_Factories and Workshops._--The act of 1878 remained until 1901,
although much had been meanwhile superimposed, a monument to the efforts
of the great factory reformers of the first half of the 19th century,
and the general groundwork of safety for workers in factories and
workshops in the main divisions of sanitation, security against
accidents, physical fitness of workers, general limitation of hours and
times of employment for young workers and women. The act of 1901, which
came into force 1st January 1902 (and became the principal act), was an
amending as well as a consolidating act. Comparison of the two acts
shows, however, that, in spite of the advantages of further
consolidation and helpful changes in arrangement of sections and
important additions which tend towards a specialized hygiene for factory
life, the fundamental features of the law as fought out in the 19th
century remain undisturbed. So far as the law has altered in character,
it has done so chiefly by gradual development of certain sanitary
features, originally subordinate, and by strengthening provision for
security against accidents and not by retreat from its earlier aims. At
the same time a basis for possible new developments can be seen in the
protection of "outworkers" as well as factory workers against fraudulent
or defective particulars of piece-work rates of wages.
Later acts directly and indirectly affecting the law are certain acts of
1903, 1906, 1907, to be touched on presently.
Additions to act of 1878.
The act of 1878, in a series of acts from 1883 to 1895, received
striking additions, based (1) on the experience gained in other branches
of protective legislation, e.g. development of the method of regulation
of dangerous trades by "special rules" and administrative inquiry into
accidents under Coal Mines Acts; (2) on the findings of royal
commissions and parliamentary inquiries, e.g. increased control of
"outwork" and domestic workshops, and limitation of "overtime"; (3) on
the development of administrative machinery for enforcing the more
modern law relating to public health, e.g. transference of
administration of sanitary provisions in workshops to the local sanitary
authorities; (4) on the trade-union demand for means for securing
trustworthy records of wage-contracts between employer and workman, e.g.
the section requiring particulars of work and wages for piece-workers.
The first additions to the act of 1878 were, however, almost purely
attempts to deal more adequately than had been attempted in the code of
1878 with certain striking instances of trades injurious to health. Thus
the Factory and Workshop Act of 1883 provided that white-lead factories
should not be carried on without a certificate of conformity with
certain conditions, and also made provision for special rules, on lines
later superseded by those laid down in the act of 1891, applicable to
any employment in a factory or workshop certified as dangerous or
injurious by the secretary of state. The act of 1883 also dealt with
sanitary conditions in bakehouses. Certain definitions and explanations
of previous enactments touching overtime and employment of a child in
any factory or workshop were also included in the act. A class of
factories in which excessive heat and humidity seriously affected the
health of operatives was next dealt with in the Cotton Cloth Factories
Act 1889. This provided for special notice to the chief inspector from
all occupiers of cotton cloth factories (i.e. any room, shed, or
workshop or part thereof in which weaving of cotton cloth is carried on)
who intend to produce humidity by artificial means; regulated both
temperature of workrooms and amount of moisture in the atmosphere, and
provided for tests and records of the same; and fixed a standard minimum
volume of fresh air (600 cub. ft.) to be admitted in every hour for
every person employed in the factory. Power was retained for the
secretary of state to modify by order the standard for the maximum limit
of humidity of the atmosphere at any given temperature. A short act in
1870 extended this power to other measures for the protection of
health.
The special measures from 1878 to 1889 gave valuable precedents for
further developments of special hygiene in factory life, but the next
advance in the Factory and Workshop Act 1891, following the House of
Lords Committee on the sweating system and the Berlin International
Labour Conference, extended over much wider ground. Its principal
objects were: (a) to render administration of the law relating to
workshops more efficient, particularly as regards sanitation; with this
end in view it made the primary controlling authority for sanitary
matters in workshops the local sanitary authority (now the district
council), acting by their officers, and giving them the powers of the
less numerous body of factory inspectors, while at the same time the
provisions of the Public Health Acts replaced in workshops the very
similar sanitary provisions of the Factory Acts; (b) to provide for
greater security against accidents and more efficient fencing of
machinery in factories; (c) to extend the method of regulation of
unhealthy or dangerous occupations by application of special rules and
requirements to any incident of employment (other than in a domestic
workshop) certified by the secretary of state to be dangerous or
injurious to health or dangerous to life or limb; (d) to raise the age
of employment of children and restrict the employment of women
immediately after childbirth; (e) to require particulars of rate of
wages to be given with work to piece-workers in certain branches of the
textile industries; (f) to amend the act of 1878 in various subsidiary
ways, with the view of improving the administration of its principles,
e.g. by increasing the means of checking the amount of overtime worked,
empowering inspectors to enter workplaces used as dwellings without a
justice's warrant, and the imposition of minimum penalties in certain
cases. On this act followed four years of greatly accelerated
administrative activity. No fewer than sixteen trades were scheduled by
the secretary of state as dangerous to health. The manner of preparing
and establishing suitable rules was greatly modified by the act of 1901
and will be dealt with in that connexion.
The Factory and Workshop Act 1895 followed thus on a period of exercise
of new powers of administrative regulation (the period being also that
during which the Royal Commission on Labour made its wide survey of
industrial conditions), and after two successive annual reports of the
chief inspector of factories had embodied reports and recommendations
from the women inspectors, who in 1893 were first added to the
inspectorate. Again, the chief features of an even wider legislative
effort than that of 1891 were the increased stringency and definiteness
of the measures for securing hygienic and safe conditions of work. Some
of these measures, however, involved new principles, as in the provision
for the prohibition of the use of a dangerous machine or structure by
the order of a magistrate's court, and the power to include in the
special rules drawn up in pursuance of section 8 of the act of 1891, the
prohibition of the employment of any class of persons, or the limitation
of the period of employment of any class of persons in any process
scheduled by order of the secretary of state. These last two powers have
both been exercised, and with the exercise of the latter passed away,
without opposition, the absolute freedom of the employer of the adult
male labourer to carry on his manufacture without legislative limitation
of the hours of labour. Second only in significance to these new
developments was the addition, for the first time since 1867, of new
classes of workplaces not covered by the general definitions in section
93 of the Consolidating Act of 1878, viz.: (a) laundries (with special
conditions as to hours, &c.); (b) docks, wharves, quays, warehouses and
premises on which machinery worked by power is temporarily used for the
purpose of the construction of a building or any structural work in
connexion with the building (for the purpose only of obtaining security
against accidents). Other entirely new provisions in the act of 1895,
later strengthened by the act of 1901, were the requirement of a
reasonable temperature in workrooms, the requirement of lavatories for
the use of persons employed in any department where poisonous substances
are used, the obligation on occupiers and medical practitioners to
report cases of industrial poisoning; and the penalties imposed on an
employer wilfully allowing wearing apparel to be made, cleaned or
repaired in a dwelling-house where an inmate is suffering from
infectious disease. Another provision empowered the secretary of state
to specify classes of outwork and areas with a view to the regulation of
the sanitary condition of premises in which outworkers are employed.
