State fines timber company after illegally employed teen’s injury

The Washington State Department of Labor and Industries fined a timber company $114,300 for alleged violations resulting from an illegally employed teenager’s industrial injuries.

The department said a 17-year-old worker for MVR Timber Cutting Inc. was injured in May 2024 when he fractured his foot while jumping from one tree stump to another. The department said it expanded its investigation and determined that the teenager was a member of the company’s logging crew.

“Logging is an incredibly high-injury industry, and teens under the age of 18 are strictly prohibited by federal and state regulations from working in logging occupations because of that danger,” Bryan Templeton, employment standards program manager for the department, said in a statement.

The department fined the company $56,000 for allowing the teen to work in logging operations — $1,000 for each of the 56 days he allegedly worked. The department also said people under 18 can’t work in hard hat zones, which led to another $56,000 in penalties.

Finally, the department said it assessed $2,300 for violating rules that limit how many hours a person under 18 can work each day and each week.

MVR Timber Cutting has appealed the citation.