discovered the violations on the 13 McDonald’s areas they function in and round Pittsburgh.
Investigators decided that the franchisee allegedly violated the Truthful Labor Requirements Act, which stipulates that teenagers can not work greater than three hours on a faculty day; after 7 p.m. on any day; later than 9 p.m. between June 1 and Labor Day, when they’re allowed to work till 9 p.m.; greater than 8 hours on a non-school day; or greater than 18 hours per week throughout the college yr, amongst different laws.
Division officers additionally allegedly discovered an occupational violation at one of many 4 Pittsburgh areas the place an worker below the age of 16 allegedly operated a deep fryer that was not outfitted with a tool to mechanically decrease and lift the hampers.
In a press release supplied to NBC Information, John and Kathleen Santonastasso mentioned: “We take our position as a neighborhood employer very severely and we remorse any scheduling points that will have occurred at our eating places. Our greatest precedence is all the time the security and well-being of our workers and we now have since instituted a sequence of latest and enhanced processes and procedures to make sure workers are scheduled appropriately.”
The Fb web page for the franchisee states the household “has been working within the McDonald’s company for over 40 years.”
The McDonald’s company workplace didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
A spokesperson for the Division of Labor mentioned officers don’t reveal the explanation that investigations are initiated however pointed to info on the division’s web site that states that many investigations are initiated by confidential complaints and that the division additionally screens low-wage industries that usually have excessive charges of violations or make use of weak staff.
The spokesperson added that, along with paying the effective, Santonastasso Enterprises LLC needed to conform to full future compliance with division laws. The spokesperson added that the division doesn’t disclose in the event that they plan to analyze different McDonald’s areas throughout the nation.
The violations comply with greater than 4,000 youngster labor violations the Division of Labor has recognized affecting greater than 13,000 minor staff from 2017 to 2021.
Final month, the division accused a meals sanitation firm, Packers Sanitation Companies, or PSSI, of allegedly using at the least 31 youngsters to work in a single day cleansing shifts at three slaughterhouses in Nebraska and Minnesota, in violation of the Truthful Labor Requirements Act.
That investigation led U.S. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh to ask the Federal District Courtroom of Nebraska to situation a brief restraining order and nationwide preliminary injunction in opposition to the corporate to cease it from using minors whereas the Labor Division continues its investigation, which a court docket partially granted, requiring PSSI to “instantly stop and chorus from using oppressive youngster labor” and adjust to the Division of Labor’s investigation.
A spokesperson for the corporate mentioned in a press release that PSSI has “zero tolerance” for such violations.