Owing to the conditions attached to its exercise, no case was found in
which this power could come into operation, and the act of 1901 deals
with the matter on new lines. The requirement of annual returns from
occupiers of persons employed, and the competency of the person charged
with infringing the act to give evidence in his defence, were important
new provisions, as was also the adoption of the powers to direct a
formal investigation of any accident on the lines laid down in section
45 of the Coal Mines Regulation Act 1887. Other sections, relating to
sanitation and safety, were developments of previous regulations, e.g.
the fixing of a standard of overcrowding, provision of sanitary
accommodation separate for each sex where the standard of the Public
Health Act Amendment Act of 1890 had not been adopted by the competent
local sanitary authority, power to order a fan or other mechanical means
to carry off injurious gas, vapour or other impurity (the previous power
covering only dust). The fencing of machinery and definition of
accidents were made more precise, young persons were prohibited from
cleaning dangerous machinery, and additional safeguards against risk of
injury by fire or panic were introduced. On the question of employment
the foremost amendments lay in the almost complete prohibition of
overtime for young persons, and the restriction of the power of an
employer to employ protected persons outside his factory or workshop on
the same day that he had employed them in the factory or workshop. Under
the head of particulars of work and wages to piece-workers an important
new power, highly valued by the workers, was given to apply the
principle with the necessary modifications by order of the secretary of
state to industries other than textile and to outworkers as well as to
those employed inside factories and workshops.
The act of 1901.
In 1899 an indirect modification of the limitation to employment of
children was effected by the Elementary Education Amendment Act, which,
by raising from eleven to twelve the minimum age at which a child may,
by the by-laws of a local authority, obtain total or partial exemption
from the obligation to attend school, made it unlawful for an occupier
to take into employment any child under twelve in such a manner as to
prevent full-time attendance at school. The age of employment became
generally thereby the same as it has been for employment at a mine above
ground since 1887. The act of 1901 made the prohibition of employment of
a child under twelve in a factory or workshop direct and absolute. Under
the divisions of sanitation, safety, fitness for employment, special
regulation of dangerous trades, special control of bakehouses,
exceptional treatment of creameries, new methods of dealing with home
work and outworkers, important additions were made to the general law by
the act of 1901, as also in regulations for strengthened administrative
control. New general sanitary provisions were those prescribing: (a)
ventilation _per se_ for every workroom, and empowering the secretary of
state to fix a standard of sufficient ventilation; (b) drainage of wet
floors; (c) the power of the secretary of state to define in certain
cases what shall constitute sufficient and suitable sanitary
accommodation. New safety provisions were those relating to--(a)
Examination and report on steam boilers; (b) prohibition of employment
of a child in cleaning below machinery in motion; (c) power of the
district council to make by-laws for escape in case of fire. The most
important administrative alterations were: (a) a justice engaged in the
same trade as, or being officer of an association of persons engaged in
the same trade as, a person charged with an offence may not act at the
hearing and determination of the charge; (b) ordinary supervision of
sanitary conditions under which outwork is carried on was transferred to
the district council, power being reserved to the Home Office to
intervene in case of neglect or default by any district council.
Acts of 1903, 1906, 1907.
The Employment of Children Act 1903, while primarily providing for
industries outside the scope of the Factory Act, incidentally secured
that children employed as half-timers should not also be employed in
other occupations. The Notice of Accidents Act 1906 amended the whole
system of notification of accidents, simultaneously in mines, quarries,
factories and workshops, and will be set out in following paragraphs.
The Factory and Workshop Act of 1907 amended the law in respect of
laundries by generally applying the provisions of 1901 to trade
laundries while granting them choice of new exceptional periods, and by
extending the provisions of the act (with certain powers to the Home
Office by Orders laid before parliament to allow variations) to
institution laundries carried on for charitable or reformatory purposes.
The Employment of Women Act 1907 repealed an exemption in the act of
1901 (and earlier acts) relating to employment of women in flax scutch
mills, thus bringing this employment under the ordinary provisions as to
period of employment.
The following paragraphs aim at presenting an idea of the scope of the
modified and amended law, as a whole, adding where clearly necessary
reference to the effect of acts, which ceased to apply after the 31st of
December 1901:--
Definitions.
The workplaces to which the act applies are, first, "factories" and
"workshops"; secondly, laundries, docks, wharves, &c., enumerated
above as introduced and regulated partially only by the act of 1895
and subsequent acts. Apart from this secondary list, and having regard
to workplaces which remain undefined by the law, the act may broadly
be said to apply to premises, rooms or places in which manual labour,
with or without the aid of mechanical power, is exercised for gain in
or incidental to the making, altering, repairing, ornamenting,
washing, cleaning or finishing or adapting for sale of any article or
part of any article. If steam, water or other mechanical power is used
in aid of the manufacturing process, the workplace is a factory; if
not, it is a workshop. There is, however, a list of eighteen classes
of works (brought under the factory law for reasons of safety, &c.,
before workshops generally were regulated) which are defined as
factories whether power is used in them or not. Factories are, again,
subdivided into textile and non-textile: they are textile if the
machinery is employed in preparing, manufacturing or finishing cotton,
wool, hair, silk, flax, hemp, jute, tow, China grass, cocoanut fibre
or other like material either separately or mixed together, or mixed
with any other material, or any fabric made thereof; all other
factories are non-textile. The distinction turns on the historical
origin of factory regulation and the regulations in textile factories
remain in some respects slightly more stringent than in the
non-textile factories and workshops, though the general provisions are
almost the same. Three special classes of workshops have for certain
purposes to be distinguished from ordinary workshops, which include
tenement workshops: (a) Domestic workshops, i.e. any private house,
room or place, which, though used as a dwelling, is by reason of the
work carried on there a workshop, and in which the only persons
employed are members of the same family, dwelling there alone--in
these women's hours are unrestricted; (b) Women's workshops, in which
neither children nor young persons are employed--in these a more
elastic arrangement of hours is permissible than in ordinary
workshops; (c) Workshops in which men only are employed--these come
under the same general regulations in regard to sanitation as other
workshops, also under the provisions of the Factory Act as regards
security, and, if certified by the secretary of state, may be brought
under special regulations. They are otherwise outside the scope of the
act of 1901.
