Like I said… insurance companies can have provisions in your policy that restrict age on drivers or whatever. They cannot lower the federally mandated minimum age just because they say so.
Steve, my wife is a store manager at a mall location and just 2 weeks ago I went too see here and watched the pretzel girl… I am guessing 16 tops… take the trash out too the compacting dumpster and had a key too activate it.
That said, just like some say that ovens are not listed specifically, and might be a grey area, I am 100% sure if anyone contacted OSHA they would include them in the bakery equipment clause. Common sense after reading the requirements would dictate that. Now, does this get broken everyday? Yes. Did I deliver pizza at age 16 and 17…yes! Did the owner ever mention insurance or safety laws… heII no! Rules are broken everyday and mostly for the same reason. MONEY! People hire young or illegal employees with the hope of saving a buck. With a better economy this whole situation would be a lot more safety oriented. Greed runs the world and is no different in this industry. Unless you are monitored, everyone, no matter how up and up they are, will break a rule or two. Some knowingly, some just because they are idiots, and some because they have just always done it that way. My family business was lucky enough to fall under some national security plan after 9/11. Since we also did NSN orders for food supplies to the military, we had our plant locked down with security guards, then fingerprint scanners for access and time cards, and then switched too eye scanners since the fingerprint ones do not hold up in a hot and active (too many ingredients get on the scanners!) environment. They also came in the did background checks on all of our employees. We also have a full lab onsite to check every batch that goes out the door. Xray checks for any foreign objects in the products. The list goes on. It was a large expense but a required one too keep our NSN contracts available. Now I cannot say we hire under 18 employeess, because we do not, but back in the beginning I worked PT around the place. A much different place than the plant we run today. I am not saying we were unsafe or out to break laws, but as a business starting from nothing, working out of an old flower shop, since they had 3 large walk-in coolers, I know there were “grey” areas.
Back to the point, yes there are always going to be employees that do work related processes that they should not. Something as simple as an underage server handing a beer to a customer or an uncertified person not utilizing the required lockout/tagout process before climbing into a 1000 gallon steam kettle. Both would get them fired. Are they both as dangerous? I will leave that one up too you.
Now really jumping back to the OP question. She might be a great employee but I stand by my comments that 17 and left alone is probably not the best combination of things. The poor state of the economy and just the specifics of it all might make some have a different opinion of it all. This is a grey area but what she can legally do or not do is not. Best of luck too you and hopefully she turns 18 soon! :!:
