General Statement On The Provisions Of Section 12(A) And Section 15(A)(1) Of The Fair Labor Standards Act Of 1938, Relating To Written Assurances

§ 789.0 — Introductory statement.

(a) Section 12(a) and section 15(a)(1) of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 1 (hereinafter referred to as the (Act) contain certain prohibitions against putting into interstate or foreign commerce any goods ineligible for shipment (commonly called “hot goods”), in the production of which the child-labor or wage-hour standards of the Act were not observed. These sections were amended by the Fair Labor Standards Amendments of 1949 2 to provide, among other things, protection against these “hot goods” prohibitions with respect to purchasers “who acquired such goods for value without notice of such violation” if they did so “in good faith in reliance on” a specified “written assurance.”

(b) These amendments to the Act relating to purchasers in good faith and written assurances are for the protection of purchasers. The Act does not provide that a purchaser must secure such an assurance or that a supplier must give it. The amendments confer no express authority for the Department of Labor to require the use of these assurances or to prescribe their form or content. Whether any particular written assurance affords the statutory protection to a purchaser who acquires his goods in good faith and for value without notice of an applicable violation, is left for determination by the courts. Opinions issued by the Department of Labor on this question are advisory only and represent simply the Department's best judgment as to what the courts may hold.

(c) The interpretations contained in this general statement are confined to the statutory protection accorded these purchasers in section 12(a) and section 15(a)(1) of the Act. These interpretations, with respect to this protection of purchasers, indicate the construction of the law which the Secretary of Labor and the Administrator of the Wage and Hour Division 3 believe to be correct and which will guide them in the performance of their administrative duties under the Act unless and until they are otherwise directed by authoritative decisions of the courts or conclude, upon re-examination of an interpretation, that it is incorrect.

§ 789.1 — Statutory provisions and legislative history.

Section 12(a) of the Act provides, in part that no producer, manufacturer or dealer shall ship or deliver for shipment in commerce any goods produced in an establishment situated in the United States in or about which within 30 days prior to the removal of such goods therefrom, any oppressive child labor has been employed. Section 12(a) then provides an exception from this prohibition in the following language:

§ 789.2 — “ * * * in reliance on written assurance from the producer * * *.”

In order for a purchaser to be protected under these provisions of the Act, he must acquire the goods “in reliance on written assurance * * *.” The written assurance specified in section 15(a)(1) is one from the “producer” and in section 12(a) it is one from the “producer, manufacturer or dealer.”

(a) The purchaser stamps his purchase order with the statement that the order is valid only for goods produced in compliance with the requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act. No written statement concerning the production of the goods is made to the purchaser by the producer. The producer ships the goods which the purchaser has ordered.

(b) The purchaser stamps the above statement on his purchase order and in addition notifies the producer that shipment of the goods so ordered will be construed by the purchaser as a guarantee by the producer that the goods were produced in compliance with the Act. The producer ships the goods to the purchaser.

§ 789.3 — “* * * goods were produced in compliance with” * * * the requirements referred to.

It is apparent from the language of the statute and the statement appended to the Conference Report 5 that the written assurance referred to is one with respect to specific goods in being, assuring the purchaser that the “goods in question were produced in compliance” with the requirements referred to in sections 12(a) and 15(a) (1). A written statement made prior to production of the particular goods is not the type of assurance contemplated by the statute.

§ 789.4 — Scope and content of assurances of compliance.

A question frequently asked is whether a single written assurance of compliance will suffice for purposes both of section 12(a), relating to child labor, and section 15(a)(1), relating to wage and hour standards. A single assurance would appear to be sufficient, provided it is specific enough to meet all the conditions of the two sections. Although it is possible that the courts might find assurances referring generally to compliance “with the requirements of the Act” adequate for all purposes, the safer course to pursue would be to phrase the assurance in terms of compliance with the specific sections of the Act whose violation would bar the goods from interstate or foreign commerce.

§ 789.5 — “* * * acquired * * * in good faith * * * for value without notice * * *.”

Section 12(a) and section 15(a)(1) of the Act provide that a purchaser must acquire the goods in good faith in reliance on the specified written assurance in order to be accorded the statutory protection.