The person to whom the regulations apply in the above-defined
workplaces are _children_, i.e. persons between the ages of twelve and
fourteen, _young persons_, i.e. boys or girls between the ages of
fourteen (or if an educational certificate has been obtained,
thirteen) and eighteen years of age, and _women_, i.e. females above
the age of eighteen; these are all "protected" persons to whom the
general provisions of the act, inclusive of the regulation of hours
and times of employment, apply. To adult men generally those
provisions broadly only apply which are aimed at securing sanitation
and safety in the conduct of the manufacturing process.
The person generally responsible for observance of the provisions of
the law, whether these relate to health, safety, limitation of the
hours of labour or other matters, is the _occupier_ (a term undefined
in the act) of the factory, workshop or laundry. There are, however,
limits to his responsibility: (a) generally, where the occupier has
used due diligence to enforce the execution of the act, and can show
that another person, whether agent, servant, workman or other person,
is the real offender; (b) specially in a factory the sections relating
to employment of protected persons, where the owner or hirer of a
machine or implement driven by mechanical power is some person other
than the occupier of the factory, the owner or hirer, so far as
respects any offence against the act committed in relation to a person
who is employed in connexion with the machine or implement, and is in
the employment or pay of the owner or hirer, shall be deemed to be the
occupier of the factory; (c) for the one purpose of reporting
accidents, the actual employer of the person injured in any factory or
workshop is bound under penalty immediately to report the same to the
occupier; (d) so far as relates to sanitary conditions, fencing of
machinery, affixing of notices in _tenement_ factories, the _owner_
(as defined by the Public Health Act 1875), generally speaking, takes
the place of the occupier.
Employment in a factory or workshop includes work whether for wages or
not: (a) in a manufacturing process or handicraft, (b) in cleaning any
place used for the same, (c) in cleaning or oiling any part of the
machinery, (d) any work whatsoever incidental to the process or
handicraft, or connected with the article made. Persons found in any
part of the factory or workshop, where machinery is used or
manufacture carried on, except at meal-times, or when machinery is
stopped, are deemed to be employed until the contrary is proved. The
act, however, does not apply to employment for the sole purpose of
repairing the premises or machinery, nor to the process of preserving
and curing fish immediately upon its arrival in the fishing boats in
order to prevent the fish from being destroyed or spoiled, nor to the
process of cleaning and preparing fruit so far as is necessary to
prevent it from spoiling during the months of June, July, August and
September. Certain light handicrafts carried on by a family only in a
private house or room at irregular intervals are also outside the
scope of the act.
Sanitation.
The foremost provisions are those relating to the sanitary condition
of the workplaces and the general security of every class of worker.
Every factory must be kept in a cleanly condition, free from noxious
effluvia, ventilated in such a manner as to render harmless, so far as
practicable, gases, vapours, dust or other impurities generated in the
manufacture; must be provided with sufficient and suitable sanitary
conveniences separate for the sexes; must not be overcrowded (not less
than 250 cubic ft. during the day, 400 during overtime, for each
worker). In these matters the law of public health takes in workshops
the place of the Factory Act, the requirements being substantially the
same. Although, however, primarily the officers of the district
council enforce the sanitary provisions in workshops, the government
factory inspectors may give notice of any defect in them to the
district council in whose district they are situate; and if
proceedings are not taken within one month by the latter, the factory
inspector may act in default and recover expenses from the district
council. This power does not extend to domestic workshops which are
under the law relating to public health so far as general sanitation
is concerned. General powers are reserved to the secretary of state,
where he is satisfied that the Factory Act or law relating to public
health as regards workplaces has not been carried out by any district
council, to authorize a factory inspector during a period named in his
order to act instead of the district council. Other general sanitary
provisions administered by the government inspectors are the
requirement in factories and workshops of washing conveniences where
poisonous substances are used; adequate measures for securing and
maintaining a reasonable temperature of such a kind as will not
interfere with the purity of the air in each room in which any person
is employed; maintenance of sufficient means of ventilation in every
room in a factory or workshop (in conformity with such standard as may
be prescribed by order of the secretary of state); provision of a fan
to carry off injurious dust, gas or other impurity, and prevent their
inhalation in any factory or workshop; drainage of floors where wet
processes are carried on. For laundries and bakehouses there are
further sanitary regulations; e.g. in laundries all stoves for heating
irons shall be sufficiently separated from any ironing-room or
ironing-table, and the floors shall be "drained in such a manner as
will allow the water to flow off freely"; and in bakehouses a cistern
supplying water to a bakehouse must be quite separate from that
supplying water to a water-closet, and the latter may not communicate
directly with the bakehouse. Use of underground bakehouses (i.e. a
baking room with floor more than 3 ft. below the ground adjoining) is
prohibited, except where already used at the passing of the act;
further, in these cases, after 1st January 1904, a certificate as to
suitability in light, ventilation, &c., must be obtained from the
district council. In other trades certified by the secretary of state
further sanitary regulations may be made to increase security for
health by special rules to be presently touched on. The secretary of
state may also make sanitary requirements a condition of granting such
exceptions to the general law as he is empowered to grant. In
factories, as distinct from workshops, a periodical lime washing (or
washing with hot water and soap where paint and varnish have been
used) of all inside walls and ceilings once at least in every fourteen
months is generally required (in bakehouses once in six months). As
regards sufficiency and suitability of sanitary accommodation, the
standards determined by order of the secretary of state shall be
observed in the districts to which it is made applicable. An order was
made called the Sanitary Accommodation Order, on the 4th of February
1903, the definitions and standards in which have also been widely
adopted by local sanitary authorities in districts where the Order
itself has no legal force, the local authority having parallel power
under the Public Health Act of 1890.
Security and accidents.
Security in the use of machinery is provided for by precautions as
regards the cleaning of machinery in motion and working between the
fixed and traversing parts of self-acting machines driven by power, by
fencing of machinery, and by empowering inspectors to obtain an order
from a court of summary jurisdiction to prohibit the use, temporarily
or absolutely, of machinery, ways, works or plant, including use of a
steam boiler, which cannot be used without danger to life and limb.
