DEPARTMENT OF LABOR AND INDUSTRY List of Hazardous or Otherwise Prohibited Establishments or Occupations for Minors [43 Pa.B. 586]
[Saturday, January 26, 2013]Section 4(b) of the act of October 24, 2012 (P. L. 1209, No. 151), the Child Labor Act (act), effective January 22, 2013, requires the Department of Labor and Industry (Department) to publish a list of hazardous or otherwise prohibited establishments or occupations for minors in the Pennsylvania Bulletin. This list will also be posted on the Department's web site.
This list is to be derived from three sources: (1) occupations and establishments expressly prohibited for minors under section 4(a) of the CLA; (2) any occupation or establishment designated as hazardous and otherwise prohibited for minors under the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act and regulations thereunder; and (3) additional prohibited or hazardous occupations for establishments in the Department's regulations. According to section 29 of the CLA, the current regulations shall be those adopted under the former Child Labor Law until modified or deleted by the Department.
Prohibited Occupations under the Child Labor Act Prohibited Occupations for all Minors in Entertainment
• An acrobatic act that is hazardous to the minor's safety or wellbeing, including highwire or trapeze acts.
• Use of, or exposure to, dangerous weapons or pyrotechnical devises.
• Activities that have a high level of inherent danger including activities involving speed, height, a high level of physical exertion and highly specialized gear or spectacular stunts.
• An act that constitutes sexual abuse or sexual exploitation of minors.
• Boxing, sparring or wrestling, except for a bona fide athletic or recognized amateur competition or activity or noncontact portrayal.
• Working with partners hand to hand or head to head.
• Bicycle or unicycle acts.
• Assisting performers in animal act, conducting an animal into a ring or on stage or riding an animal when the animal exceeds half the weight of the child performer. This paragraph does not necessarily apply to performances with trained seals.
Prohibited Occupations for all Minors
• Brickmaker: Manufacturing bricks, tile and kindred products. Working in the brick-making industry on horizontal or vertical pug mills (mixers). Manufacturing of clay construction products—exception: may work in storage or shipping, in offices, laboratories and storerooms and in the drying departments of plants manufacturing sewer pipe. For silica brick and silica refractories, office work is permitted. Prohibition does not include nonstructural bearing clay products: ceramic floor and wall tile, mosaic tile, glazed and enameled tile, faience and similar tile, nor does the term include nonclay construction products such as sand-lime brick, glass brick or nonclay refractories, except silica refractories.
• Crane Operator: Operating, tending, riding upon, working from, repairing servicing or disassembling cranes, hoists, derricks, high lift trucks including fork lifts and elevators.
• Electrical Worker: Installing and removing electrical wiring.* Installing, removing, reading and testing electric meters.*
• Elevator Operator: Operating, managing, tending, riding upon, working from, repairing, servicing or disassembling passenger or freight elevators, hoisting or lifting machinery. Exception: riding inside unattended automatic operation passenger elevator and 16 and 17 year-old minors may ride upon a freight elevator operated by an assigned operator.
• Excavator: Working within tunnels, shafts prior to completion of all driving, sinking and shoring operations and trenches more than 4 feet in depth.*
• Explosives Manufacturing: Including handling or storing explosives. Exception for retail establishments. Must be at least 360 feet from point of handling or storage of 200 pounds of explosives, amount of distance increases with greater pounds of explosives.
• Forest Firefighting: Including forest fire prevention activities. Exceptions for 16 and 17 year-olds: as long as tasks are not performed in conjunction with or support of firefighting efforts. May clear fire trails or roads, construct, maintain, patrol fire lines, pile or burn slash, maintain firefighting equipment and act as fire lookout or fire patrolman.
• Forest Service/Mill Worker: Including timber tract management, logging, lath mill, shingle mill, cooperage stock mill and saw mill operations. Exceptions for 16 and 17 year-olds: work in offices, repair or maintenance shops, living quarters, repair or maintenance of roads, railroads or flumes; work on telephone lines not involving the use of power-driven machinery, handling or use of explosives, felling or bucking of timber and collecting or transporting of logs or work on trestles; work related to forest marketing or forest economics, feeding or care of animals, peeling fence posts, pulpwood, chemical wood, excelsior wood, cordwood, and the like, when not done in conjunction or location with logging occupations. For permanent saw mill, lath mill, shingle mill or cooperage stock mill operations, 16 and 17 year-olds may straighten, mark, tally or pull lumber on dry chain or dry drop sorter, cleanup lumber yard, piling or handling, shipping of cooperage stock, other than operating or assisting with power-driven equipment; clerical work; cleanup work outside shake and shingle mills, except when mill is operational; split shakes manually from precut or split blocks and pack shakes into bundles, except inside mill building or cover; manually loading bundles of shingles/shakes into trucks/railroad cars with doctor's note.
