Employers must carefully observe the fine line between giving minors meaningful work experience and putting their safety, well-being and schooling opportunities at risk,” said Steven Salazar, Wage and Hour Division District Director for Atlanta. “With the widespread employment of minors in the restaurant industry, many employers must understand the laws that govern when, how often and how long minors work, and the tasks they are assigned.

The division also discovered the employer allowed 15-year-old employees to operate a deep fryer without automatic controls to lift the fry basket in and out of the hot oil or grease. The employer let the minors work during school hours, more than three hours on a school day and more than eight hours on a non-school day, more than 18 hours during a school week and before 7 a.m. Investigators found the employer allowed 19 employees – 14- and 15-year-olds – to work outside of legally allowed hours, a violation of the child labor provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The manager in Clarkesville declined comment but confirmed their restaurant committed no violations. The restaurant at 3490 Memorial Drive in Decatur had no violations. They include two locations in Lithonia, two of the company’s three locations in Decatur (4805 Flat Shoals Pkwy and 3809 North Druid Hills Road) and a location in Stone Mountain. McDreams Enterprises, Inc., in Clarkesville operates six Zaxby’s locations in DeKalb County, five of which were cited. A Zaxby’s spokesman gave a quote to WSB-TV Channel 2 in Atlanta mentioning the Clarkesville location as well, again getting it wrong. Others left them up with the misleading headline.

Multiple online web sites reported that Clarkesville’s franchise was in violation, only to later take down their posts.

The corporate owner of the five cited restaurants has an office in Clarkesville, but the headline for the news release announcing the $15,000 in fines read in part “Investigation finds child labor violations at Clarksville (sic) restaurant.” Five Zaxby’s restaurants in DeKalb County were cited by the Department of Labor for improper child labor practices, but a news release by the department erroneously claimed the Clarkesville’s Zaxby’s location was fined by the state.

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