48-302. Children under sixteen; employment certificate required; enforcement of section.

No child under sixteen years of age shall be employed or permitted or suffered to work in any employment as defined in section 48-301 within this state unless the person or corporation employing the child procures and keeps on file, accessible to the attendance officers and to the Department of Labor and its assistants and employees, an employment certificate as prescribed in section 48-304 and keeps two complete lists of all such children employed in the building, one on file and one conspicuously posted near the principal entrance of the building in which such children are employed. Upon the termination of the employment of a child so registered whose certificate is so filed, such certificate shall be transmitted by the employer to the person authorizing the certificate pursuant to section 48-303 and shall be turned over to the child named upon demand. Any attendance officer or the Department of Labor or its assistants and employees may demand that any employer in whose place of business a child apparently under the age of sixteen years is employed or permitted or suffered to work, and whose employment certificate is not then filed as required by this section, either furnish within ten days satisfactory evidence that such child is in fact over sixteen years of age or cease to employ or permit or suffer such child to work in such place of business. The same evidence of the age of such child may be required from such employer as is required on the issuance of an employment certificate as provided in section 48-304, and the employer furnishing such evidence shall not be required to furnish any further evidence of the age of the child. In case such employer fails to produce and deliver to the attendance officer or the Commissioner of Labor within ten days after demand such evidence of the age of any child as may be required under the provisions of section 48-304 and continues to employ such child or permit or suffer such child to work in such place of business, proof of the giving of such notice and of such failure to produce and file such evidence shall be prima facie evidence in any prosecution brought for a violation of this section that such child is under sixteen years of age and is unlawfully employed.

Source

Annotations

Employer's failure to procure certificate is not proximate cause of injury; and is material only to sustain minor's right of action. Benner v. Evans Laundry Co., 117 Neb. 701, 222 N.W. 630 (1929).

Main purpose of requiring certificate is educational. Benner v. Evans Laundry Co., 117 Neb. 701, 222 N.W. 630 (1929); Rookstool v. Cudahy Packing Co., 100 Neb. 851, 161 N.W. 583 (1917).

This section has no application where pleadings and trial of case were on theory of common-law liability of employer. Rookstool v. Cudahy Packing Co., 100 Neb. 851, 161 N.W. 583 (1917).

If unlawful employment is cause of injury, master is liable. Hankins v. Reimers, 86 Neb. 307, 125 N.W. 516 (1910).