• Meat Processing:* Operation of power-driven food chopping, meat grinding, slicing or processing machines and any occupation on the killing floor, in curing or hide cellars. Except for 16 and 17 year-olds working as messengers, runners and hand truckers, which require entering the workrooms infrequently and for short periods of time. All occupations in recovery of lard and oils, except packaging and shipping, all occupations involved in tankage or rendering of dead animals; boning, pushing or dropping of any suspended full, half or quarter carcass; hand lifting or hand carrying any full, half or quarter carcass of beef, horse or buffalo; and any hand lifting or hand carrying of full or half deer or pork carcass. Killing and processing of rabbits and small game in areas physically separated from killing floor permitted for 16 and 17 year-olds.
• Motion Picture (Film) Projectionist: Exception, 17 year-old minor may work as apprentice of a motion picture projectionist.
• Motor Vehicle: Driving a motor vehicle and being an outside helper on public roads or highways, in or about any mine, in or about excavation operations and around sawmill or logging operations. Exception for occasional driving for licensed 17 year-olds with State approved driver education course, if vehicle does not exceed 6,000 pounds and has restraining device, driving is during daylight, within a 30-mile radius of employer and limited to two trips per day away from employer location. May not drive for urgent, time-sensitive transporting and deliveries, including pizza delivery, may not tow, drive route deliveries or sales, may not provide transportation for hire of property or goods or passengers, limit of three passengers. Outside helper is any individual other than driver, whose work includes riding on a motor vehicle outside the cab for purpose of assisting in transporting or delivering goods.
• Paint, Acids and Poison Manufacturer: In any capacity in the manufacture of paint, color or white-lead, poisonous dyes or compositions using dangerous lead or acids.
• Roofer: All occupations.*
• Spray Coater: Spray coating with substances containing lead, benzol or ground siliceous material.*
• Welder: Acetylene or electric welding.*
• Woodworking: Using power-driven woodworking machines, including supervising or controlling operation of machines, feeding or assisting with feeding materials into machines; setting up, adjusting, repairing, oiling or cleaning power-driven woodworking machines, off-bearing from circular saws and guillotine-action veneer clippers.* Exception, 16 and 17 year-olds may place material on moving chain or hopper for automatic feeding.
• Wrecking or Demolition Worker, or Both: All occupations, including shipbreaking.
All minors are also prohibited from working:
• In Establishments Where Alcoholic Beverages are Produced, Sold or Dispensed: Except in part of establishment where alcohol is not served or hotels, clubs or restaurants where alcohol is served and the establishment has a Sunday sales license issued by the Liquor Control Board and minor is serving food, clearing tables or related duties, but minor may not serve or dispense alcohol. Performing arts students engaged in uncompensated exhibitions may perform at a licensed establishment, under proper supervision in accordance with the Liquor Code (47 P. S. §§ 1-101—10-1001).
• On Boats: Pilot, fireman or engineer on any boat or vessel.
• On Machinery: Including repairing, cleaning or oiling machinery in motion and operating or assisting in the operation of the following: emery wheels,** metal plate bending, forming, punching, hammering, bending, rolling and shearing machines,* punch presses,** wire-stitching, stapling machines,* circular saws, band saws, guillotine shears, chain saws, reciprocating saws, wood chippers and abrasive cutting discs.*
• On Baking Machinery: Operating, assisting, setting up, adjusting, repairing, oiling or cleaning dough or batter mixer, bread dividing, rounding or molding machine, dough brake, dough sheeter, bread slicer or wrapper machine or cake cutting band saw and setting up or adjusting cookie or cracker machine. Except for 16 and 17 year-olds setting up, adjusting, repairing, oiling and cleaning lightweight, small capacity, portable counter-top power-driven food mixers comparable to models intended for household use. Except for 16 and 17 year-olds operating pizza dough rollers constructed with safeguards to prevent fingers, hands, clothing from being caught on the in-running point of rollers, which have completely enclosed gears and have microswitches that disengage machinery if the backs or sides of rollers removed. Exception does not apply to setting up, adjusting, repairing, oiling or cleaning of pizza-dough rollers.
• In Metal Industries: Working in rolling mills,* handling bull ladles and working around furnaces.
• In Mines: Dangerous occupations in or around any mine, including all work performed in any underground working, open-pit or surface part of any coal mining plant, that contribute to the extraction, grading, cleaning or other handling of coal. Exceptions for 16 and 17 year-olds: slate or refuse picking at picking table or chute in a tipple or breaker at a coal mine, work in office or repair or maintenance shops on the surface. For other mines all occupations prohibited, except may work in aboveground office, warehouse, supply house, change house, laboratory, repair or maintenance shops, in living quarters, outside mine in surveying, repair or maintenance of roads, general clean-up, track crew work for sections of railroad track when mining activities are not being performed, work in or about surface placer mining operations other than place dredging operations and hydraulic placer mining operations. At metal mills other than in mercury-recovery mills or mills using cyanide process may operate jigs, sludge tables flotation cells, drier-filters, may perform hand-sorting at picking table or belt, general clean up. Exception, 14 and 15 year-old minors may work in office and perform clerical duties.
• In Quarries: Most occupations, including drilling, shot firing or assisting in loading or tamping holes, face cleaning, attaching blocks to chains for cable hoisting, assisting or operating steam, air or electric shovels.