Every hoist and fly-wheel directly connected with mechanical power,
and every part of a water-wheel or engine worked by mechanical power,
and every wheel race, must be fenced, whatever its position, and every
part of mill-gearing or dangerous machinery must either be fenced or
be in such position that it is as safe as if fenced. No protected
persons may clean any part of mill-gearing in motion, and children may
further not clean any part of or below manufacturing machinery in
motion by aid of mechanical power; young persons further may not clean
any machinery if the inspector notifies it to the occupier as
dangerous. Security as regards the use of dangerous premises is
provided for by empowering courts of summary jurisdiction, on the
application of an inspector, to prohibit their use until the danger
has been removed. The district council, or, in London, the county
council, or in case of their default the factory inspector, can
require certain provisions for escape in case of fire in factories and
workshops in which more than forty persons are employed; special
powers to make by-laws for means of escape from fire in any factory or
workshop are, in addition to any powers for prevention of fire that
they possess, given to every district council, in London to the county
council. The means of escape must be kept free from obstruction.
Provisions are made for doors to open outwards in each room in which
more than ten persons are employed, and to prevent the locking,
bolting or fastening of doors so that they cannot easily be opened
from inside when any person is employed or at meals inside the
workplace. Further, provisions for security may be provided in special
regulations. Every boiler for generating steam in a factory or
workshop or place where the act applies must have a proper safety
valve, a steam gauge, and a water gauge, and every such boiler, valve
and gauge must be maintained in proper condition. Examination by a
competent person must take place at least once in every fourteen
months. The occupier of any factory or workshop may be liable for
penal compensation not exceeding £100 in case of injury or death due
to neglect of any provision or special rule, the whole or any part of
which may be applied for the benefit of the injured person or his
family, as the secretary of state determines. When a death has
occurred by accident in a factory or workshop, the coroner must advise
the factory inspector for the district of the place and time of the
inquest. The secretary of state may order a formal investigation of
the circumstances of any accident as in the case of mines. Careful and
detailed provisions are made for the reporting by occupiers to
inspectors, and entry in the registers at factories and workshops of
accidents which occur in a factory or workshop and (a) cause loss of
life to a person employed there, or (b) are due to machinery moved by
mechanical power, molten metal, hot liquid, explosion, escape of gas
or steam, electricity, so disabling any person employed in the factory
or workshop as to cause him to be absent throughout at least one whole
day from his ordinary work, (c) are due to any other special cause
which the secretary of state may determine, (d) not falling under the
previous heads and yet cause disablement for more than seven days'
ordinary work to any person working in the factory or workshop. In the
case of (a) or (b) notice has also to be sent to the certifying
surgeon by the occupier. Cases of lead, phosphorus, arsenical and
mercurial poisoning, or anthrax, contracted in any factory or workshop
must similarly be reported and registered by the occupier, and the
duty of reporting these cases is also laid on medical practitioners
under whose observation they come. The list of classes of poisoning
can be extended by the secretary of state's order.
Physical fitness of workers.
Certificates of physical fitness for employment must be obtained by
the occupier from the certifying surgeon for the district for all
persons under sixteen years of age employed in a factory, and in any
class of workshops to which the requirement has been extended by order
of the secretary of state, and an inspector may suspend any such
persons for re-examination in a factory, or for examination in a
workshop, when "disease or bodily infirmity" unfits the person, in his
opinion, for the work of the place. The certifying surgeon may examine
the process as well as the person submitted, and may qualify the
certificate he grants by conditions as to the work on which the person
is fit to be employed. An occupier of a factory or workshop or laundry
shall not knowingly allow a woman to be employed therein within four
weeks after childbirth.
Hours of protected persons.
The employment of children, young persons and women is regulated as
regards ordinary and exceptional hours of work, ordinary and
exceptional meal-times, length of spells and holidays. The outside
limits of ordinary periods of employment and holidays are, broadly,
the same for textile factories as for non-textile factories and
workshops; the main difference lies in the requirement of not less
than a total two hours' interval for meals out of the twelve, and a
limit of four and a half hours for any spell of work, a longer weekly
half holiday, and a prohibition of overtime, in textile factories, as
compared with a total one and a half hours' interval for meals and a
limit of five hours for spells and (conditional) permission of
overtime in non-textile factories. The hours of work must be
specified, and from Monday to Friday may be between 6 A.M. and 6 P.M.,
or 7 A.M. to 7 P.M.; in non-textile factories and workshops the hours
also may be taken between 8 A.M. and 8 P.M. or by order of the
secretary of state for special industries 9 A.M. to 9 P.M. Between
these outside limits, with the proviso that meal-times must be fixed
and limits as to spells observed, women and young persons may be
employed the full time, children on the contrary only half time, on
alternate days, or in alternate sets attending school half time
regularly. On Saturdays, in textile factories in which the period
commences at 6 A.M. all manufacturing work must cease at 12 if not
less than one hour is given for meals, or 11.30 if less than one hour
is given for meals (half an hour extra allowed for cleaning), and in
non-textile factories and workshops at 2 P.M., 3 P.M. or 4 P.M.,
according as the hour of beginning is 6 A.M., 7 A.M. or 8 A.M. In
"domestic workshops" the total number of hours for young persons and
children must not exceed those allowed in ordinary workshops, but the
outside limits for beginning and ending are wider; and the case is
similar as regards hours of women in "women's workshops." Employment
outside a factory or workshop in the business of the same is limited
in a manner similar to that laid down in the Shop Hours Act, to be
touched on presently. Overtime in certain classes of factories,
workshops and warehouses attached to them is permitted, under
conditions specified in the acts, for women, to meet seasonal or
unforeseen pressure of business, or where goods of a perishable nature
are dealt with, for young persons only in a very limited degree in
factories liable to stoppage for drought or flood, or for an
unfinished process. These and other cases of exceptional working are
under minute and careful administrative regulations. Broadly these
same regulations as to exceptional overtime may apply in _laundries_
but the act of 1907 granted to laundries not merely ancillary to the
manufacture carried on in a factory or workshop (e.g. shirt and collar
factories), additional power to fix different periods of employment
for different days of the week, and to make use of one or other of two
exceptional methods of arranging the daily periods so as to permit of
periods of different length on different days; these exceptional
periods cannot be worked in addition to overtime permissible under the
general law. Laundries carried on in connexion with charitable or
reformatory institutions were brought in 1907 within the scope of the
law, but special schemes for regulation as to hours, meals, holidays,
&c., may be submitted by the managers to the secretary of state, who
is empowered to approve them if he is satisfied that they are not less
favourable than the corresponding provisions of the principal act;
such schemes shall be laid as soon as possible before both Houses of
Parliament.
