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Title 29-Labor

tor and the Secretary of Labor, may
require.
§ 4.87

Transmission of official mail. Subject to the requirements of law and of the regulations of the Post Office Department, franked self-addressed envelopes may be used for communications from the field staff to a State official designated by the Division and the Secretary of Labor, and for communication from the State agency to the Division or the Secretary of Labor.

§ 4.88

Enforcement.

All litigation relating to the enforcement of the acts, other than civil actions for the recovery of wages due instituted pursuant to section 16(b) of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 and all administrative proceedings instituted pursuant to section 5 of the Public Contracts Act shall be undertaken by and be under the direction and control of the Federal Government. Any State agency intending to institute a civil action in behalf of an employee or employees for the recovery of wages due, pursuant to section 16(b) of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 shall notify the Division and the Secretary of Labor prior to the institution of such action.

§ 4.89 Agreements and approved plans.

Agreements and approved plans incorporated therein may be amended upon the consent of the parties thereto. § 4.90 Amendments and repeal.

This subpart may be amended or repealed by appropriate joint regulations issued by the Secretary of Labor and the Administrator: Provided, however, That no such amendment or repeal shall be effective as to any agreement previously entered into by a State agency without its consent thereto.

Subpart G-General Statements of Interpretation of the Child Labor Provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, as Amended

AUTHORITY: 4.101 to 4.129 issued under 52 Stat. 1060-1069, as amended; 29 U. S. C. 201-219.

GENERAL

4.101 Introductory statement.

(a) This subpart discusses the meaning and scope of the child labor proviSions of the Fair Labor Standards Act,

as amended1 (hereinafter referred to as
the act). These provisions seek to pro-
tect the safety, health, well-being and
opportunities for schooling of youthful
workers and authorize the Secretary of
Labor to issue legally binding orders or
regulations in certain instances and un-
der certain conditions. The child labor
provisions are found in sections 3 (1),
11 (b), 12, 13 (c) and (d), 15 (a) (4),
16 (a), and 18 of the act. They are ad-
ministered and enforced by the Secre-
tary of Labor who has delegated' to the
Wage and Hour Division the duty of
making investigations to obtain compli-
ance, and to the Bureau of Labor Stand-
ards the duty of developing standards
for the issuance of regulations and or-
ders relating to (1) hazardous occupa-
14- and
tions, (2) employment of
and (3) age
15-year-old children,
certificates.

(b) The interpretations of the Secretary contained in this subpart indicate the construction of the law which will guide him in performing his duties until he is directed otherwise by authoritative rulings of the courts or until he shall subsequently decide that his prior interpretation is incorrect.

§ 4.102 General scope of statutory provisions.

The most important of the child labor provisions are contained in sections 12 (a), 12(c), and 3(1) of the act. Section 12(a) provides that no producer, manufacturer, or dealer shall ship or deliver or forfor shipment in interstate eign commerce any goods produced in an establishment in or about which oppressive child labor was employed within 30 days before removal of the goods. The full text of this subsection

1 Pub. No. 718, 75th Cong., 3d sess. (52 Stat. 1060), as amended by the act of June 26, 1940 (Pub. Res. No. 88, 76th Cong., 3d sess.); by Reorganization Plan No. 2 (60 Stat. 1095), effective July 16, 1946; by the Portal-to-Portal Act of 1947, approved May 14, 1947 (61 Stat. 84); and by the Fair Labor Standards Amendments of 1949, approved October 26, 1949 (Pub. Law 393, 81st Cong., 1st sess.). Amendments provided by the Fair Labor Standards Amendments of 1949 These are effective as of January 25, 1950. amendments leave the existing law changed except as to provisions specifically amended and the addition of certain new provisions.

un

2 General Order No. 42 issued by the Secretary on July 1, 1949.

Page 43

is set forth in § 4.104 and its terms are discussed in §§ 4.105 to 4.111, inclusive. Section 12 (c) prohibits any employer from employing oppressive child labor in interstate or foreign commerce or in the production of goods for such commerce. The text and discussion of this provision appear in §§ 4.112 and 4.113. Section 3 (1) of the act, which defines the term "oppressive child labor," is set forth in § 4.117 and its provisions are discussed in §§ 4.118 to 4.121, inclusive. It will further be noted that the act provides various specific exemptions from the foregoing provisions which are set forth and discussed in §§ 4.122 to 4.126, inclusive.

