Northrup, 090131 PAAGO, AGO 23

• Case Date: September 01, 1931
• Court: Pennsylvania

Honorable A. M. Northrup AGO 23 Opinion No. 23 Pennsylvania Attorney General Opinions Opinions Of the Attorney General September 1, 1931          Child Labor—Minors—Employment in Coal Mines—Workmen's Compensation— Acts of June 9, 1911, P. L. 756 and April U, 1931, P. L. 36.          The Act of 1931, P. L. 36, amending the Act of 1919, P. L. 730, does not prohibit the employment of minors under the ago of eighteen years in bituminous coal mines. It simply increases the burden of employers who violate the labor laws concerning such minors. Subject to the limitations contained In the Act of 1911, P. L. 756, minors over the age of sixteen though under the age of eighteen years may work in bituminous mines.          Honorable A. M. Northrup, Secretary of Labor and Industry, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.          Sir: You have asked to be advised whether minors under the age of eighteen years, but over sixteen, may be employed in bituminous coal mines. You also ask whether the Act of April 14, 1931, No. 29, in any way restricts the employment of minors under the, age of eighteen years.          Section 5 of the Act of May 13, 1915, P. L. 286, 43 P. S. 44, the Child Labor Law, contains the following provisions:

"No minor under eighteen years of age shall be employed or permitted to work in the operation or management of hoisting machines, in oiling or cleaning machinery, in motion; in the operation or use of any polishing or buffing-wheel; at switch-tending, at gate-tending, at track-repairing; as a brakeman, fireman, engineer, or motorman or conductor, upon a railroad or railway; as a pilot, fireman, or engineer upon any boat or vessel; in or about establishments where gunpowder, nitro-glycerine, dynamite, or other high or dangerous explosive, is manufactured or compounded; as a chauffeur of an automobile or an aeroplane.

"In addition to the foregoing, it shall be unlawful for any minor under eighteen years of age to be employed or permitted to work in any other occupation dangerous to the life or limb, or injurious to the health or morals, of the said minor, as such occupations- shall, from time to time, after public hearing thereon, be determined and declared by the Industrial Board of the Department of Labor and Industry: Provided, That if it should be hereafter held by the courts of this Commonwealth that the power herein sought to be granted to the said board is for any reason invalid, such holding shall not be taken in any case to affect or

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