Becky JacobsAppleton Post-Crescent
FLORENCE – A Florence company agreed to pay $190,696 in penalties and comply with federal child labor regulations, among other steps, after a 16-year-old boy was fatally injured in June at the sawmill, according to a Thursday news release from the U.S. Department of Labor.
The department's Wage and Hour Division also found three other children were previously injured at Florence Hardwoods LLC in recent years, and the company employed children as young as 14 to illegally operate machinery and work outside of legally permitted hours, the release states.
The division's investigation stems from the July 1 death of Michael Schuls, a Florence High School student who was severely injured two days earlier while working at the sawmill. The business is located at 5843 Tower Drive, near the Michigan border, about 110 miles north of Green Bay.
On Wednesday, a federal judge in the Eastern District of Wisconsin issued a consent order and judgment against Florence Hardwoods, outlining the steps the business needs to follow.
"As a small company, employees are like family, and the death of Michael Schuls was devastating," Florence Hardwoods said in a statement provided to the Green Bay Press-Gazette. "We are only able to move forward thanks to the love and support of our workforce and community. Michael will forever be in our hearts and his family in our prayers."
The company appreciates the time and effort the Wage and Hour Division put into the case, and said it "fully and openly cooperated with Division investigators" throughout the process.
"While we did not knowingly or intentionally violate labor laws, we accept the findings and associated penalties," the statement says.
The company said it "made process and operations changes, including the posting of labor laws and agreeing to no longer hire minors to work at (its) facility" as part of the settlement.
“Florence Hardwoods risked the life of a child by allowing him to operate dangerous equipment in violation of federal child labor laws, and now family, friends and co-workers are left to grieve,” Solicitor of Labor Seema Nanda said in the news release. “The Solicitor’s office will use all legal tools available to combat child labor, including placing pressure on supply chains to hold their suppliers accountable.”
Other state and federal investigations into Schuls' death remain ongoing.
What steps did Florence Hardwoods agree to take?
The federal order requires Florence Hardwoods to place labels and signage to prevent children under the age of 18 from using dangerous equipment and entering the company's sawmill and planer buildings, according to the news release.
The company also agreed not to hire anyone under the age of 16, and if it hires anyone between the ages of 16 and 18 in the future, the company must strictly comply with the requirements for apprentices or student leaders and inform the department before hiring, the release states.
The day after Schuls' death, Florence Hardwoods terminated all employees who were under the age of 18 at its facility, and the company later verified to the court that no minors were employed, according to the Department of Labor.
For the next five years, the Wage and Hour Division can enter the facility unannounced, without a warrant, during any shift to investigate, the order states. The company will also produce any documents the division requests within 72 hours.
To prevent future violations, Florence Hardwoods will use the division’s Youth Employment Compliance Assistance Toolkit to identify materials for use in training employees, provided in a language understood by workers, and maintaining training logs. It will also provide employees with fact sheets on child labor, according to the release.
"The Wage and Hour Division will continue to hold violators accountable," Principal Deputy Wage and Hour Administrator Jessica Looman said in the release. "Let this case be a warning to employers: the department is using all of its resources to combat the illegal employment of children.”
What were the other findings from the investigation?
While investigating Schuls' death, the release states, the Wage and Hour Division found:
- Three children, ages 15 to 16, suffered injuries in November 2021, July 2022 and March 2023. One child suffered injuries on two separate occasions.
- Florence Hardwoods employed nine children, ages 14 to 17, to illegally operate machinery, such as a chop saw, rip saw and other automated machines used to process lumber, which federal law considers hazardous occupations for workers under 18.
- The company employed seven children, ages 14 and 15, to work outside legally permitted hours.
When asked Thursday about the nature of the injuries that three teens suffered in previous years, Scott Allen, a Department of Labor spokesperson, told the Press-Gazette that on March 8, 2023, a person received a large splinter in their hand in the planer building. An incident on July 27, 2022, involved a head injury at the log deck. In a third case, a person got their hand caught between two boards near the gang saw outfeed on Nov. 1, 2021. Eight days later, someone got debris in their eye, again related to the gang saw outfeed.
"Employers must report any worker fatality within eight hours and any amputation, loss of an eye, or hospitalization of a worker within 24 hours," Allen said. "The injuries referenced above are not required to be reported to OSHA at the time of the incident," and the logs related to these injuries were provided during the current fatality investigation.
More: Wisconsin company illegally employed more than 100 children in hazardous work
How was the teen injured at the sawmill?
On June 29, Schuls was working with another person, who was in charge of the building where the accident occurred, according to the Florence County Sheriff's Office's report, which the Press-Gazette obtained through a public records request.
The person in charge was operating a forklift and went out of the building, leaving Schuls alone for a while, the report said. When the person returned, he saw Schuls trapped in the stick conveyer, according to the sheriff's office. After freeing Schuls, the person called 911 and began CPR.
Video from the mill showed Schuls alone in the building, stacking lumber before going over to the sticker machine, according to the report. Sometimes, boards get tangled up, an employee explained, and Schuls "apparently was trying to straighten out the wood," a deputy wrote in the report.
"There was a shut off machine button which (Schuls) did not press," the report said.