Dangerous and unhealthy industries.
Night work is allowed in certain specified industries, under
conditions, for male young persons, but for no other workers under
eighteen, and overtime for women may never be later than 10 P.M. or
before 6 A.M. Sunday work is prohibited except, under conditions, for
Jews; and in factories, workshops and laundries six holidays
(generally the Bank holidays) must be allowed in the year. In
creameries in which women and young persons are employed the secretary
of state may by special order vary the beginning and end of the daily
period of employment, and allow employment for not more than three
hours on Sundays and holidays.
The general provisions of the act may be supplemented where specially
dangerous or unhealthy trades are carried on, by special regulations.
This was provided for in the law in force until 31st December 1901, as
in the existing principal act, and the power to establish rules had
been exercised between 1892 and 1901 in twenty-two trades or processes
where injury arose either from handling of dangerous substances, such
as lead and lead compounds, phosphorus, arsenic or various chemicals,
or where there is inhalation of irritant dust or noxious fumes, or
where there is danger of explosion or infection of anthrax. Before the
rule could be drawn up under the acts of 1891 to 1895, the secretary
of state had to certify that in the particular case or class of cases
in question (e.g. process or machinery), there was, in his opinion,
danger to life or limb or risk of injury to health; thereupon the
chief inspector might propose to the occupier of the factory or
workshop such special rules or measures as he thought necessary to
meet the circumstances. The occupier might object or propose
modifications, but if he did not the rules became binding in
twenty-one days; if he objected, and the secretary of state did not
assent to any proposed modification, the matters in difference had to
be referred to arbitration, the award in which finally settled the
rules or requirement to be observed. In November 1901, in the case of
the earthenware and china industry, the last arbitration of the kind
was opened and was finally concluded in 1903. The parties to the
arbitration were the chief inspector, on behalf of the secretary of
state, and the occupier or occupiers, but the workmen interested might
be and were represented on the arbitration. In the establishing of the
twenty-two sets of existing special rules only thrice has arbitration
been resorted to, and only on two of these occasions were workmen
represented. The provisions as to the arbitration were laid down in
the first schedule to the Act of 1891, and were similar to those under
the Coal Mines Regulation Acts. Many of these codes have still the
force of law and will continue until in due course revised under the
amended procedure of the act of 1901. They might not only regulate
conditions of employment, but also restrict or prohibit employment of
any class of workers; where such restriction or prohibition affected
adult workers the rules had to be laid for forty days before both
Houses of Parliament before coming into operation. The obligation to
observe the rules in detail lies on workers as well as on occupiers,
and the section in the act of 1891 providing a penalty for
non-observance was drafted, as in the case of the mines, so as to
provide for a simultaneous fine for each (not exceeding two pounds for
the worker, not exceeding ten pounds for the employer).
The provisions as to special regulations of the act of 1901 touch
primarily the method of procedure for making the regulations, but they
also covered for the first time domestic workshops and added a power
as to the kind of regulations that may be made; further, they
strengthened the sanction for observance of any rules that may be
established, by placing the occupier in the same general position as
regards penalty for non-observance as in other matters under the act.
On the certificate of the secretary of state that any manufacture,
machinery, plant, process or manual labour used in factories or
workshops is dangerous or injurious to life, health or limb, such
regulations as appear to the secretary of state to meet the necessity
of the case may be made by him after he has duly published notice: (1)
of his intention; (2) of the place where copies of the draft
regulations can be obtained; and (3) of the time during which
objections to them can be made by persons affected. The secretary of
state may modify the regulations to meet the objections made. If not,
unless the objection is withdrawn or appears to him frivolous, he
shall, before making the regulations, appoint a competent person to
hold a public inquiry with regard to the draft regulations and to
report to him thereon. The inquiry is to be made under such rules as
the secretary of state may lay down, and when the regulations are
made, they must be laid as soon as possible before parliament. Either
House may annul these regulations or any of them, without prejudice to
the power of the secretary of state to make new regulations. The
regulations may apply to all factories or workshops in which the
certified manufacture, process, &c., is used, or to a specified class.
They may, among other things, (a) prohibit or limit employment of any
person or class of persons; (b) prohibit, limit, or control use of any
material or process; (c) modify or extend special regulations
contained in the Act. Regulations have been established among others
in the following trades and processes: felt hat-making where any
inflammable solvent is used; file-cutting by hand; manufacture of
electric accumulators; docks, processes of loading, unloading, &c.;
tar distilling; factories in which self-acting mules are used; use of
locomotives; spinning and weaving of flax, hemp and jute; manufacture
of paints and colours; heading of yarn dyed by means of lead
compounds.
Measures and particulars to piece-workers.
Although the Factory and Workshop Acts have not directly regulated
wages, they have made certain provision for securing to the worker
that the amount agreed upon shall be received: (a) by extending every
act in force relating to the inspection of weights, measures and
weighing machines for use in the sale of goods to those used in a
factory or workshop for checking or ascertaining the wages of persons
employed; (b) by ensuring that piece-workers in the textile trades
(and other trades specified by the secretary of state) shall receive,
before commencing any piece of work, clear particulars of the wages
applicable to the work to be done and of the work to which that rate
is to be applied. Unless the particulars of work are ascertainable by
an automatic indicator, they must be given to textile workers in
writing, and in the case of weavers in the cotton, worsted and woollen
trades the particulars of wages must be supplied separately to each
worker, and also shown on a placard in a conspicuous position. In
other textile processes, it is sufficient to furnish the particulars
separately to each worker. The secretary of state has used his powers
to extend this protection to non-textile workers, with suitable
modifications, in various hardware industries, including pen-making,
locks, chains, in wholesale tailoring and making of wearing apparel,
in fustian cutting, umbrella-making, brush-making and a number of
other piece-work trades. He further has in most of these and other
trades used his power to extend this protection to outworkers.
Administration.
With a view to efficient administration of the act (a) certain notices
have to be conspicuously exhibited at the factory or workshop, (b)
registers and lists kept, and (c) notices sent to the inspector by the
occupier. Among the first the most important are the prescribed
abstract of the act, the names and addresses of the inspector and
certifying surgeon, the period of employment, and specified meal-times
(which may not be changed without fresh notice to the inspector), the
air space and number of persons who may legally be employed in each
room, and prescribed particulars of exceptional employment; among the
second are the general registers of children and young persons
employed, of accidents, of lime-washing, of overtime, and lists of
outworkers; among the third are the notice of beginning to occupy a
factory or workshop, which the occupier must send within one month,
report of overtime employment, notice of accident, poisoning or
anthrax, and returns of persons employed, with such other particulars
as may be prescribed. These must be sent to the chief inspector at
intervals of not less than one and not more than three years, as may
be directed by the secretary of state.
