COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
H. B. 4430
(By Delegates Douglas, Kuhn, Caputo and Tucker)
(Originating in the Committee on Industry and Labor, Economic
Development and Small Business)
[February 15, 2002]
A BILL to repeal section six, article six, chapter twenty-one of
the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred
thirty-one, as amended; and to amend and reenact sections one,
two, three, four, five, seven, eight, eight-a, nine, ten and
eleven of said article, all relating to the employment of
children; prohibiting employment of children in certain
occupations; providing for rule-making authority; and amending
the criminal penalties for violation of this article.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section six, article six, chapter twenty-one of the code
of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended,
be repealed; and that sections one, two, three, four, five, seven,
eight, eight-a, nine, ten and eleven of said article be amended and
reenacted, all to read as follows:
ARTICLE 6. CHILD LABOR.
§21-6-1. Employment of children under sixteen; exemptions.
Except as permitted and authorized by the provisions of this
article, no child under sixteen years of age
shall may
be employed,
permitted or suffered to work in, about, or in connection with any
gainful occupation other than: agriculture, horticulture or
domestic service in a private home the following:
(1) Employment in agriculture and horticulture activities
which have not been declared hazardous by the secretary of the
United States department of labor;
(2) Domestic services within the residence of the employer;
(3) Employment by his or her parents in occupations other than
manufacturing or mining or occupations which have been declared
hazardous by the secretary of the United States department of
labor;
(4) Employment as actors or performers in motion pictures,
theatrical, radio or television productions; or
(5) Employment for the delivery of printed newspapers directly
to individual consumers.
§21-6-2. Employment of children under eighteen in certain
occupations; determination as to other occupations;
appeal to supreme court.
(a) No child under eighteen years of age shall may be employed, permitted or suffered to work in any mine, quarry or
tunnel; or in, about, or in connection with any of the following
occupations:
(1) Stone cutting or polishing Motor vehicle driver and
outside helper whose work includes riding on a motor vehicle
outside the cab for the purpose of assisting in transporting or
delivery of goods;
(2) The manufacture, storage, handling or transportation of
explosives or highly flammable substances;
(3) Ore reduction works, smelters, hot rolling mills,
furnaces, foundries, forging shops, or in any other place in which
the heating, melting or heat treatment of metals is carried on;
(4) Machinery used in the cold rolling of heavy metal stock,
metal plate bending machines, or power-driven metal planing
machines Logging and saw milling occupations;
(5) Power-driven woodworking machine occupations;
(6) Occupations involving exposure to radioactive substances
and ionizing radiations;
(7) Power-driven hoisting apparatus occupations;
(8) Power-driven metal-forming, punching, and shearing
machine occupations;
(9) Mining, including coal mining;
(10) Occupations involving slaughtering, meat-packing, or processing or rendering;
(11) Power-driven bakery machines;
(12) Power-driven paper-products machine occupations;
(13) Occupations involved in the manufacturing of brick, tile,
and kindred products;
(14) Occupations involved in the operation of power-driven
circular saws, band saws, and guillotine shears;
(15) Occupations involved in wrecking, demolition, and ship-
breaking operations;
(16) Roofing operations; and
(17) Excavation operations.
(b) No child under eighteen years of age shall may be employed
or permitted to work in a public poolroom or billiard room bar, or
be permitted, employed or suffered to sell, dispense or serve beer
alcoholic beverages in any place or establishment where beer is
served, sold or dispensed, if dancing is permitted or allowed in
the same room in which such beer is served, sold or dispensed, or
in any indecent, obscene or immoral exhibition or practice.
The state commissioner of labor, the state director of health,
and the state superintendent of free schools may, from time to
time, after hearing duly had, determine whether or not any
particular trade, process of manufacturing, or occupation in which
the employment of children under eighteen years of age is not already forbidden by law, or any particular method of carrying on
such trade, process of manufacture, or occupation, is sufficiently
dangerous to the lives or limbs, or injurious to the health or
morals of children under eighteen years of age to justify their
exclusion therefrom. There shall be a right of appeal to the
supreme court of appeals from any such determination
(c)
No child under eighteen years of age shall may be employed
or permitted to work in any occupation thus prohibited by law or
determined by the commissioner to be dangerous or injurious to such
children: Provided, That a child between the ages of sixteen and
eighteen years who has completed the minimum training requirements
of the West Virginia University fire service extension firefighter
training section one, or its equivalent, and who has the written
consent of his parents or guardian may be employed by or elected as
a member of a volunteer fire department to perform fire-fighting
functions without any such determination: Provided, however, That
no such child may be permitted to operate any fire-fighting
vehicles, enter a burning building in the course of his employment
or work or enter into any area determined by the fire chief or
fireman in charge at the scene of a fire or other emergency to be
an area of danger exposing the child to physical harm by reason of
impending collapse of a building or explosion, unless such the child is under the immediate supervision of a fire line officer.
§21-6-3. Issuance of work permit.
