Executive Order

Executive Order  No. 36: (1st Series) Suspending Certain Statutory Restrictions on Employment of Minors Aged 14 or More in Harvesting Crops

Date: 09/24/1942
Issuer: Leverett Saltonstall
Revoked by: 1st Series Executive Order 98

Table of Contents

WHEREAS, abundant and valuable crops of apples, cranberries and other farm products have been grown in the Commonwealth and are now ripe for harvest; and WHEREAS, the wartime service of great numbers of the inhabitants of the Commonwealth in the armed forces of the United States and in defense and other industries has created an acute shortage of labor available for the timely harvesting of said crop; and

WHEREAS, said crops will deteriorate and spoil if they are not promptly harvested, causing great economic distress to the farmers of the Commonwealth and materially depleting the supply of food available for military and civilian consumption by the United Nations, all to the detriment of the war effort; and

WHEREAS, a substantial number of school children, fourteen years of age and over, would be available for the harvesting of said crops if certain provisions of law relating to the school attendance and employment of such children were relaxed:

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Leverett Saltonstall, Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, acting under the provisions of Acts of 1941, chapter 719, Acts of 1942, chap- ter 13, sections 2 and 3, and all other authority vested in me, do hereby issue this Order as a measure necessary and expedient for meeting the supreme emergency of the existing state of war between the United States and certain foreign countries.

1. Any school child fourteen years of age or over to whom is issued an emergency harvesting employment permit may be employed, subject to paragraph two of this Order, and in accordance with the terms and conditions contained in said permit, during the current harvesting season for the purpose of assisting with the harvesting of apples, cranberries, and other crops within the Commonwealth.

2. No person shall employ such child, or permit him to work, for more than six days in any one week, or more than eight hours in any one day, or before half past six o'clock in the morning, or after six o'clock in the evening. If the work performed by any such child in a day is not continuous, but is divided into two or more periods, the person employing such child shall so arrange such child's work that all such periods of work shall fall within a period of nine consecutive hours.

3. An emergency harvesting employment permit may be issued to any school child fourteen years of age or over by the superintendent of schools, or by a person authorized in writing by him, or where there is no superintendent of schools, by a person authorized in writing by the school committee, of the city or town in which the child resides. Such permit shall be in the form prescribed by the Commissioner of Education and shall be issued upon, and shall contain, such terms and conditions for the protection of the health and safety and education of the child as the said Commissioner may deem advisable. It may be issued for a limited period of time or for the duration of the current harvesting emergency, and it may be revoked at any time by the person authorized to issue it in accordance with rules laid down by the said Commissioner.

4. The absence from school of any child, who is employed under an emergency harvesting employment permit shall be excused. Such absence shall be excused in addition to all other absences now excused under the provisions of General Laws (Ter. Ed.) chapter 76, section 1, and shall not be counted as absence for the purpose of section 2 of said chapter 76.

5. The provisions of General Laws (Ter. Ed.) chapter 149 relating to employment permits for the employment of children under sixteen years of age shall not be applicable to children employed under emergency harvesting employment permits in accordance with the provisions of this Order. But nothing in this Order shall be deemed to affect the employment of, or right to employ, children under employment permits in accordance with the provisions of said chapter 149.

GIVEN at the Executive Chamber in Boston, this twenty-fourth day of September, in the year of Our Lord one thousand nine hundred and forty-two, and of the Independence of the United States of America, the one hundred and sixty-seventh.

By His Excellency the Governor,
LEVERETT SALTONSTALL.

FREDERIC W. COOK,
Secretary of the Commonwealth.

Contact   for No. 36: (1st Series) Suspending Certain Statutory Restrictions on Employment of Minors Aged 14 or More in Harvesting Crops

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