Fisherman's Fleet, Inc., a fish processing company in Malden, Massachusetts, has been ordered to pay $132,575 in fines in connection with a 2000 accident in which a minor employee suffered fatal injuries while operating a forklift, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

An administrative law judge had reduced the penalty by 25 percent, but the DOL's Administrative Review Board reversed that decision.

The board found that Fisherman's violations of the child-labor provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) "resulted in the most severe consequence, the death of a 16-year-old boy. Given that fact and the review of the other factors, the board found that the penalty assessed against the company should not be reduced," the DOL said.

Youth under the age of 18 are prohibited from being employed in hazardous occupations such as the operation of a forklift.

The DOL's Wage and Hour Division found that over the course of two years, Fisherman's had hired 26 minors between the ages of 14 to 18 as cleaners of the company premises. That work required the prohibited use of a forklift, investigators found, and the minors received no safety instruction. The investigation came after Joseph Marzullo, 16, died from injuries sustained when a forklift he was operating overturned.

After the accident, the Wage and Hour Division partnered with the Massachusetts Department of Health to develop a "Forklift STOP Sticker" that employers can affix to prohibited equipment to remind young workers and their supervisors of the youth employment rules.

Wage and Hour also joined with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and the department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration to publicize and distribute the sticker and developed a Safety and Health Information Bulletin that addresses the use of forklifts.

Information about the hours youth may work and the jobs they may perform and a copy of the sticker are available at www.youthrules.dol.gov.