Chap. 489.—An ACT to regulate the employment of children; to repeal an act
entitled an act to amend and re-enact chapter 210 of the Acts of 1908,
regulating the employment of children in certain employments, approved
March 13, 1908, as amended by chapter 339 of the Acts of 1914, approved
March 27, 1914, approved March 14, 1918; to repeal an act entitled an act
to permit children over the age of twelve years to work in fruit and vege-
table canneries and to transmit merchandise or run errands, approved
March 20, 1920, and to repeal sections 1809 to 1816, inclusive, of the Code
of Virginia, section 1810 of which was amended by an act approved March
25, 1920. [S B 81]

} Approved March 27, 1922.

Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, as follows:

Section 1. No child under fourteen years of age shall be employed,
permitted .or suffered to work in, about, or in connection with anv
gainful occupation, other than work on farms, orchards and in gar-
dens, except as specified in this act.

Section 2. No child under sixteen years of age shall be employed,
permitted or suffered to work in, about, or in connection with any
gainful occupation, (1) more than six days in any one week; (2) nor
more than forty-four hours in any one week; (3) nor more than eight
hours in any one day; (4) nor before the hour of seven o’clock in
the morning nor after the hour of six o’clock in the evening, except
on farms, in orchards or in gardens. Every employer shall post and
keep posted conspicuously in the place where any child 1s employed,
permitted, or suffered to work a printed notice setting forth the
maximum number of hours such child may be required or permitted
to work each day of the week, the hours of beginning and ending
of work each day, and the hours when the time allowed for meals
begins and ends.

Section 3. No child under sixteen years of age shall be employed,
permitted or suffered to work in, about, or in connection with any
gainful occupation with the exception of work on farms, orchards and
in gardens, unless the person, firm or corporation employing such
child procures and keeps on file and accessible to any school attend-
ance officer, inspector of labor or other authorized person charged
with the enforcement of this act, the employment certificate as here-
inafter provided, issued to such child; and keep two complete lists
of the names, together with the ages, of all children under sixteen
years of age employed in or for such establishment or in such occu-
pation, one on file and one conspicuously posted near the principal
entrance of the place where such children are employed.

Section 4. Employment certificates shall be issued only by the
chief school attendance officer, or if there is no attendance officer, by
the division superintendent of schools or by any person designated
by him in the city, town or county in which the child is to be
employed and only upon application in person of the child desiring
employment, accompanied by the parent, guardian, or custodian of
such child. Where there is no attendance officer, the division super-
intendent of schools shall designate one or more persons to grant
such permits in every city, town or county. The person issuing such
certificate shall have authority to administer the oath provided for
therein, or to make any investigation or examination necessary for
the issuance thereof. No fee shall be charged for issuing any such
certificate nor for administering any oath or rendering any services in
respect thereto. The officer issuing the certificate shall establish and
maintain proper records where copies of all such certificates and
all documents connected therewith shall be filed and preserved.

Section 5. The person authorized to issue an employment certi-
ficate shall not issue such certificate until he has received, examined,
approved and filed the following papers:

(a) <A statement signed by the prospective employer, or some
one duly authorized on his behalf, stating that he expects to give
such child present employment, setting forth the specific nature of
the occupation in which he intends to employ such child and the
number of hours per day and of days per week which said child shall
be employed and the daily time of the beginning and ending of such
employment and of the period for lunch, and agreeing to send the
notice of the commencement of employment and to return the certifi-
cate according to the provisions of this act.

(b) Proof of age as provided in section six of this act.

(c) A certificate of physicial fitness as provided in section seven
of this act.
Section 6. The evidence of age required by this act shall consist
of one of the following proofs of age, which shall be required in the
order herein designated :

(a) A birth certificate or attested transcript issued by a regis-
trar of vital statistics or other officer charged with the duty of
recording births.

(b) <A babtismal record or duly certified transcript thereof
showing the date of birth and place of baptism of the child.

(c) A passport or a certificate of arrival issued by immigration
officers of the United States showing the age of the child.

(d) A bona fide contemporary record of the date and place of
the child’s birth kept in the Bible in which the record of the births
in the family of the child are preserved.