§ 4.103 Comparison with hours provisions.

wage

of goods for commerce. The other provision (section 12(a)), however, differs fundamentally in its basic concepts of coverage from the wage and hours provisions, as will be explained in §§ 4.104 to 4.111.

(c) Another distinction is that the exemptions provided by the act from the minimum wage and/or overtime provisions are more numerous and differ from the exemptions granted from the child labor provisions. There are only four specific child labor exemptions of which only one applies to the minimum wage and overtime pay requirements as well. This is the exemption for employees engaged in the delivery of newspapers to the consumer.' and With this exception, none of the specific exemptions from the minimum wage and/or overtime pay requirements applies to the child labor provisions. However, it should be noted that the exclusion of certain employers by section 3 (d)' of the act applies to the child labor provisions as well as the wage and hours provisions.

A comparison of the child labor provisions with the so-called wage and hours provisions contained in the act discloses some important distinctions which should be mentioned.

(a) The child labor provisions contain no requirements in regard to wages. The wage and hours provisions, on the other hand, provide for minimum rates of pay for straight time and overtime pay at a rate not less than one and onehalf times the regular rate of pay for overtime hours worked. Except as provided in certain exemptions contained in the act, these rates are required to be paid all employees subject to the wage and hours provisions, regardless of their age or sex. The fact, therefore, that the employment of a particular child is prohibited by the child labor provisions or that certain shipments or deliveries may be proscribed on account of such employment, does not relieve the employer of the duties imposed by the wage and hours provisions to compensate the child in accordance with those requirements.

(b) There are important differences between the child labor provisions and the wage and hours provisions with respect to their general coverage. As pointed out in § 4.114, two separate and basically different coverage provisions are contained in section 12 relating to child labor. One of these provisions (section 12 (c)), which applies to the employment by an employer of oppressive child labor in commerce or in the production of goods for commerce, is similar to the wage and hours coverage provisions, which include employees engaged in commerce or in the production

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Section 12 (a) of the act provides as follows:

No producer, manufacturer, or dealer shall ship or deliver for shipment in commerce any goods produced in an establishment situated in the United States in or about which within thirty days prior to the removal of such goods therefrom any oppressive child labor has been employed: Provided, That any such shipment or delivery for shipment of such goods by a purchaser who acquired them in good faith in reliance on written assurance from the producer, manufacturer, or dealer that the goods were produced in compliance with the requirements of this section, and who acquired such goods for value without notice of any such violation, shall not be deemed prohibited by this subsection: And provided further, That a prosecution and conviction of a defendant for the shipment or delivery for shipment of any goods under the conditions herein prohibited shall be a bar to any further prosecution against the same defendant for shipments or deliveries for shipment of any such goods before the beginning of said prosecution.

'Section 13 (d) of the act.

⚫Section 3 (d) defines "employer" to include "any person acting directly or indirectly in the interest of an employer in relation to an employee but shall not include the United States or any State or political subdivision of a State, or any labor organization (other than when acting as an employer), or anyone acting in the capacity of officer or agent of such labor organization."

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It will be observed that the prohibition of section 12 (a) with respect to certain shipments or deliveries for shipment is confined to those made by producers, manufacturers, and dealers. The terms "producer, manufacturer, or dealer" used in this provision are not expressly defined by the statute. However, in view of the definition of "produced" in section 3 (j), for purposes of this section a “producer" is considered to be one who engages in producing, manufacturing, handling or in any other manner working on goods in any State." Since manufacturing is considered a specialized form of production, the word "manufacturer" does not have as broad an application as the word "producer." Manufacturing generally involves the transformation of raw materials or semifinished goods into new or different articles. A person may be considered a "manufacturer" even though his goods are made by hand, as is often true of products made by homeworkers. Moreover. it is immaterial whether manufacturing is his sole or main business. Thus, the term includes retailers who, in addition to retail selling, engage in such manufacturing activities as the making of slip-covers or curtains, the baking of bread, the making of candy, or the making of window frames. The word "dealer" refers to anyone who deals in goods (as defined in section 3 (i) of the act), including persons engaged in buying, selling, trading, distributing, delivering, etc. It includes middlemen, factors, brokers, commission merchants, wholesalers, retailers and the like.