The secretary of state for the Home Department controls the
administration of the acts, appoints the inspectors referred to in the
acts, assigns to them their duties, and regulates the manner and cases
in which they are to exercise the powers of inspectors. The act,
however, expressly assigns certain duties and powers to a chief
inspector and certain to district inspectors. Many provisions of the
acts depend as to their operation on the making of orders by the
secretary of state. These orders may impose special obligations on
occupiers and increase the stringency of regulations, may apply
exceptions as to employment, and may modify or relax regulations to
meet special classes of circumstances. In certain cases, already
indicated, his orders guide or determine the action of district
councils, and, generally, in case of default by a council he may
empower his inspectors to act as regards workplaces, instead of the
council, both under the Factory Acts and Public Health Acts.
The powers of an inspector are to enter, inspect and examine, by day
or by night, at any reasonable time, any factory or workshop (or
laundry, dock, &c.), or part of one, when he has reason to believe
that any person is employed there; to take with him a constable if he
has reasonable cause to expect obstruction; to require production of
registers, certificates, &c., under the acts; to examine, alone or in
the presence of any other person, as he sees fit, every person in the
factory or workshop, or in a school where the children employed are
being educated; to prosecute, conduct or defend before a court of
summary jurisdiction any proceeding under the acts; and to exercise
such other powers as are necessary for carrying the act into effect.
The inspector has also the duty of enforcing the Truck Acts in places,
and in respect of persons, under the Factory Acts. Certifying surgeons
are appointed by the chief inspector subject to the regulations of the
secretary of state, and their chief duties are (a) to examine workers
under sixteen, and persons under special rules, as to physical fitness
for the daily work during legal periods, with power to grant qualified
certificates as to the work for which the young worker is fit, and (b)
to investigate and report on accidents and cases of lead, phosphorus
or other poisoning and anthrax.
In 1907 there were registered as under inspection 110,276 factories,
including laundries with power, 146,917 workshops (other than men's
workshops), including laundries without power; of works under special
rules or regulations (included in the figures just given) there were
10,586 and 19,687 non-textile works under orders for supply of
particulars to piece-workers. Of notices of accidents received there
were 124,325, of which 1179 were fatal; of reported cases of poisoning
there were 653, of which 40 were fatal. Prosecutions were taken by
inspectors in 4474 cases and convictions obtained in 4211 cases. Of
persons employed there were, according to returns of occupiers, 1904,
4,165,791 in factories and 688,756 in workshops.
_Coal Mines._--The mode of progress to be recorded in the regulation of
coal mines since 1872 can be contrasted in one aspect with the progress
just recorded of factory legislation since 1878. Consolidation was again
earlier adopted when large amendments were found necessary, with the
result that by far the greater part of the law is to be found in the act
of 1887, which repealed and re-enacted, with amendments, the Coal Mines
Acts of 1872 and 1886, and the Stratified Ironstone Mines (Gunpowder)
Act, 1881. The act of 1881 was simply concerned with rules relating to
the use of explosives underground. The act of 1886 dealt with three
questions: (a) The election and payment of checkweighers (i.e. the
persons appointed and paid by miners in pursuance of section 13 of the
act of 1887 for the purpose of taking a correct account on their behalf
of the weight of the mineral gotten by them, and for the correct
determination of certain deductions for which they may be liable); (b)
provision for new powers of the secretary of state to direct a formal
investigation of any explosion or accident, and its causes and
circumstances, a provision which was later adopted in the law relating
to factories; (c) provision enabling any relatives of persons whose
death may have been caused by explosions or accidents in or about mines
to attend in person, or by agent, coroners' inquests thereon, and to
examine witnesses. The act of 1887, which amended, strengthened and
consolidated these acts and the earlier Consolidating Act of 1872, may
also be contrasted in another aspect with the general acts of factory
legislation. In scope it formed, as its principal forerunner had done, a
general code; and in some measure it went farther in the way of
consolidation than the Factory Acts had done, inasmuch as certain
questions, which in factories are dealt with by statutes distinct from
the Factory Acts, have been included in the Mines Regulation Acts, e.g.
the prohibition of the payment of wages in public-houses, and the
machinery relating to weights and measures whereby miners control their
payment; further, partly from the less changing nature of the industry,
but probably mainly from the power of expression gained for miners by
their organization, the code, so far as it went, at each stage answered
apparently on the whole more nearly to the views and needs of the
persons protected than the parallel law relating to factories. This was
strikingly seen in the evidence before the Royal Commission on Labour in
1892-1894, where the repeated expression of satisfaction on the part of
the miners with the provisions as distinct from the administration of
the code ("with a few trifling exceptions") is in marked contrast with
the long and varied series of claims and contentions put forward for
amendment of the Factory Acts.
Since the act of 1887 there have followed five minor acts, based on the
recommendation of the officials acting under the acts, while two of them
give effect to claims made by the miners before the Royal Commission on
Labour. Thus, in 1894, the Coal Mines (Checkweigher) Act rendered it
illegal for an employer ("owner, agent, or manager of any mine, or any
person employed by or acting under the instructions of any such owner,
agent, or manager") to make the removal of a particular checkweigher a
condition of employment, or to exercise improper influence in the
appointment of a checkweigher. The need for this provision was
demonstrated by a decision of the Court of Session in Edinburgh, which
upheld an employer in his claim to the right of dismissing all the
workmen and re-engaging them on condition that they would dismiss a
particular checkweigher. In 1896 a short act extended the powers to
propose, amend and modify special rules, provided for representation of
workmen on arbitration under the principal act on any matter in
difference, modified the provision for plans of mines in working and
abandoned mines, amended three of the general rules (inspection before
commencing work, use of safety lamp and non-inflammable substances for
stemming), and empowered the secretary of state by order to prohibit or
regulate the use of any explosive likely to become dangerous. In 1900
another brief act raised the age of employment of boys underground from
twelve to thirteen. In 1903 another amending act allowed as an
alternative qualification for a manager's certificate a diploma in
scientific and mining training after at least two years' study at a
university mining school or other educational institution approved by
the secretary of state, coupled with practical experience of at least
three years in a mine. In the same year the Employment of Children Act
affected children in mines to the extent already indicated in connexion
with factories. In 1905 a Coal Mines (Weighing of Minerals) Act improved
some provisions relating to appointment and pay of checkweighers and
facilities for them and their duly appointed deputies in carrying out
their duties. In 1906 the Notice of Accidents Act provided for improved
annual returns of accidents and for immediate reporting to the district
inspector of accidents under newly-defined conditions as they arise in
coal and metalliferous mines.