(e) Other documentary record of the child’s age satisfactory
to the issuing officer: provided, that a school record, a school census
record, or a parent’s, guardian’s or custodian’s affidavit or statement
of age shall not be accepted except as specified in subdivision (f).

(f) A certificate of physical age, signed by a public health or
public school physician and based upon a physical examination. Such
certificate shall state the height and weight of such child and other
evidence upon which the opinion as to the age of such child is
founded. No fee shall be charged for this certificate. A parent’s,
guardian’s or custodian’s affidavit of age, and a record of the age
as given in the register of the school first attended by the child, if
obtainable, or in the earliest available school census, shall accompany
the physician’s certificate of age. And no employment certificate
shall be issued if any of the above possible sources shows the child
to be under the age of fourteen; except as provided in section ten of
this act. _ |

Section 7. The certificate of physical fitness required by this act
shall be signed by a public health or school physician. It shall show
height and weight of the child and:shall state that the said child has
been thoroughly examined by the said physician within a period of
ten days and has been found to be of normal development for a child
of his age, is in sound health, and is physically qualified for the
employment specified in the statement submitted by the employer.

Section 8. But nothing contained in this act shall be construed
as qualifying in any way the provisions of the compulsory education
laws of this State, nor as authorizing the employment of any child
who is absent unlawfully from school.

Section 9. The employment certificate required to be issued shall
state the name, sex, color, date of birth and place of residence of the
child. It shall certify that all the conditions and requirements for
issuing’ an employment certificate under the provisions of this act
have been fulfilled, and shall be signed by the person issuing it.
It shall state the grade last completed by said child, the number of
years said child has attended school, and the kind of evidence of
age accepted for the employment certificate. It shall state the name
and address of the employer for whom and the nature of the specific
occupation in which the employment certificate authorizes the child
to be employed, and no certificate shall be valid except. for the
employer so named and the occupation so designated. It shall bear
a number, shall show the date of its issue, and shall be signed by the
child for whom it is issued in the presence of the person issuing it.
It shall be issued in triplicate, one copy to be mailed to the employer,
one copy to be sent to the State commissioner of labor and one copy
to be retained and kept on file by the issuing officer.

Section 10. The provisions of this act shall not apply to children
between the ages of twelve and sixteen working in fruit or vegetable
canneries for not more than eight hours in any one day, where public
schools are not actually in session.

Section 11. Every employer receiving an employment certificate
shall notify the issuing officer within seven days of the time of the
commencement of the employment of such child, and within seven
days after the termination of the employment shall return said
certificate to the issuing officer. Failure so to notify shall be cause
for the cancellation of the certificate; and failure so to return it shall
be cause for the refusal of further certificates upon the application
of such employer. Returned certificates shall be filed, and the com-
missioner of labor shall be notified by the issuing officer of their
return.

Section 12. An employment certificate shall be invalid after
twelve months from date of issue unless there shall have been filed
with the issuing officer a new certificate of physical fitness as pro-
vided for in section seven. .

Section 13. No child under sixteen years of age shall be employed,
permitted or suffered to work in any mine, quarry, tunnel, excavation
work, brick or lumber yard, nor shall they operate or assist in operat-
ing any dangerous machinery g; oil, assist in oiling, wiping or cleaning
any such machinery; nor shall they be employed in any capacity in
preparing any composition in which dangerous or poisonous chemi-
cals are used; and they shall not be employed in any capacity in the
manufacturing of paints, colors or white lead; and no boy under
sixteen and no girl under eighteen years of age shall be employed,
permitted or suffered to work in any retail cigar or tobacco store, or
in any theatre, concert hall, pool hall, bowling alley or place of amuse-
ment or in any hotel, restaurant, steam laundry, or in any passenger
or freight elevator.

