Utah Contractor Fined for Using Child Workers

KUER 90.1 | By Andrea Smardon

Published July 31, 2015 at 3:40 PM MDT

A Southern Utah electrical contractor has been fined for employing children and violating labor laws. An investigation by the US Labor Department found that children in Hildale were unlawfully employed by Reliance Electric Inc.

Reliance Electric employed five children in Hildale under age 14 in construction, including a 13-year-old who operated a forklift. The company also employed three children on a construction site in Bixby, Oklahoma.

Reliance Electric failed to pay wages to some children, and underpaid fifty-six other employees. The US Labor Department says the company has agreed to pay more than $376,000 in back wages and fines.

Hildale, Utah is home to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a polygamous sect.

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Andrea Smardon

Andrea Smardon is new at KUER, but she has worked in public broadcasting for more than a decade. Most recently, she worked as a reporter and news announcer for WGBH radio. While in Boston, she produced stories for Morning Edition, Marketplace Money, and The World. Her print work was published in The Boston Globe and Boston.com. Prior to that, she worked at Seattleââ

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