Stella's Ice Cream was fined $321,015 after an investigation by the Department of Labor found that underage employees worked beyond legal hours, were assigned illegal tasks and tips were distributed to managers and supervisors which is illegal under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Stella's also paid nearly $80,000 in back wages and liquidated damages for 208 affected workers due to tip sharing. Stella's CEO Chad Hartley said in a statement to Idaho News 6 that the violations, "Stemmed entirely from a lack of knowledge of certain federal child labor laws, which differ from the State of Idahos regulations. While this lack of knowledge was unintentional, we fully recognize that it does not excuse the oversight."(Below is the transcript from the broadcast story)"The department conducted an investigation of Stella's Ice Cream at four of its locations," said Katherine Walum, with the Department of Labor.She tells me that after an investigation of Stella's Ice Cream they found that underage employees worked beyond legal hours and were assigned illegal tasks."The Department wants minors to be able to have work experiences and enjoy the benefits of working, but we also enforce very strict requirements. We take child labor very seriously, we enforce strict requirements for employers around the hours that minors may work and the types of machinery and equipment that minors may use," added Walum.The investigation found that tips were also distributed to managers and supervisors which is illegal under the Fair Labor Standards Act. "The tips violations resulted in back wages due to 208 workers of almost $80,000 back wages and liquidated damages," said Walum.In a statement, Stella's CEO Chad Hartley said that the idea that owners were "stealing" tips from teen employees is a completely false narrative. Instead, in an effort of fairness, their standard practice was to pool tips among all employees on shift, regardless of their position.He said none of the violations were the result of intentional wrongdoing and instead were the result of, "lack of knowledge of certain federal child labor laws, which differ from the State of Idahos regulations.""The violations indeed were found to be willful. The definition of willful under the Fair Labor Standards Act includes the reckless disregard for the requirements of the act," Walum said.The Department of Labor also found that minors were assigned to use kitchen mixers, an industrial mixer and drive vehicles over the weight limit, all of which is not allowed.Hartley said his staff used standard Kitchenaid mixers found in most home kitchens and never felt any minors were put in danger. They've since switched to lower-powered equipment that meets federal regulations.Hartley says they have changed their policies to no longer hire anyone under the age of 16 years old and no longer allow minor employees to operate equipment deemed illegal by the Department of Labor.