Act of 1887.
While the classes of mines regulated by the act of 1887 are the same
as those regulated by the act of 1872 (i.e. mines of coal, of
stratified ironstone, of shale and of fire-clay, including works above
ground where the minerals are prepared for use by screening, washing,
&c.) the interpretation of the term "mine" is wider and simpler,
including "every shaft in the course of being sunk, and every level
and inclined plane in the course of being driven, and all the shafts,
levels, planes, works, tramways and sidings, both below ground and
above ground, in and adjacent to and belonging to the mine." Of the
persons responsible under penalty for the observance of the acts the
term "owner" is defined precisely as in the act of 1872, but the term
"agent" is modified to mean "any person appointed as the
representative of the owner in respect of any mine or any part
thereof, and, as such, superior to a manager appointed in pursuance of
this act." Of the persons protected, the term "young person"
disappeared from the act, and "boy," i.e. "a male under the age of
sixteen years," and "girl," i.e. "a female under the age of sixteen
years," take their place, and the term "woman" means, as before, "a
female of the age of sixteen years and upwards." The prohibition of
employment underground of women and girls remains untouched, and the
prohibition of employment underground of boys has been successively
extended from boys of the age of ten in 1872 to boys of twelve in 1887
and to boys of thirteen in 1900. The age of employment of boys and
girls above ground in connexion with any mine is raised from ten years
in 1872 to twelve years since 1887. The hours of employment of a boy
below ground may not exceed fifty-four in any one week, nor ten in any
one day from the time of leaving the surface to the time of returning
to the surface. Above ground any boy or girl under thirteen (and over
twelve) may not be employed on more than six days in any one week; if
employed on more than three days in one week, the daily total must not
exceed six hours, or in any other case ten hours. Protected persons
above thirteen are limited to the same daily and weekly total of hours
as boys below ground, but there are further provisions with regard to
intervals for meals and prohibiting employment for more than five
hours without an interval of at least half an hour for a meal.
Registers must be kept of all protected persons, whether employed
above or below ground. Section 38 of the Public Health Act 1875, which
requires separate and sufficient sanitary conveniences for persons of
each sex, was first extended by the act of 1887 to the portions of
mines above ground in which girls and women are employed; underground
this matter is in metalliferous mines in Cornwall now provided for by
special rules. Ventilation, the only other requirement in the acts
that can be classed as sanitary, is provided for in every mine in the
"general rules" which are aimed at securing safety of mines, and
which, so far as ventilation is concerned, seek to dilute and render
harmless noxious or inflammable gases. The provision which prohibits
employment of any persons in mines not provided with at least two
shafts is made much more stringent by the act of 1887 than in the
previous code, by increasing the distance between the two shafts from
10 to 15 yds., and increasing the height of communications between
them. Other provisions amended or strengthened are those relating to
the following points: (a) Daily personal supervision of the mine by
the certificated manager; (b) classes of certificates and constitution
of board for granting certificates of competency; (c) plan of workings
of any mine to be kept up to a date not more than three months
previously at the office of the mine; (d) notice to be given to the
inspector of the district by the owner, agent or manager, of accidents
in or about any mine which cause loss of life or serious personal
injury, or are caused by explosion of coal or coal dust or any
explosive or electricity or any other special cause that the secretary
of state specifies by order, and which causes any personal injury to
any person employed in or about the mine; it is provided that the
place where an explosion or accident occurs causing loss of life or
serious personal injury shall be left for inspection for at least
three days, unless this would tend to increase or continue a danger or
impede working of the mine: this was new in the act of 1887; (e)
notice to be given of opening and abandonment of any mine: this was
extended to the opening or abandonment of any seam; (f) plan of an
abandoned mine or seam to be sent within three months; (g) formal
investigation of any explosion or accident by direction of the
secretary of state: this provision, first introduced by the act of
1886, was modified in 1887 to admit the appointment by the secretary
of state of "any competent person" to hold the investigation, whereas
under the earlier section only an inspector could be appointed.
General rules.
The "general rules" for safety in mines have been strengthened in many
ways since the act of 1872. Particular mention may be made of rule 4
of the act of 1887, relating to the inspection of conditions as to gas
ventilation beyond appointed stations at the entrance to the mine or
different parts of the mine; this rule generally removed the earlier
distinction between mines in which inflammable gas has been found
within the preceding twelve months, and mines in which it has not been
so found; of rules 8, 9, 10 and 11, relating to the construction, use,
&c., of safety lamps, which are more detailed and stringent than rule
7 of the act of 1872, which they replaced; of rule 12, relating to the
use of explosives below ground; of rule 24, which requires the
appointment of a competent male person not less than twenty-two years
of age for working the machinery for lowering and raising persons at
the mine; of rule 34, which first required provision of ambulances or
stretchers with splints and bandages at the mine ready for immediate
use; of rule 38, which strengthened the provision for periodical
inspection of the mine by practical miners on behalf of the workmen at
their own cost. With reference to the last-cited rule, during 1898 a
Prussian mining commission visited Great Britain, France and Belgium,
to study and compare the various methods of inspection by working
miners established in these three countries. They found that, so far
as the method had been applied, it was most satisfactory in Great
Britain, where the whole cost is borne by the workers' own
organizations, and they attributed part of the decrease in number of
accidents per thousand employed since 1872 to the inauguration of this
system.
Special rules.
The provisions as to the proposal, amendment and modification of
"special rules," last extended by the act of 1896, may be contrasted
with those of the Factory Act. In the latter it is not until an
industry or process has been scheduled as dangerous or injurious by
the secretary of state's order that occasion arises for the formation
of special rules, and then the initiative rests with the Factory
Department whereas in mines it is incumbent in every case on the
owner, agent or manager to propose within three months of the
commencement of any working, for the approval of the secretary of
state, special rules best calculated to prevent dangerous accidents,
and to provide for the safety, convenience and proper discipline of
the persons employed in or about the mine. These rules may, if they
relate to lights and lamps used in the mine, description of
explosives, watering and damping of the mine, or prevention of
accidents from inflammable gas or coal dust, supersede any general
rule in the principal act. Apart from the initiation of the rules, the
methods of establishing them, whether by agreement or by resort to
arbitration of the parties (i.e. the mine owners and the secretary of
state), are practically the same as under the Factory Act, but there
is special provision in the Mines Acts for enabling the persons
working in the mine to transmit objections to the proposed rules, in
addition to their subsequent right to be represented on the
arbitration, if any.