(a) No A child under sixteen fourteen or fifteen years of age
shall may be employed or permitted to work in any gainful
occupation, except agriculture, horticulture, or domestic service
as provided in sections one and two of this article, unless when
the person, firm or corporation by whom such the child is employed
or permitted to work, obtains and keeps on file and accessible to
officers charged with the enforcement of this article, a work
permit issued by the superintendent of schools of the county in
which such the child resides, or by some person authorized by him
in writing. Before any such work permit has been issued, it shall
be necessary to obtain in writing the consent of the parent or
parents, guardian or custodian of such child. Whenever such a work
permit has been issued, or wherever an age certificate has been
issued under the provisions of section five of this article, it
shall be conclusive as to the age of the child on whose behalf such
the work permit or age certificate was issued.
(b) The superintendent of schools, or person authorized by him
or her in writing, shall issue such the work permit only upon
receipt of the following documents:
(1) A written statement, signed by the person for whom the
child expects to work, that he or she intends legally to employ such the child;
(2) (a) A birth certificate, or attested transcript thereof,
issued by the registrar of vital statistics or other officer
charged with the duty of recording births; or
(b) A record of baptism, or a certificate or attested
transcript thereof, showing the date of birth and place of baptism
of the child; or
(c) A bona fide contemporary record of the date and place of
the child's birth kept in the Bible in which the records of the
births of the family of the child are preserved, or other
documentary evidence approved by the state commissioner of labor,
such as a passport showing the age of the child, a certificate of
arrival in the United States issued by the United States
immigration officers and showing the age of the child, or a life
insurance policy: Provided, That such other satisfactory
documentary evidence shall have been existence at least one year
prior to the time it is offered in evidence: Provided further,
That a school record or parent's, guardian's or custodian's
affidavit, certificate or other written statement of age shall not
be accepted.
The issuing officer shall require first the proof of age
specified in subdivision (a) andshall not accept the proof of
age designated in a subsequent subdivision until he shall be convinced that the proof specified in the preceding subdivision
cannot be obtained.
(3) A certificate signed by the principal or a teacher
registrar of the school attended showing that the child is
attending school; In case such certificate cannot be obtained, then
the officer issuing the work permit shall examine such child to
determine whether he can read and write correctly simple sentences
in the English language and
(4) The written consent of the parent or parents, guardian or
custodian of the child.
§21-6-4. Contents of work permit; forms; filing; records;
revocation.
(a) A work permit issued under this article shall set forth
the full name and the date and place of birth of the child, with
the name and address of his parents or parent, guardian or
custodian. It shall certify that the child has appeared before the
officer issuing the permit and submitted proofs of age, school
attendance, and prospective employment and parental or other
consent required in section three.
(b) Printed forms for such permits and certificates shall be
prepared and furnished by The state commissioner of labor shall
prepare printed forms for work permits and furnish them to the
superintendents of schools in the counties of the state. A copy of each permit issued shall be forwarded to the state commissioner of
labor within four days after its issuance. and there shall be kept
in the office of the issuing officer A record of all permits
granted and of all applications denied as well as all certificates
of age, and documents evidencing schooling school attendance, and
prospective employment, and parental or other consent submitted by
the applicants for permits shall be kept in the office of the
issuing officer.
(c) The state commissioner of labor may at any time revoke a
permit if in his or her judgment it was improperly issued, and for
this purpose he or she is authorized to investigate the true age of
any child employed, to hear evidence, and to require the production
of relevant books and documents. If a permit is revoked, the
issuing officer shall be notified of such the action, and the child
shall may not thereafter be employed or permitted to labor until a
new permit has been legally obtained or until he the child is of
such age as to be outside the operation of this article.
§21-6-5. Age certificate for employers; inquiry as to age;
revocation of certificate; supervision by state
superintendent of schools.
(a) Upon request of any employer who is desirous of employing
a child who represents his or her age to be sixteen years or over,
the officer charged with the issuance of work permits shall require of such the child the proof of age specified in section three of
this article, and, upon receipt thereof, if it be found that the
child is actually sixteen years of age or over, shall issue to
such the employer a certificate showing the age and date and place
of birth of such the child. Such the age certificate, when filed
in the office of the employer,
shall must
be accepted by an officer
charged with the enforcement of this article as evidence of the age
of the child in whose name it was issued.
(b) Any officer charged with the enforcement of this article
may inquire into the true age of a child apparently under the age
of sixteen years who is employed or permitted to work in any
gainful occupation and for whom no work permit or age certificate
is on file; and if the age of such the child be is found to be
actually under sixteen years, the employment of such the child in
such occupation shall be deemed considered a violation of the
provisions of this article.
(c) The state commissioner of labor may at any time revoke any
such age certificate if in his judgment it was improperly issued,
and for this purpose he is authorized to investigate the true age
of any child employed as in the case of work permits.
(d) The issuance of work permits and of age certificates shall
be under the supervision of the state superintendent of free
schools. who shall seek at all times to standardize this work
§21-6-7. Hours and days of labor by minors.
