|
Pennsylvania's Child Labor Laws
and the Emergency Services
Many of you send personal emails to me asking for more information
on the child labor laws and how it pertains to the fire service. In
this section I'll try to interpret the sections of the law that may
involve young people in your organization
Remember this is how I interpret the law and the referring
sections. Others may interpret them differently and if in doubt
check with your local state representative or senators office.
My department has had a very active junior program for almost 15
years. Fortunately we have never had any legal problems stemming for
the program and have found our young members to be assets in every
way. This is the future of the fire service in Pennsylvania. Getting
young people interested at a young age hopefully will foster a
lifetime involvement in emergency services.
I've listed the law word for word below. This is not the complete Pa
Child Labor Law, but only sections dealing with emergency services.
a copy of the full law can be found online at
L&I: A-177 - Child Labor Law
Comments under each section are keyed as follows
Purple:
Comments are my personal interpretation of the
section in review
Orange: Comments are my departments
policies or procedures dealing with that section
Section 4
No minor under
sixteen years of age shall be employed or permitted to work in,
about, or in connection with, any establishment or in any occupation
before seven o'clock in the morning or after seven o'clock in the
evening of any day except during school vacation period from June to
Labor Day when such minor may work between the hours of seven
o'clock in the morning and ten o'clock in the evening nor shall such
minor who is enrolled in school and working outside school hours be
employed or permitted to work in, about, or in connection with, any
establishment or in any occupation more than four hours on a school
day, or more than eight hours on any other day, or more than
eighteen hours during a school week: Provided, That, students
fourteen years of age and over whose employment is part of a
recognized school-work program, supervised by a recognized school
authority, may be employed for hours which, combined with the hours
spent in school, do not exceed eight a day: And further provided,
That minors over the age of fourteen may be employed in the
distribution, sale, exposing or offering for sale, of any newspaper,
magazine, periodical or other publication for not more than
fifty-one hours in any one week, or more than nine hours in any one
day, and after six o'clock in the morning and before eight o'clock
in the evening: And further provided, That a minor under sixteen
years of age employed on a farm by a person other than the farmer in
the hatching, raising or harvesting of poultry may be employed or
permitted to work until 10 o'clock in the evening as long as the
minor is not working in an agricultural occupation declared
hazardous by the United States Secretary of Labor.
No minor under
eighteen years of age shall be employed or permitted to work in,
about, or in connection with, any establishment between the hours of
twelve in the evening and six in the morning if such minor is
enrolled in regular day school: Provided, That, minors sixteen and
seventeen years of age may be employed until, but not after, one
o'clock in the morning on Fridays and Saturdays, and on days
preceding a school vacation occurring during the school year,
excepting the last day of such vacation period
This section is repealed by section 7.3-f and refers to the hours in
which a minor can respond. See comments at Section 7.3-f
Section 7.2. Any minor of the age
of seventeen years who is a high school graduate or who is declared to have
attained his academic potential by the chief administrator of the school
district wherein he resides shall, for the purposes of this act, be deemed to be
a minor of the age of eighteen years.
Anyone 17 years of age who has graduated from or quit high school
is no longer considered a minor
My department follows this with one exception. You must be 18 and
have all your required training to become SCBA qualified.
Section 7.3.
Minor Volunteer Fire Company, Volunteer Ambulance Corps, Volunteer
Rescue Squads and Volunteer Forest Fire Crew Member Activities.
(a) Minors who
are members of a volunteer fire company and volunteer forest fire
crew may participate in training and fire-fighting activities as
follows:
(1) Drivers of
trucks, ambulances or other official fire vehicles must be
eighteen years of age.
(2) Minors
sixteen and seventeen years of age who have successfully completed
a course of training equal to the standards for basic
fire-fighting established by the Department of Education and the
Department of Environmental Resources, may engage in fire-fighting
activities provided that such minors are under the direct
supervision and control of the fire chief, an experienced line
officer or a designated forest fire warden.
If they don't have the outlined training
they can not participate in hands on firefighting activities.
My department follows the module training
system. A member 16 or 17 must have modules A & B in order to
participate with hands on firefighting. Again only exterior
activities are permitted. If they don't have the required modules
they are relegated to the same activities allowed by 14-15
year-olds. Which modules a member possesses are indicated by
helmet makings.
(3) No person
under eighteen years of age shall be permitted to
(i) operate
an aerial ladder, aerial platform or hydraulic jack,
(ii) use
rubber electrical gloves, insulated wire gloves, insulated wire
cutters, life nets or acetylene cutting units,
(iii)
operate the pumps of any fire vehicle while at the scene of a
fire, or
(iv) enter a
burning structure.
Pretty straight forth, there are not any allowances for
training in these situations either. Strictly no no
(b) The activities of
minors under sixteen years of age shall be limited to:
(1) Training.
(2) First aid.
(3) Clean-up service at the scene of a fire, outside the
structure, after the fire has been declared by the fire official
in charge to be under control.
(4) Coffee
wagon and food services.
