Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations

As the weather heats up, students are opening the classifieds in the paper or looking online for a new summer job. If you have a child under the age of 16 and you are uninformed of Missouri’s child labor laws, your kid’s paycheck could come from an employer who is either equally unaware of the law or chooses to ignore the law created to ensure the wellbeing and safety of our state’s working youth.

In 2009 and 2010, the DLS received 38 complaints, conducted 2,681 employer inspections, and issued 1,714 separate violations. More than $31,000 in fines were assessed against the businesses found to be in violation of child labor laws. Some examples of egregious violations in past years include a child working in a meat processing plant who suffered crushed legs when he fell into the vat of a large meat chiller. Another violation involved a child who worked in a restaurant and his hand was caught and mutilated in a meat tenderizer. In addition, our investigators have witnessed the presence of children on active construction sites.

In the last nine months, one violation included two underage children working cattle chutes in a commercial livestock operation. In another instance, a child worker was not only ordered to load boxes into a trash compactor (which, by federal law, no one under the age of 18 is allowed to open, access, or operate), he was then instructed to climb into the chute to jump up and down on the boxes to push them farther down into the chute.

The Division of Labor Standards is responsible for enforcing the law and holding employers accountable for their violations. In order to fulfill this duty and to protect Missouri’s young workforce, the department relies on complaints against employers and active participation with parents. If you are a parent, be educated on what type of employment your kid is legally able to do and make sure your kid’s first job experience is a safe one.

Visit our website to file a complaint against an employer for a child labor violation or learn more about unacceptable jobs and hours for youth.

Despite the national vacancy and foreclosure rate in nation, housing discrimination continues to be a problem.

To combat housing discrimination, the Missouri Commission on Human Rights (MCHR), housed within the Department of Labor, investigates complaints made by Missourians who feel their housing rights have been violated.

The Missouri Human Rights Act makes it illegal to discriminate in any aspect of housing because of an individual’s race, color, national origin, ancestry, religion, sex, familial status (children under the age of 18 living with parents or legal guardians, pregnant women, and people securing custody of children under the age of 18), and disability.

An issue that continues to be a problem in the housing industry is predatory lending and mortgage fraud. However, other types of housing discrimination include refusing to rent or sell housing, making housing unavailable to certain individuals, providing different housing services or facilities to certain individuals, refusing to make a mortgage loan, discriminating in appraising a property, or setting different terms or conditions for purchasing a loan. A full list of discriminatory actions can be seen on our Housing Discrimination page.

In 2010, 8% of the complaints filed with the MCHR were filed housing complaints. In 2009, MCHR was involved in a case resulting in a record housing discrimination award being paid to tenants in St. Louis County. The case involved a landlord who had discriminated against two tenants with disabilities by removing the ramp which the tenants used to enter and exit their apartment, trapping them for approximately three weeks. The tenants were awarded $300,000.

Last year, MCHR participated in the Show Me Fair Housing Awareness Project, empowering Missouri citizens by educating the public and housing providers about their rights and obligations under state and federal laws. This program, aimed at citizens in the southeast regions of the state and made possible by a grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), was a year-long public awareness effort to provide homebuyer education and fair housing materials, including guidance on where to turn if people feel housing laws have been violated. More than 25,000 residents received information about their fair housing rights. Additionally, HUD has funded a second year of continued, advanced community training – all free to the public. For more information, visit our Fair Housing page.

As the ways that people communicate continue to evolve, the Department of Labor strives to keep its methods of communications on the forefront of technology, to reach as many people as possible. As more and more services become available on the world-wide internet, the Labor Department recognized the growing need and made additional services available online 24/7.

The most popular service available online is the ability to file a claim for unemployment insurance (UI) benefits, as well as file weekly renewals, on a page specifically designed to assist unemployed workers. Another useful tool on this page is the “Benefit Payment” calculator, which can help a worker calculate their potential eligibility for UI, along with a second calculator available for those working part-time while still claiming UI.

On the Department’s “Injured Workers” page, designed to provide information to workers injured in a work-related accident, is the “Are You Covered?” tool. This tool will help a worker find out if their employer is carrying the required workers’ compensation insurance.

Another helpful tool is the “Complaint Assessment.” Anyone who believes they have been discriminated against in housing, employment, or public accommodations can take the assessment to find out if they should complete a “Complaint Intake Questionnaire,” which is the first step in filing a formal complaint of discrimination.

Soon we will be introducing a “Worker Misclassification Assessment,” to help workers determine if they are being correctly classified. Some employers classify their workers as independent contracts to try to evade their tax burden, and this assessment will help workers determine their true status, and report fraud if necessary.

The Labor Department will continue to strive to make all information about our programs available to those in need, both online and offline.