Two 10-year-old employees were found at work at a McDonald’s restaurant in Louisville, the US Department of Labor said on Tuesday. The minors occasionally worked shifts until 2 a.m., but according to the head of the franchise, they were only visiting their parents who worked there, writes Telex.
The fast food restaurant failed when they were audited for violating child labor laws.
The agency also found that three franchises with more than sixty McDonald’s restaurants in Kentucky, Indiana, Maryland, and Ohio combined
Employed 305 children who worked way longer than allowed by the law and performed tasks which the law doesn’t allow young workers to do
– says the announcement of the Ministry of Labour.
“Investigators also found that two ten-year-old children were employed, who were not paid and sometimes worked until 2 a.m.,” they wrote.
McDonald’s USA senior vice president and chief of staff Tiffanie Boyd told CNN:
These reports are unacceptable, deeply troubling and run afoul of the high expectations we have for the entire McDonald’s brand. […] We are committed to ensuring our franchises have the resources they need to foster safe workplaces for all employees and maintain compliance with all labor laws.
Franchise owner Bauer Foods LLC told CNN that the two children were the children of a night shift manager, and they were visiting their parents at work. The other two franchise owners, Archways Richwood and Bell Restaurant Group did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The three owners must pay a total of $212,754 in civil fines for violating child labor laws.
