McDonald’s Fined For Child Exploitation Scandal in Kentucky, Indiana, Maryland and Ohio
The Department of Labor was not afraid to enforce the law by fining three franchises of the famous McDonald’s fast food chain $212,544 due to various irregularities regarding child labor, including the cases of two 10 year old children.
The aforementioned three franchises operated a grand total of 62 locations of the famous hamburger company in the states of Kentucky, Indiana, Maryland and Ohio.
What Laws Did the McDonald’s Franchises Violate?
According to legislation, children under 16 years of age cannot operate dangerous machinery (such as deep fryers), however, the aforementioned children, who are barely a decade old since their birth, were working with this type of utensils, which they did until the wee hours of the morning and did not receive any salary for the aforementioned work.
But these were not the only offenses committed in these establishments, in addition, according to the information on the violations of the law, there were several teenagers between 14 and 15 years old, who were required to work more than the three hours established by the regulations when they are in school days, to the point that some of them even missed their classes to attend work.
Multiple Child Labor Violations
The district director of the Wage and Hour Division in Louisville in Kentucky, Karen Garnett Civils, spoke out about this scandal, and issued the following statement:
“Too often, employers flout child labor laws that protect young workers,” Civils said. “Under no circumstances should there be a 10-year-old working in a fast food kitchen around hot grills, ovens and fryers. We are seeing an increase in violations of federal child labor laws.”
After the penalties were disclosed, one of the supervisors said that the 10-year-olds were not employees of the establishment and that they were there visiting their father, who was the night manager at McDonald’s.
Is this why my burgers 🍔 are always made wrong even after waiting 10 minutes? @USMcDonalds #Mcdonalds https://t.co/Ym9ZD7Gj4m
— OldBeastMan (@OldBeastMan_) May 4, 2023
McDonald's caught using 10 year-old workers until 2 a.m. pic.twitter.com/E5WiUxzsYM
.@mcdonalds on child labor: "I'm lovin' it!" pic.twitter.com/nGRwqzjm39
— ſames ⛧ Ƨtiffler ⚡️ (@Lyve_Wire) May 4, 2023
The post McDonald’s Fined For Child Exploitation Scandal in Kentucky, Indiana, Maryland and Ohio was originally published on Marca.