Many companies believe it is against the law to allow anyone
under 16 to ride apparatus. I have never found anything within
this law that even comes close to making that kind of statement.
This section states what activates they can do, Apparently they
must be able to ride if the state is limiting what they can do
when they get there.
My department allows members who are 14 &15 to ride apparatus.
Our only limitations are, they must ride in an enclosed cab and
they may not respond in a privately owned vehicle. The above
section outlines duties which they can help with and this is where
they are most needed and appreciated.
Minors may not respond to a dispatched Hazardous Materials
Incident
(c)
In no case, however, shall minors under sixteen years of age be permitted to:
(1) Operate
high pressure hose lines, except during training activities;
(2) Ascend
ladders, except during training activities; or
(3) Enter a
burning structure.
Pretty straight forth. Just pay attention to where it says
Expect during Training
Our policies mirror the statements above. Many questions were
raised in regard to the definition of a "High Pressure Hose Line.
In trying to keep within the act we prohibit the following by
anyone under 16
Use of hand lines
Use or establishing pressurized water supply. They can help
with drafting operations.
Use of Hydraulic Tools
The use, maintenance or assisting with, SCBA high pressure
lines. Minors assisting in Air Fill Stations are limited to the
removal of cylinders from the pack frame only, and only after the
high pressure line has been disconnected by a senior firefighter.
(d) All other
activities by minors who are members of a volunteer fire company or
a volunteer forest fire crewman shall be permissible unless
specifically prohibited by this act.
(e) No rule or
regulation of any State agency concerning minor volunteer firemen
shall be adopted or promulgated except by amendment to this act.
(f) All other
existing provisions of this act and the regulations promulgated
there under affecting the employment of minors shall be applicable
in all cases, including the requirements for employment certificates
and the limitations on hours of employment: Provided, That a minor
sixteen or seventeen years of age who is a member of a volunteer
fire company who answers a fire call while lawfully employed and
continues in such service until excused by the one acting as chief
of that fire company shall not be considered in violation of this
act for any part of the period so occupied: And further provided,
That a minor who is fourteen or fifteen years of age, who is a
member of a volunteer fire company and who performs the training or
fire-fighting activities permitted for such minor under the
provisions of this act between the hours of seven o'clock in the
evening and ten o'clock in the evening before a day of school with
written parental consent shall not be considered in violation of
this act.
This allows for exceptions from the legal
work hours. The times minors may respond are as follows
16-17 No limits
14-16 7am to 10 pm as long as they have written permission from
their parents
My Departments response times are as
follows
16-17 7am - Midnight during the school term
No Limit during summer school vacation
14-15
7am to 10 pm as long as they have written permission from their
parents
(g) Any minor
who is a member of a volunteer ambulance corps or rescue squad may
participate in training and any other activity as provided by
regulations adopted by the Department of Labor and Industry but in
any case, drivers of all ambulances or other official ambulance
corps or rescue squad vehicles must be eighteen years of age.
Section 17.
(a) All employers shall require the minor to have a valid employment
certificate or transferable work permit prior to the commencement of
employment. A transferable work permit shall remain in the custody
of the minor.
(b) It shall be
the duty of every person who shall employ any minor possessing a
general or vacation employment certificate to acknowledge, in
writing, to the official issuing the same, the receipt of the
employment certificate of said minor, within five days after the
beginning of such employment. On termination of the employment of
any such minor the general employment certificate or vacation
employment certificate issued for such minor shall be returned by
mail, by the employer, to the official issuing the same, immediately
upon demand of the minor for whom the certificate was issued, or
otherwise, within five days after termination of said employment.
The official to whom said certificate is so returned shall file said
certificate and preserve the same. Any minor whose employment
certificate has been returned, as above provided, shall be entitled
to a new employment certificate upon presentation of a statement
from the prospective employer, as hereinabove provided.
(17 amended Dec. 21, 1988, P.L. 1908, No. 192)
Section 17.1.
(a) Any employer employing a minor having a transferable work
permit shall, within five days of commencement of such employment,
provide the school district issuing that permit with the following
information in writing:
(1) The permit
number.
(2) The name and age of the minor employee hired.
(3) The number
of hours per day and week such minor employee will be employed.
(4) The
character of the employment.
(b) An employer
employing minors having transferable work permits shall maintain a
record of minors at the work site which contains, for each minor,
the name of school district issuing the permit, the minor's
birthday, the date of issue of the permit, the permit number, and
the occupation in which the minor is engaged. A photocopy of the
transferable work permit may be used as a record for the information
contained on that permit: Provided, however, That the employer
record the occupation in which the minor is engaged on such
photocopy.
(c) In addition,
upon termination of the employment of such minor, the employer
shall, within five days, notify in writing the issuing school
district of the fact employment has been terminated.
(d) The school
district shall maintain for two years the records required to be
filed by employers under subsection (a).
(17.1 amended Dec. 2, 1988, P.L. 1908, No. 192)
You must have working permits on file for
all minors
In my department minors will not be able to
ride apparatus or be issued any equipment until we have their
working papers on file
|