Section 14.. No male under fourteen years of age and no female
under eighteen years of age shall be employed, permitted or suffered
to work as a messenger for any telegraph or messenger company or
messenger service in the distribution, transmission or delivery of
goods or messages at any time. No male under eighteen years of age
and no girl under twenty-one years of: age shall be employed, per-
mitted or suffered to work as a messenger for any telegraph or mes-
senger company or service in the distribution, transmission or deliv-
ery of goods or messages before five o’clock in the moming or after
ten o’clock in the evening of any day.
Section 15. No boy under fourteen years of age, and no girl
under eighteen years of age, shall be employed, permitted or suffered
to work in a street or public place in the occupation of peddling,
pootblacking or distributing or selling newspapers, magazines, peri-
odicals or circulars, or engaged in any gainful occupation, in a street
or public place, except that any boy between twelve and sixteen years
of age may engage in the occupations of bootblacking or distri-
buting and selling newspapers, magazines, periodicals or circulars
which are by law permitted to be distributed and sold, or running
errands or delivering parcels at such time or times between six o’clock
A. M. and seven o'clock P. M. in each day that the public schools
are not in session, provided such boy procures and carries on his
person a badge as hereinafter provided. Such badge shall be issued
by the same person authorized to issue an employment certificate,
and upon compliance with all the requirements for the issuance of an
employment certificate. It shall bear a number and on its reverse
side shall be signed in the presence of the person issuing it by the
child in whose name it is issued, together with address and date of
birth. A deposit of fifty cents shall be made for the use of each
badge, to be held by the officer issuing the badge and refunded upon
the return thereof.

Section 16. No boy to whom such a badge is issued shall transfer
it to any other person, nor be engaged in any of the trades and
occupations mentioned in section fifteen without having conspic-
uously on his person such badge, and he shall exhibit the same upon
demand to any police officer, school attendance officer, or to any
labor inspector or other person charged with the duty of enforcing the
provisions of this act. A complete record of badges issued and
refused, and of the facts relating thereto, shall be kept by the issuing
officer. No boy engaged in any of the street trades mentioned in
section fifteen shall work more than eight hours in any one day.
Nothing herein contained shall be construed to permit the violation
of a curfew ordinance of any city or to prevent any boy twelve years
of age or over from distributing newspapers, magazines or periodi-
cals to regular subscribers at their residences or places of business.
without securing such badge. All such badges shall expire annually
on the first day of January. The color of the badge shall be changec
each year.

Section 17. Whoever employs, procures, or, having under his
control, permits a child to be employed, or issues an employment
certificate in violation of any of the provisions of this act, shall be
guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction shall be fined not les:
than ten dollars nor more than twenty-five dollars for the first offense
not less than twenty-five dollars nor more than fifty dollars for th
second offense, and not less than fifty dollars nor more than twe
hundred and fifty dollars for any subsequent offense, or in additior
to such fine in the case of such subsequent offense, may be confine
in jail not less than thirty days nor more than ninety days. An
employment contrary to the provisions of this act shall be prim:
facie evidence of guilt both as to employer and the person having
control of the child.

Section 18. The commissioner of labor shall enforce the pro-
visions of this act and shall have authority to appoint such inspectors
and assistants as may be necessary to secure the enforcement of this
act. He shall supervise the work of the attendance officers or other
persons in each city and county authorized to enforce this act and
shall make all necessary rules and regulations for carrying out the
purposes of this act, and shall prescribe and supply to the proper
officials blanks for employment certificates, badges for street trade.
and such other forms as may be required for carrying out the pro-
visions of this act.

Section 19. An act entitled an act to amend and re-enact chapter
two hundred and one of the acts of nineteen hundred and eight, regu-
lating the employment of children in certain employments, approved
March thirteenth, nineteen hundred and eight, as amended by chapter
three hundred and thirty-nine of the acts of nineteen hundred and
fourteen, approved March twenty-seventh, nineteen hundred and
fourteen, approved March fourteenth, nineteen hundred and eighteen,
and an act entitled an act to permit children over the age of twelve
years to work in fruit and vegetable canneries and to transmit mer-
chandise or run errands, approved March twentieth, nineteen hundred
and twenty, and sections eighteen hundred and nine to eighteen hun-
dred and sixteen, inclusive, of the Code of Virginia, section eighteen
hundred and ten of which was amended by an act approved March
twenty-fifth, nineteen hundred and twenty, are hereby repealed.