Illinois’ top prosecutor is taking a suburban McDonald’s owner to court, accusing the Lockport restaurant of leaning on very young workers for very long hours. State investigators say the franchise packed its schedule with 14 and 15 year olds, then kept some of them on the clock late into the night, past 11 p.m. and, in one case, until 1:30 a.m. The lawsuit alleges individual shifts stretched as long as 17 hours and asks a judge to hit the operator with civil penalties and an order to shut the practices down, which the state is calling systemic.
The suit, filed Thursday by Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s Workplace Rights Bureau, pulls together findings from an Illinois Department of Labor audit that covered Jan. 1 through July 8, 2023. The state alleges at least 568 violations of the Child Labor Law, and says the department assessed $2,179,000 in civil penalties on Nov. 2, 2023 that remain unpaid, according to Fox 32 Chicago.
During the audit window, investigators found that about two thirds of the restaurant’s roughly 36 workers were 14 or 15 years old, yet managers had valid employment certificates for only six of those minors. Jane Flanagan, director of the Illinois Department of Labor, called the findings “not technical violations,” arguing they put young people’s health, safety and schooling at risk, as reported by Shaw Local.
What the lawsuit says the state wants
The complaint asks a Cook County judge to impose civil penalties under Illinois’ updated Child Labor Law of 2024, which expanded how steep fines can be for violations, and to bar the defendants from continuing unlawful employment of minors. The filing also seeks to have penalty money split evenly among affected teens, in addition to amounts that would go into a state fund, according to Fox 32 Chicago.
Next steps and local fallout
The case is set for a May 4 hearing in Cook County, where the attorney general plans to ask for an injunction and monetary penalties. Raoul’s office has framed the suit as an effort to hold the franchisee accountable and recover money for the kids who worked the shifts, according to Prism News. Requests for comment from the franchise operator’s attorney and from McDonald’s corporate were not immediately returned, a report from Fox 32 Chicago states. That outlet also points to the complaint and the state audit as the backbone of the case…