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manufacturer, or dealer may "ship" goods in commerce either by moving them himself in interstate or foreign commerce or by causing them to so move, as by delivery to a carrier.' Thus, a baker "ships" his bread in commerce whether he carries it in his own truck across State lines or sends it by contract or common carrier to his customers in other States. The word "ship" must be applied in its ordinary meaning. For example, it does not apply to the transmission of telegraphic messages."

(b) To "deliver for shipment in commerce" means to surrender the custody of goods to another under such circumstances that the person surrendering the goods knows or has reason to believe that the goods will later be shipped in commerce. Typical is the case of a Detroit manufacturer who delivers his goods in Detroit to a distributor who, as the manufacturer is well aware, will ship the goods into another State. A delivery for shipment in commerce may also be made where raw materials are delivered by their producer to a manufacturer in the same State who converts them into new products which are later shipped across State lines. If the producer in such case is aware or has reason to believe that the finished products will ultimately be sent into another State, his delivery of the raw materials to the manufacturer is a delivery for shipment in commerce. Another example is a paper box manufacturer who ships a carton of boxes to a fresh fruit or vegetable packing shed within the same State, with knowledge or reason to believe that the boxes will there be filled with fruits or vegetables and shipped

'Section 3 (b) of the act defines "commerce" to mean "trade, commerce, transportation, transmission or communication among the several States or between any State and any place outside thereof."

"Western Union Telegraph Co. v. Lenroot, 323 U. S. 490.

'Tobin v. Grant, N. D. Calif., 79 F. Sup. 975 which was a suit for injunction by the Secretary of Labor against a manufacturer of books and book covers employing oppressive child labor. The facts showed that the manufactured articles sold by defendant to purchasers in the same State had an ultimate out-of-State destination which was manifest to defendant. The court construed the words "deliver for shipment in commerce" as sufficiently broad to cover this situation even though the purchasers acquired title to the goods.

outside the State. In such case the box manufacturer has delivered the boxes for shipment in commerce. § 4.107 "Goods".10

(a) Section 12 (a) prohibits the shipment or delivery for shipment in commerce of "any goods" produced in an establishment which were removed within 30 days of the employment there of oppressive child labor. It should be noted that the statute does not base the prohibition of section 12 (a) upon the percentage of an establishment's output which is shipped in commerce.

(b) The act furnishes its own definition of "goods" in section 3 (i), as follows:

"Goods" means goods (including ships and marine equipment), wares, products, commodities, merchandise, or articles or subjects of commerce of any character, or any part or ingredient thereof, but does not include goods after their delivery into the actual physical possession of the ultimate consumer thereof other than a producer, manufacturer, or processor thereof.

The term includes such things as foodstuffs, clothing, machinery, printed materials, blueprints and also includes intangibles such as news, ideas, and intelligence. The statute expressly excludes goods after their delivery into the actual physical possession of an ultimate consumer other than a producer, manufacturer, or processor thereof. Accordingly, such a consumer may lawfully ship articles in his possession although they were ineligible for shipment (commonly called "hot goods") before he received them."

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10 The term "goods" is discussed in more detail in Part 776 of this title (Interpretative Bulletin on the coverage of the wage and hours provisions) issued by the Administrator of the Wage and Hour Division.

11 For a discussion of the exclusionary clause in section 3 (1) of the act, see Powell et al. v. United States Cartridge Co., 70 S. Ct. 755.

12 The remaining portion of section 3 (1) provides: "* and for the purposes of this act an employee shall be deemed to have been engaged in the production of goods if

(a) The prohibition of section 12 (a) cannot apply to a shipment of goods unless those goods (including any part or ingredient thereof) were actually "produced" in and removed from an establishment where oppressive child labor was employed. This provision is applicable even though the under-age employee does not engage in the production of the goods themselves if somewhere in the establishment in or about which he is employed goods are "produced" which are subequently shipped or delivered for shipment in commerce. In contrast to this restrictive requirement of section 12 (a), it will be noted that the employees covered under the wage and hours provisions as engaged in the production of goods for commerce are not limited to those in or about establishments where such goods are being produced. If the requisite relationship 13 to production of such goods is present, an employee is covered for wage and hours purposes regardless of whether his work brings him in or near any establishment where the goods are produced.14

(b) Since the first word in the definition of "produced" repeats the term being defined, it seems clear that the first word must carry the meaning that it has in everyday language. Goods are commonly spoken of as "produced" if they have been brought into being as a result of the application of work. The words "manufactured" and "mined" in the definition refer to special forms of production. The former term is generally applied to the products of industry where existing raw materials are transformed into new or different articles by the use of industrial methods, either by the aid of machinery or by manual operations. Mining is a type of productive activity involving the taking of materials from the ground, such as coal from a coal mine, oil from oil wells, or stone from quarries. The statute also defines the term "produced" to mean “handled"

such employee was employed in producing, manufacturing, mining, handling, transporting, or in any other manner working on such goods, or in any closely related process or occupation directly essential to the production thereof, in any State."

