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Wal-Mart broke child labor laws: report

A state investigation found 11 violations of child labor laws at three Wal-Mart stores in Connecticut, including instances of teenagers illegally operating heavy machinery and working late into the evening, state officials said on Friday.

The violations were discovered during an investigation ordered by Connecticut Governor Jodi Rell in February, shortly after federal labor officials found similar violations of child labor laws at 24 Wal-Mart stores nationally between 1999 and 2001, including at 20 stores in Connecticut.

In the federal investigation, the stores were given advance notice of the investigation, and Wal-Mart was ordered to pay US$135,540 in fines, angering lawmakers and children's advocacy groups, which said the penalty was too small.

The Connecticut investigation uncovered additional instances of child labor violations, officials said.

The most serious were found at a store in Putnam, in northeastern Connecticut, where there were three instances of people under 18 operating equipment like compactors to crush cardboard, said Gary Pechie, the director of the wage and workplace standards division of the state Department of Labor. There were also two cases of teenagers working at the Putnam store past 10pm, the limit for young workers, he said.

On three occasions each at stores in Norwalk and Hartford, people younger than 18 were working who had not provided proof of age to their employer, as the law requires, Pechie said.

The state found the violations after 337 questionnaires were distributed to minors who had worked at the state's 32 Wal-Mart stores since 2003.

Out of the 46 questionnaires returned, the state found the 11 violations involving 11 minors, Pechie said.

"One problem is the high turnover with a lot of minors, some of whom were in Iraq and couldn't return the questionnaire," he said.

The state fined Wal-Mart US$300 for each of the 11 violations. Rell is considering whether to ask the Legislature to increase fines for such violations, said Rich Harris, a spokesman.

Marty Heires, a company spokesman, said the company was aware of the violations that involved hours and working papers but not those involving heavy machinery.

But he added that the company is trying to comply with laws on minors.
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