A lesson in labor law

By Nelson Graves
Published: August 16, 2008

A story Aug. 13 in The News Virginian (“Guitar wiz has reason to play the blues”) reminded me of similar situations in New Hope and Staunton.
If you missed the report, “T-Man” is Tallan Latz, an 8-year-old blues guitar prodigy whose home is in Elkhorn, Wis. T-Man “has played in bars and clubs including the House of Blues in Chicago, and even jammed with Les Paul and Jackson Brown,” according to the story by The Associated Press.
It’s the playing in bars and clubs that got T-Man and his dad in trouble with the law. Wisconsin, like other states including Virginia, has child protection laws. These laws were enacted to keep underage children from working in “adult” businesses and situations. In this example, T-Man is too young to perform in taverns and nightclubs.
Back in August 2005, I wrote (for another paper) an opinion about an elementary school student who was helping his mom in a restaurant. He was perhaps 9 or 10 years old. His duties mostly consisted of carrying water and soft drinks to lunch customers.
He provided such outstanding service that customers in most instances double-tipped him.
I wrote the opinion to praise his work ethic. I was told later that as a result of the story, someone turned his mother in for breaking Virginia’s child labor law, which covers underage workers. It so happened that because his mother was the manager and the boy worked under her close supervision and guidance, no law was broken. I might add that he helped her only four hours a day, if for that long.
Earlier this month, I stopped by a local grocery store. After making my purchase, I returned to my car, but before I could leave, the store owner approached me to relate a story similar to those just mentioned.
He told me that one day an employee was instructing her 16-year-old daughter on the use of a power meat slicer, the kind where the operator places a large bulk-roll of meat in a tray and then pushes the tray back and forth across a spinning blade, slicing the roll. He said the employer never left her daughter’s side while instructing the teen.
A customer observed this on-the-job training and reported the employee for endangering her daughter. As a result, the owner faces a fine. He didn’t deny what occurred and the fine may have been paid by the time you read this.
After researching the child labor section of the Code of Virginia, I believe I found the code covering the aforementioned incident.
“Code§ 40.1-100.1. Employment where hazard capable of causing serious physical harm or death. No person shall employ, suffer, or permit a child to work in any gainful occupation that exposes such child to a recognized hazard capable of causing serious physical harm or death to such child. Any person violating this section shall be subject to a civil monetary penalty in accordance with §40.1-113 of this chapter.”
By that standard I wonder if a home economics teacher, by training a student, is guilty of breaking Code§ 40.1-100.1.?
Nelson Graves writes a weekly column for The News Virginian and is Western Virginia director of the Virginia Minority Supplier Development Council. E-mail him at .