• In the Printing and Paper Industry: Operating or assisting with balers, compactors and power-driven paper products machines. Operating power-driven paper cutters, circular or band saws, corner cutter or mitering machine, corrugating and single or double facing machine, envelope diecutting press, guillotine paper cutter or shearer, horizontal bar scorer, laminating or combing machine, sheeting machine, scrap paper baler, paper box compactor, vertical slotter, platen diecutting press, platen printing press, punch press involving hand feeding of machine, operating or assisting with any compactor designed or used to process materials other than paper.* Exception for 16 and 17 year-olds loading materials into scrap paper balers and paper box compacter which cannot be operated while being loaded, machine must meet applicable ANSI standard, there is an on-off switch with key-lock or other system and control maintained by employee 18 years of age or older, on-off switch in off position when machine not in operation and employer posted notice.
• Around Radioactive Substances: In all occupations involving exposure to radioactive substances*** or ionizing radiation.***
• On Railroads and Railways: Section hand, track repairing, gate-tending, switch-tending, brakeman, fireman, engineer, motorman or conductor.
• On Rivets: Heating and passing rivets, except for 16 and 17 year-old minors 10 feet or less from ground or on a scaffold equipped with guardrails and board.
• In Tanneries: All occupations in the tanning process.
* Except apprentices, student learners and graduates of an approved vocational, technical or industrial education curriculum which prepared them for employment in the specific occupation.
** Except apprentices, student learners, laboratory student aides and graduates of an approved vocational, technical or industrial education curriculum which prepared them for employment in the specific occupation.
*** Except laboratory student aides and graduates of an approved vocational, technical or industrial education curriculum which prepared them for employment in the specific occupation.
Additional Prohibited Occupations for Minors Under 16 Years of Age
• Amusement park ride attendant, operator or dispatcher.
• Baker.
• Boiler or Engine Room Worker: Including work in connection with maintenance or repair of establishment, machines or equipment.
• Cook: Except with gas and electric grills that do not involve cooking over an open flame and with deep fat fryers that automatically lower and raise the baskets.
• Chicken Catcher: Catching and cooping of poultry in preparation for transport or for market.
• Construction Worker: In any capacity. Also includes repairs and maintenance of a building or its equipment.
• Hoisting Apparatus: Operating, tending, setting up, adjusting, cleaning, oiling or repairing.
• Industrial Homeworker: Manufacturing in a home of any materials or articles for an employer, a representative contractor or a contractor.
• Lifeguard: At a natural environment such as a lake, river, ocean beach, quarry or pond. Exception for minors at least 15 years-old and certified to be a lifeguard: may work at a traditional swimming pool or water amusement park.
• Public Messenger: In any capacity.
• Strikes or Lockouts: Prohibited to work in an establishment where a strike or lockout is in progress, unless the minor was legally certified to work in an establishment prior to the declaration of a strike or lockout.
• Switchboard Operator: In a telephone exchange.
• Tobacco Stripper or Sorter.
• Transporting: Transportation of persons or property by rail, highway, air, water, pipeline or other means.
• Window Cleaner: At outside window washing that involves working from window sills and all work requiring the use of ladders, scaffolds or their substitutes.
• Youth Peddling: Selling goods and services and promotional activities, except at the employer's place of business.
Minors Under 16 Years of Age are also Prohibited from Working:
• In Establishments Where Alcoholic Beverages are Produced, Sold or Dispensed: Except for continuing-care retirement homes, ski resorts, bowling alleys, golf courses, amusement parks and other similar recreational establishments where alcoholic beverages are served as long as the minor is not handling or serving alcohol and not working in an area where alcohol is served or stored. Performing arts students engaged in uncompensated exhibitions may perform at a licensed establishment, under proper supervision in accordance with the Liquor Code.
• On Coal Dredges: Any work on coal dredges.
• In Freezer or Meat Coolers: In any capacity, except to enter freezer momentarily to retrieve items for kitchen work.
• On Highways: Sections of highways open to the public for vehicular travel.
• In Manufacturing: Any manufacturing or mechanical process.
• On Machinery: Any operating, tending, setting up, adjusting, cleaning, oiling or repairing any power-driven machinery, including, but not limited to, lawn mowers, golf carts, all terrain vehicles, trimmers, cutters, weed eaters, edgers, food slicers, food grinders, food choppers, food processors, food cutters and food mixers. May operate office equipment, vacuum cleaners and floor waxers.
• In Pattern Making Shops: In any capacity.
• In the Printing Industry: On blueprint machines.
• For Public Utilities: In any capacity, except office work such as filing, typing and the cleaning and dusting of an office.
• On Scaffolding: All work requiring the use of ladders, scaffolds or their substitutes.
• On Trucks, Railcars and Conveyors: Loading or unloading goods, except for loading or unloading of personal nonpower driven hand tools and personal protective equipment that minor will use as part of employment; and personal items to and from motor vehicles.
• In Tunnels: In any capacity.
• In Warehousing and Storage: In any capacity.
JULIA K. HEARTHWAY,
Secretary[Pa.B. Doc. No. 13-144. Filed for public inspection January 25, 2013, 9:00 a.m.]
