Feds fine Beaches' Adventure Landing for working young employees too late, in forbidden jobs

The U.S. Labor Department has fined the operators of Adventure Landing in Jacksonville Beach $151,606 for violating child labor laws , the agency said this week.

“Employing children to work excessively can jeopardize their well-being and education,” Vilma Bell, director of the agency’s Wage and Hour Division in Orlando, said in a release about a consent order with the popular water park.

Adventure Landing was cited for working 14- and 15-year-old employees after a 7 p.m. weeknight quitting time (9 p.m. on Fridays during most of the year) written into federal rules for young workers.

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The company running the park, 1944 Beach Boulevard LLC, was also cited for using 14-year-olds as attendants on elevated water slides, which is illegal under the Fair Labor Standards Act .

Labor officials audited the company, which took “prompt measures to make our compliance program even more robust,” an Adventure Landing spokesperson, Mandy Bramlitt, said by email Tuesday.

The business signed a compliance agreement setting out steps to ensure labor laws are being followed and Bramlitt said that “any opportunities for improvement have been addressed and resolved.”

She said the company "is devoted to creating opportunities for families to enjoy themselves as well as providing our youth with opportunities for employment from which they learn valuable life skills that will serve them well."

The Labor Department said it fined Adventure Landing $6,199 in 2018 for violating rules about 14- and 15-year-old employees at an operation in Pineville, N.C.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Feds fine Beaches' Adventure Landing for working young employees too late, in forbidden jobs