Pennsylvania Act 1909-210 — COAL MINES, LABOR BY MINORS REGULATED

Act text

AN ACT

To provide for the health and safety of minors in bituminous coal mines and anthracite collieries or breakers, by regulating the ages at which said minors may be employed, their hours of employment, and to prescribe rules for the obtaining of employment certificates, and providing penalties for violation of the provisions thereof.

Section 1. From and after the passage of this act, no minor under the age of fourteen years shall be employed, permitted or suffered to work in, about, or for any coal-breaker or washery, or in or about the outside workings of any coal-mine.

(1 amended June 15, 1911, P.L.983, No.792)

Section 2. No minor under the age of sixteen years shall be employed, permitted, or suffered to work, in or about or for any establishment or industry named in section one of the act, for a longer period than ten hours in any one day, except when a different apportionment of the hours of labor is made for the sole purpose of making a shorter work-day for one day in the week; nor shall a less period than thirty minutes be allowed for the midday meal; and in no case shall the hours of labor exceed fifty-eight in any one week. No minor under the age of sixteen years shall be employed or permitted to work between the hours of nine post meridian and six ante meridian.

(2 amended June 1, 1911, P.L.537, No.195)

Section 3. That no minor under the age of sixteen years shall be employed, permitted or suffered to work, inside any coal-mine, and no minor under the age of sixteen years shall be employed in or about or for any establishment or industry named in section one of this act, unless the employer of said minor procures and keeps on file, and accessible to the mine inspector, the employment certificate as hereinafter provided, issued to said minor, and keeps two complete lists of all minors under the age of sixteen years employed in or for his or her establishment; one of said lists to be kept on file in the office of the employer, and one to be conspicuously posted in each of the several departments in or for which minors are employed. Said employment certificate, when issued, shall be the property of the minor named therein, who shall be entitled to a surrender of said certificate to him or her by the employer whenever said minor shall leave the service of any employer holding said certificate. In case a minor, who is employed or permitted to work in or about or for any establishment or industry named in section one of this act, as being sixteen years of age or over, appears to the Chief of the Department of Mines or any mine inspector to be under the age of sixteen years, said Chief of the Department of Mines or mine inspector shall make written demand that the employer of said minor shall procure and keep on file in the office of such establishment, subject to inspection, the same evidence that said minor is in fact sixteen years of age or over as is required as evidence of age for the issuance of the employment certificates hereinafter provided for; and the employer furnishing such evidence shall not be required to furnish any further evidence of the age of said minor. In case the evidence of age, for which demand is so made, be not filed as hereinbefore required, within thirty days after said demand, the employer shall cease to employ the minor named in said demand or to permit said minor to work: Provided, however, That said employer, by thus ceasing to employ or permit said minor to work, shall not be relieved from any of the penalties provided in this act for the employment of a minor under the age of sixteen years without the filing for such minor of the employment certificate hereinbefore required.

(3 amended June 15, 1911, P.L.983, No.792)

Section 4. The employment certificates required by the provisions of this act shall be issued as follows:--

In school districts having a district superintendent or supervising principal, by such superintendent or supervising principal; in school districts having no superintendent or supervising principal, but having one or more principals of schools, by such principals, each principal to issue the certificate to minors residing within the territory belonging to the school over which he has supervision; in school districts, or parts of districts, having no district superintendent or principal, by the secretary of the board of school directors for that district: Provided, That any district superintendent, supervising principal of schools, or secretary of the board of school directors, hereby directed to issue such certificates, may authorize and deputize, in writing, such persons as they may see proper, to act in their place and stead for the purpose of issuing such certificates. Any of the hereinbefore mentioned officials, authorized to issue employment certificates, before doing so shall demand, and if possible obtain, a birth certificate, or baptismal certificate, or passport, or any other official or religious record of the minor's age, or duly attested transcript thereof; or, in the event that none of these is obtainable, may accept, in lieu thereof, the record age as given on the register of a school the minor has attended; or, in the absence of such record, may accept the affidavit of the minor's parent, guardian, or other person, which affidavit he is empowered to administer: Provided, That the powers and duties conferred by this section on the superintendents, supervising principals, principal, or secretary of a board of school directors, be and the same are conferred upon superintendents, supervising principals, principal, teachers, or secretaries of any private academy, parochial or denominational schools, in all cases where the applicant for an employment certificate is, or recently has been, an attendant pupil in a private academy, parochial or denominational school, and is not a pupil in a public school: And provided further, That whenever in any school district an employment certificate is issued by any persons other than the public school official hereinbefore directed to issue such certificates in said district, said persons shall, on or before the third day of each month, file with the aforementioned public school official, in said district, true copies of all employment certificates so issued.

Section 5. The employment certificate provided by this act for the use of a minor between fourteen and sixteen years of age shall be in the following form:--

This certifies that (name and residence of minor) is aged........ years.......months......days; whose complexion is ......, hair is........ and eyes are........; is able to read and write the English language intelligently, and may be employed at labor in any coal-breaker, washery or other outside workings of a coal-mine.

This certificate is a legal warrant for the employment of the minor hereon, in any of the above-named establishments and industries, under the provisions of an act approved...........one thousand nine hundred and nine, as amended by an act approved ......, one thousand nine hundred and eleven.

(Signature of person who issued certificate, official title and official address.)

(Signature of minor to whom issued.)................. (Date.)

(5 amended June 15, 1911, P.L.983, No.792)

Section 6. The blank employment certificates shall be prepared by the Superintendent of Public Instruction, in accordance with the form prescribed in this act; the same to be printed in accordance with the laws regulating printing and binding, under the supervision of the Superintendent of Public Printing and Binding. The Superintendent of Public Instruction shall also supply the aforesaid certificates to all persons authorized to issue the same.

Section 7. Any person who shall violate any of the provisions of this act, or any person who shall make a false statement, or shall present a forged birth certificate or baptismal certificate or passport, or other official or religious record of the minor's age, or a forged attested transcript thereof, for the purpose of securing an employment certificate under the provisions of this act, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction thereof, shall for the first offense be sentenced to pay a fine of not less than ten dollars ($10) nor more than twenty-five dollars ($25), or to undergo an imprisonment in the proper county jail of not more than ten days, or both, at the discretion of the court; and for the second and each subsequent offense shall be sentenced to pay a fine of not more than fifty dollars ($50), or to undergo an imprisonment in the proper county jail of not more than ninety days, or both, at the discretion of the court.

It shall be the duty of the Chief of the Department of Mines, and the truant officers of the various school districts of this Commonwealth, to carry out the provisions of this act; and prosecutions for violations thereof may be instituted by either the Chief of the Department of Mines or the truant officer of the proper school district.

(7 amended Apr. 15, 1913, P.L.70, No.48)

Section 8. All fines imposed and collected for any violation of this act shall be forwarded to the Chief of the Department of Mines, who shall pay the same into the office of the State Treasurer, for the use of the Commonwealth.