34:15-10. Employment of minors

34:15-10. In the employment of minors, this article shall be presumed to apply unless the notice be given by or to the parent or guardian of the minor. If the injured employee at the time of the accident or compensable occupational disease is a minor under 14 years of age employed in violation of the labor law or a minor between 14 and 18 years of age employed, permitted or suffered to work without an employment certificate or special permit if required by law or at an occupation prohibited at the minor's age by law, a compensation or death benefit shall be payable to the employee or his dependents which shall be double the amount payable under the schedules provided in R.S.34:15-12 and R.S.34:15-13.

The possession of such duly issued employment certificate shall be conclusive evidence for an employer that the minor has reached the age certified to therein and no extra compensation shall be payable to any minor engaged in an employment allowed by the law for the age and sex certified to in such certificate. If the certificate presented by the employee as one issued to that person shall have been really issued to another child and the real age of the employee shall be such that employment in any capacity or in the particular capacity the employee was employed by the employer was prohibited and if the employer shall show to the satisfaction of the Division of Workers' Compensation that the employer accepted the certificate in good faith as having been issued to the employee and could not have, despite reasonable diligence, discovered the fraud, in such event no extra compensation shall be paid to the employee illegally employed.

The employer alone and not the insurance carrier shall be liable for the extra compensation or death benefit which is over and above the amount of the compensation or death benefit provided under R.S.34:15-12 or R.S.34:15-13. Any provision in an insurance policy undertaking to relieve an employer from the liability for the extra compensation or extra death benefit shall be void.

Nothing in this chapter contained shall deprive an infant under the age of 18 years of the right or rights now existing to recover damages in a common law or other appropriate action or proceeding for injuries received by reason of the negligence of his or her master.

Nothing in this section regarding the payment of a compensation or death benefit in double the amount payable under the schedules provided in R.S.34:15-12 and R.S.34:15-13 shall apply to: members of a junior firemen's auxiliary established pursuant to N.J.S.40A:14-95; employees, of the age of 18 years or under, employed in summer camps operated by the Boy Scouts of America, the Girl Scouts of America, the Knights of Columbus, the Young Men's Christian Association, the Young Women's Christian Association, the Young Men's Hebrew Association, or any domestic corporation organized solely for religious or charitable purposes; student-learners employed in a cooperative vocational education program approved by the State Board of Education; persons, 18 years of age or younger, participating, under the supervision of the Palisades Interstate Park Commission, in volunteer programs in that part of the Palisades Interstate Park located in New Jersey; or persons, 18 years of age or younger, doing volunteer work for the Division of Parks and Forestry, the Division of Fish, Game and Wildlife, or the New Jersey Natural Lands Trust, as authorized by the Commissioner of Environmental Protection, or for the New Jersey Historic Trust.

Amended 1940, c.176; 1945, c.74, s.4; 1956, c.141, s.1; 1971, c.416; 1979, c.283, s.4; 1987, c.259, s.2; 1997, c.199, s.1; 1999, c.152, s.50.