• @Buffalox
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    4 hours ago

    I couldn’t even read the whole thing, it made me too sick!
    I don’t know American regulation, but there is absolutely no way that would be a legal workplace here.
    Handling such machinery requires a certificate. Even a simple forklift does.

    • @AbidanYre
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      36 minutes ago

      Sounds like it wasn’t legal there either.

      But the place that’s going to illegally let a 16 year old use a ditch witch probably isn’t too concerned with proper safety training either.

    • FuglyDuck
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      245 hours ago

      wanna know what’s really getting to me?

      There’s a very high chance he wasn’t even being paid a proper wage (it’s required that they’re paid minimum wage. But I doubt very much that they paid higher than that.) And, there’s a non-zero chance that somebody at the school or schoolboard was taking kickbacks for the cheap labor.

      in any case, looking at their Child Labor Laws would expressly forbid this.

      Specifically in non-agro:

      • Operating forklifts or other heavy equipment such as earthmovers, tractors, backhoes, etc.
      • Loading, operating, or unloading of paper/cardboard balers or compactors
      • Jobs where respiratory protection or hearing protection is required

      and in construction:

      • Wrecking, demolition, trenching, or excavating