(a) No child under the age of sixteen shall be who is employed
or permitted to work in, about, or in connection with any gainful
occupation, except agriculture, horticulture or domestic service in
a private home, for more than six days in any one week, nor more
than forty hours in any one week, nor more than eight hours in any
one day; nor between the hours of eight o'clock in the evening and
five o'clock in the morning of any day: Provided, That a child
under sixteen years of age may be employed in a concert or in a
theatrical performance up to the hour of eleven o'clock p.m.
accordance with the provisions of this article shall work:
(1) During school hours, except as provided in work experience
and career exploration programs approved by the United States
Secretary of Labor;
(2) Before seven o'clock antemeridian or after seven o'clock
postmeridian: Provided, That a child under the age of sixteen may
work until nine o'clock postmeridian from the first day of June
through Labor Day;
(3) More than three hours per day, on days in which public
schools are in session;
(4) More than eighteen hours per week, in weeks in which
public schools are in session;
(5) More than eight hours, on days in which public schools are not in session;
(6) More than forty hours per week, in weeks in which public
schools are not in session; or
(7) More than five hours continuously without an interval of
at least thirty minutes for a lunch period.
No child under the age of sixteen years shall be employed or
permitted to work for more than five hours continuously without an
interval of at least thirty minutes for a lunch period, and no
period of less than thirty minutes shall, for the purposes of this
section, be deemed to interrupt a continuous period of work.
§21-6-8. Supervision permits.
(a) The commissioner shall have the authority is authorized to
prescribe and issue supervision permits to meet special
circumstances, and to prescribe the terms and conditions thereof.
(b) The provisions of sections two, three and seven of this
article shall do not apply to a child's employment under a
supervision permit issued by the commissioner under this section.
The commissioner shall issue a supervision permit only if he or she
finds, after careful investigation, as follows:
(1) That the child, in his performance of the work contemplated,
will be supervised by a responsible party;
(2) That the employer for whom the child will be employed is not
subject to federal regulation regarding child labor; and
(3) That the issuance of the supervision permit will promote the
best interests of the child.
A supervision permit shall be is valid only so long as the
employment is in compliance with the terms and conditions
prescribed by the commissioner and contained therein. are complied
with
§21-6-8a. Blanket work permits.
(a) Blanket work permits are required authorized when a large
number twenty-five or more of minors are to be employed for a short
period of time ninety days or less by an employer.
The employer, or person authorized by him or her in writing,
shall forward to the commissioner of labor the following
information:
(1) A letter from the employer stating that he or she is familiar
with the child labor law of West Virginia and will abide by the
law.
(2) A list containing the names, birthdates, ages, and job
classifications of each minor.
(b) The minors to be covered by the blanket work permit shall may
not be employed until the permit is received employer receives the
permit from the commissioner of labor.
The commissioner of labor shall acknowledge the receipt of the
information with a letter which shall be retained on file by the employer for the duration of the minors' employment. The
commissioner of labor, after making proper inquiry, may issue a
blanket work permit for an employer for a period not to exceed
ninety days.
§21-6-9. Enforcement of article.
It shall be is the duty of the state commissioner of labor, and
of his or her authorized representatives within the department
division of labor, to enforce the provisions of this article. To
aid in such enforcement, the commissioner and his or her
authorized representatives shall have authority are authorized to
enter and inspect any place or establishment covered by this
article, and to have access to all files and records of employers
the inspection of which is pertinent to the objects and purposes of
this article. School officials, including truancy officers, shall
lend to the commissioner all possible assistance toward
effectuating such objects and purposes. Provided, however, That
the provisions relating to the employment of children in mines
shall be enforced by the state department of mines, said department
to make complaint against any person, firm or corporation violating
any provision of this article and to prosecute the same before any
court of competent jurisdiction.
§21-6-10. Offenses; penalties.
(a) Any person who violates a provision of this article, or any parent, guardian or custodian of a child, who permits such the
child to work in violation of the provisions of this article, or
any school official who illegally issues a work permit, or any
person who furnishes false evidence in reference to the age,
birthplace, consent or educational qualifications of a child under
this article, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction
thereof, shall for the first offense be fined not less than twenty
fifty nor more than fifty two hundred dollars.
(b) For a the second or subsequent offense, a person convicted
of violating a provision of this article shall be fined not less
than fifty two hundred nor more than two hundred one thousand
dollars, or imprisoned confined in the county or regional jail for
not more than thirty days six months, or both such fine and
imprisonment in the discretion of the court fined or imprisoned.
§21-6-11. Rules.
The commissioner shall make rules and regulations to the extent
necessary to effectuate the purposes of this article in accordance
with the provisions of chapter twenty-nine-A [§29A-1-1 et seq.] of
the Code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, and the provisions thereof.
The commissioner of the division of labor may propose rules for
legislative approval in accordance with the provisions of article
three, chapter twenty-nine-a of this code, to effectuate the provisions of this article. The rules may include provisions
prohibiting the employment of children in occupations determined to
be dangerous or injurious.
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