13 See footnote 12.

14 See Part 776 of this title (Interpretative Bulletin on the coverage of the wage and hours provisions) issued by the Administrator of the Wage and Hour Division. Also, see §§ 4.112 and 4.113.

or "in any other manner worked on." " These words relate not only to operations carried on in the course of manufacturing, mining, or production as commonly described, but include as well all kinds of operations which prepare goods for their entry into the stream of commerce, without regard to whether the goods are to be further processed or are so called "finished goods." 16 Accordingly, warehouses, fruit and vegetable packing sheds, distribution yards, grain elevators, etc., where goods are sorted, graded, stored, packed, labeled or otherwise handled or worked on in preparation for their shipment out of the State are producing establishments for purposes of section 12 (a)." However, the handling or working on goods, performed by employees of carriers which accomplishes the interstate transit or movement in commerce itself, does not constitute production under the act.18

§ 4.109

"Establishment situated in the United States".

(a) (1) The statute does not expressly define "establishment." Accordingly, the term should be given a meaning which is not only consistent with its ordinary usage, but also designed to accomplish the general purposes of the act. As normally used in business and in Government, the word "establishment" refers to a distinct physical place of business. This is the meaning attributed to the term as it is used in section 13(a) (2) of

15 For a more complete discussion of these words, see § 776.16 of Part 776 (bulletin on coverage of the wage and hours provisions) of Chapter V of this title.

14 In Western Union Telegraph Co. v. Lenroot, 323 U. S. 490, the Supreme Court stated that these words bring within the statutory definition "every step in putting the subject of commerce in a state to enter commerce," including "all steps, whether manufacture or not, which lead to readiness for putting goods into the stream of commerce," and "every kind of incidental operation preparatory to putting goods into the stream of commerce."

"Lenroot v. Kemp and Lenroot v. Hazlehurst Mercantile Co., 153 F. 2d 153 (C. A. 5), where the court directed issuance of injunctions to restrain violations of the child labor provisions by operators of vegetable packing sheds at which they bought, then washed, sorted, crated, and packed cabbage and tomatoes for shipment in interstate commerce. 18 Western Union Telegraph Co. v. Lenroot, 828 U. S. 490.

the act.19 Since the establishments covered under section 12(a) of the act are those in which goods are produced, the term "establishment" there refers to a physical place where goods are produced. Typical producing establishments are industrial plants, mines, quarries, and the like. The producing establishment, however, need not have a permanently fixed location as is the case with a factory or mine. A boat, for instance, where productive activities such as catching or canning fish are carried on is considered a producing establishment for purposes of section 12 (a).

(2) Frequently, questions arise as to what should be considered a single establishment. No hard and fast rule can be laid down which will fix the area of all establishments. Accordingly, a determination of the area contained in a single establishment must be based upon the facts of each individual situation. Facts which are particularly pertinent in this connection, however, are those which relate to the physical characteristics and the manner of operation and control of the business. Sometimes, an establishment may extend over an area of several square miles as is common with farms, logging enterprises, mines, and quarries. On the other hand, it may be confined to a few square feet. A typical illustration of this is a loft building that houses the workshops of hundreds of independent manufacturing firms. Each of the workshops is, for purposes of this section, a separate establishment.

(3) Similar principles are applicable in determining whether several buildings located on the same premises constitute one establishment or more than one. For example, where several factory buildings are located on the same premises and owned and operated by the same person, they are generally to be considered as a single establishment. On the other hand, factory buildings located on the same premises, but owned and operated by different persons, will not ordinarily be treated as a single establishment. Where the several factories, however, are engaged in a joint produclive enterprise, they may constitute a

1 A. H. Phillips, Inc. v. Walling, 324 U. S. 490. See Part 779 (bulletin on the retail and service establishment exemption from the wage and hours provisions) of Chapter V of this title.

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