Ohio lumber company pays fine in sawmill injury to 15-year-old

A Dundee, Ohio-based lumber company has paid a $22,093 fine in connection with a sawmill injury involving a teen worker.

Walnut Creek Lumber Ltd. agreed to the financial penalty after the U.S. Department of Labor said a 15-year-old worker who became entangled in the gears of a powered wood processing machine should have never been performing the task in the first place.

Regulators said federal child labor laws forbid minors under the age of 18 from employment in hazardous occupations.

The company employed teenage workers to move and stack wood pieces to be processed into lumber, according to the DOL.

“No child should ever be exposed to dangerous workplace machinery,” DOL Wage and Hour Division District Director Matthew Utley said in a statement.

The DOL said Wage and Hour Division investigators also learned the company employed four other minors under the age of 16 outside the hours allowed by the Fair Labor Standards Act.

The exact date of the sawmill incident was not given, and the DOL did not elaborate on the specific nature of the teen’s injuries.