AG's office finds child labor violations at 31 mall stores

January 16, 2008 11:58 AM Email| Comments (0)| Text size – +

By Globe Staff

The state attorney general's office announced today that it has issued citations for holiday season child labor violations to stores at malls throughout the state.

The office said it found a total of 177 violations at 31 stores, including stores employing minors without work permits and past the latest permissible hour of work.

A number of the violations occurred at Hollister Co. stores at malls in Hyannis and Burlington. The Hollister stores are owned by Abercrombie & Fitch.

Tom Lennox, a spokesman for Abercrombie and Fitch, didn’t immediately return a message seeking comment.

State child labor laws limit the occupations in which minors may be employed, as well as the hours they can work. The law also requires employers to ensure that minors have work permits and that minors' work schedules are posted in the workplace, the attorney general's office said in a statement.

New provisions in the laws enacted last year bar 16- and 17-year-olds from working past 10 p.m. on school nights. They also cannot work past 8 p.m. without adult supervision, the attorney general's office said.

Attorney General Martha Coakley pledged to continue enforcing the child labor laws, saying they "are essential to protecting the health and safety of our teen workers and the people of the Commonwealth."

Jon Hurst, president of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts, said that the stores may not have kept up to date on the changes in child labor laws.

"I think some of them maybe just dropped the ball, did not get the word on some of the updates to the law. And now they're forewarned and educated," he said.