According to the video and the report, 17 minutes passed from when Schuls stepped in the middle of the lower conveyor and when he was found. Employees and emergency responders performed lifesaving measures, the sheriff's office said, before Schuls was transported to Marshfield Health Clinic-Dickinson in Iron Mountain.
Schuls was eventually taken to Milwaukee Children's Hospital, where he died from his injuries. Schuls was was "helpful," "humorous," "hardworking" and "the absolute best son, brother, uncle and friend," according to his obituary.
What other investigations does Florence Hardwoods face?
The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Health and Safety Administration openedits inspectionfrom the fatality June 29. That same day, OSHA also opened "a companion health inspection" at Florence Hardwoods, a Department of Labor spokesperson previously said.
Those OSHA inspections remain ongoing, and the agency has six months to complete an inspection, issue citations and propose monetary penalties if violations are found.
OSHA also made a referral to the Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division, which enforces child labor requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act, among other issues. The division's investigation resulted in the penalties and steps announced Thursday.
Wisconsin's Department of Workforce Development opened a labor standards case and a worker's compensation case after Schuls' death. Those cases "will move forward following the completion of the corresponding federal investigations," a department spokesperson previously told the Press-Gazette.
The sheriff's office closed its investigation in July. An autopsy determined Schuls' cause of death was traumatic asphyxia, according to the Florence County coroner.
In the last five years, OSHA reported three closed cases at Florence Hardwoods, all from September 2019. In total, Florence Hardwoods paid more than $38,000 in penalties over 14 violations. Final citations from the cases show the violations were related to employees injuries, including amputations, in addition to other issues.
What happened with materials being made when the teen was fatally injured?
As part of the investigation, the department invoked the "hot goods" provision of the Fair Labor Standards Act, according to the release, which "forbids any producer, manufacturer or dealer from shipping or delivering for shipment in interstate commerce hot goods removed from the producing establishment in the 30 days after a child labor violation."
This prohibition applies not only to the employers who initially produced the products with child labor, but also to any producer, manufacturer or dealer who later receives them, the department said.
Florence Hardwoods voluntarily agreed to not ship certain goods on July 7 after receiving a letter from the Department of Labor, notifying the company of possible child labor violations, according to the order in the case.
The division alerted two of Florence Hardwoods' customers that they possessed goods subject to the hot good provision; both customers voluntarily agreed to not ship or deliver the hot good until the legal matter was resolved, according to the release.
After Florence Hardwoods agreed to pay $190,696 in civil money penalties to resolve its child labor violations and the court issued the order and judgment, the department lifted its objection to shipment of the goods, the release states.
“Any death of a child is too many," Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su said in the news release. "That’s why our Wage and Hour Division and Solicitor’s Office took immediate steps to prevent the sale of ‘hot goods’ and to hold the company accountable for allowing children to perform hazardous and, in this case, deadly jobs."
What jobs can teens do?
"Federal law establishes safety standards and restrictions for young workers in non-agricultural industries," theWage and Hour Division's website states.
Children ages 14 and 15 can work outside school hours, "but only in specified non-manufacturing and non-hazardous jobs for limited periods of time and under specified conditions," according to the complaint filed Tuesday against Florence Hardwoods in federal court.
Regulations prohibit 14- and 15-year-olds from working in any nonagricultural occupations that involve operating, tending, setting up, adjusting, cleaning, oiling, or repairing any power-driven machinery, the complaint states.
Teens who are 16 or 17 can work in jobs that have not been declared hazardous by the Secretary of Labor, according to the complaint.
"Hazardous occupations include all operations in a sawmill ... and occupations involving the operation of power-driven woodworking machines," the complaint states.
What other efforts have been made to address child labor violations?
During the 2022 fiscal year, division investigators identified child labor violations in 835 cases and assessed employers with more than $4.3 million in penalties, according to the news release.
This February, the department announced the creation of an Interagency Task Force to Combat Child Labor Exploitation to better align federal efforts to protect children from exploitative situations in the workplace, the release states. Led by the Department of Labor, the task force includes the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Education, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Justice and State.
The Florence Hardwoods case "underscores the importance and urgency of the administration’s interagency work to combat child labor exploitation," Nanda said.
What are Wisconsin's laws?
While 16-year-olds do not need a work permit in Wisconsin, the Department of Workforce Development introduced an online work permit system earlier this year for 14- and 15-year-olds.
More than 151,000 teens are employed in Wisconsin, and the department issues roughly 35,000 work permits for minors each year, according to a May news release about the system.
That month, Wisconsin lawmakers proposeda bill that would allow teenagers as young as 14 to serve alcoholin restaurants, which they say would help address workforce shortages. Since then, the bill hasn't received much traction in the legislature.
Wisconsin joins lawmakers across the country who have introduced legislation that would "let children work in more hazardous occupations" and "significantly roll back labor rules ... to address worker shortages," theAssociated Press reported May 25. Meanwhile, child labor violations increased by nearly 70% since 2018, according to the article.
In 2021, the Wisconsin legislature passed a bill that would have extended the hours that some teenagers could work at certain businesses, according toWisconsin Watch. Governor Tony Eversvetoedthebill, saying it would create "two separate systems of work requirements for employers" and "could result in unintended consequences."
Reach Becky Jacobs at bjacobs@gannett.com or 920-993-7117. Follow her on Twitter at @ruthyjacobs.
