Overview
- State labor officials dropped a hazardous-work citation on appeal and upheld recordkeeping violations that require detailed logs of a minor’s hours.
- Rep. Billy Bob Faulkingham says the case is political retaliation tied to a past clash with the governor’s staff, while the governor’s office denies any role and the labor agency says it reviews every complaint.
- An independent journalist filed the complaint and first reported the case, which brought new attention to youth work on lobster boats.
- Fishing groups defended Faulkingham and said family crews often include kids, as a Democratic lobsterman questioned whether the student license track fits casual, short-term deck work.
- Since 2021, the labor department has logged 1,024 child-labor violations mostly in food and recreation, and it says it had not opened recent fishing cases before this one.