Of the sections touching on wages questions, the prohibition of the
payment of wages in public-houses remains unaltered, being re-enacted
in 1887; the sections relating to payment by weight for amount of
mineral gotten by persons employed, and for checkweighing the amount
by a "checkweigher" stationed by the majority of workers at each place
appointed for the weighing of the material, were revised, particularly
as to the determination of deductions by the act of 1887, with a view
to meeting some problems raised by decisions on cases under the act of
1872. The attempt seems not to have been wholly successful, the
highest legal authorities having expressed conflicting opinions on the
precise meaning of the terms "mineral contracted to be gotten." The
whole history of the development of this means of securing the
fulfilment of wage contract to the workers may be compared with the
history of the sections affording protection to piece-workers by
particulars of work and wages in the textile trades since the Factory
Act of 1891.
Administration.
As regards legal proceedings, the chief amendments of the act of 1872
are: the extension of the provision that the "owner, agent, or
manager" charged in respect of any contravention by another person
might be sworn and examined as an ordinary witness, to any person
charged with any offence under the act. The result of the proceedings
against workmen by the owner, agent or manager in respect of an
offence under the act is to be reported within twenty-one days to the
inspector of the district. The powers of inspectors were extended to
cover an inquiry as to the care and treatment of horses and other
animals in the mine, and as to the control, management or direction of
the mine by the manager.
An important act was passed in 1908 (Coal Mines Regulation Act 1908)
limiting the hours of work for workmen below ground. It enacted that,
subject to various provisions, a workman was not to be below ground in a
mine for the purpose of his work, and of going to and from his work, for
more than eight hours in any consecutive twenty-four hours. Exception
was made in the case of those below ground for the purpose of rendering
assistance in the event of an accident, or for meeting any danger, or
for dealing with any emergency or work incompleted, through unforeseen
circumstances, which requires to be dealt with to avoid serious
interference in the work of the mine. The authorities of every mine must
fix the times for the lowering and raising of the men to begin and be
completed, and such times must be conspicuously posted at the pit head.
These times must be approved by an inspector. The term "workman" in the
act means any person employed in a mine below ground who is not an
official of the mine (other than a fireman, examiner or deputy), or a
mechanic or a horse keeper or a person engaged solely in surveying or
measuring. In the case of a fireman, examiner, deputy, onsetter, pump
minder, fanman or furnace man, the maximum period for which he may be
below ground is nine hours and a half. A register must be kept by the
authorities of the mine of the times of descent and ascent, while the
workmen may, at their own cost, station persons (whether holding the
office of checkweigher or not) at the pit head to observe the times. The
authorities of the mine may extend the hours of working by one hour a
day on not more than sixty days in one calendar year (s. 3). The act may
be suspended by order in council in the event of war or of imminent
national danger or great emergency, or in the event of any grave
economic disturbance due to the demand for coal exceeding the supply
available at any time. The act came into force on the 1st of July 1909
except for the counties of Northumberland and Durham where its operation
was postponed until the 1st of January 1910.
In 1905 the number of coal-mines reported on was 3126, and the number
of persons employed below ground was 691,112 of whom 43,443 were under
16 years of age. Above ground 167,261 were employed, of whom 6154 were
women and girls. The number of separate fatal accidents was 1006,
causing the loss of 1205 lives. Of prosecutions by far the greater
number were against workmen, numbering in coal and metalliferous mines
953; owners and managers were prosecuted in 72 cases, and convictions
obtained in 43 cases.
_Quarries._--From 1878 until 1894 open quarries (as distinct from
underground quarries regulated by the Metalliferous Mines Regulation
Act) were regulated only by the Factory Acts so far as they then
applied. It was laid down in section 93 of the act of 1878 (41 Vict. c.
16), that "any premises or place shall not be excluded from the
definition of a factory or workshop by reason only that such premises,
&c., are or is in the open air," thereby overruling the decision in
_Kent_ v. _Astley_ that quarries in which the work, as a whole, was
carried on in the open air were not factories; in a schedule to the same
act quarries were defined as "any place not being a mine in which
persons work in getting slate, stone, coprolites or other minerals." The
Factory Act of 1891 made it possible to bring these places in part under
"special rules" adapted to meet the special risks and dangers of the
operations carried on in them, and by order of the secretary of state
they were certified, December 1892, as dangerous, and thereby subject to
special rules. Until then, as reported by one of the inspectors of
factories, quarries had been placed under the Factory Acts without
insertion of appropriate rules for their safe working, and many of them
were "developed in a most dangerous manner without any regard for
safety, but merely for economy," and managers of many had "scarcely seen
a quarry until they became managers." In his report for 1892 it was
recommended by the chief inspector of factories that quarries should be
subject to the jurisdiction of the government inspectors of mines. At
the same time currency was given, by the published reports of the
evidence before the Royal Commission on Labour, to the wish of large
numbers of quarrymen that open as well as underground quarries should
come under more specialized government inspection. In 1893 a committee
of experts, including inspectors of mines and of factories, was
appointed by the Home Office to investigate the conditions of labour in
open quarries, and in 1894 the Quarries Act brought every quarry, as
defined in the Factory Act 1878, any part of which is more than 20 ft.
deep, under certain of the provisions of the Metalliferous Mines Acts,
and under the inspection of the inspectors appointed under those acts;
further, it transferred the duty of enforcing the Factory and Workshop
Acts, so far as they apply in quarries over 20 ft. deep, from the
Factory to the Metalliferous Mines inspectors.
The provisions of the Metalliferous Mines Acts 1872 and 1875, applied to
quarries, are those relating to payment of wages in public-houses,
notice of accidents to the inspector, appointment and powers of
inspectors, arbitration, coroners' inquests, special rules, penalties,
certain of the definitions, and the powers of the secretary of state
finally to decide disputed questions whether places come within the
application of the acts. For other matters, and in particular fencing of
machinery and employment of women and young persons, the Factory Acts
apply, with a proviso that nothing shall prevent the employment of young
persons (boys) in three shifts for not more than eight hours each. In
1899 it was reported by the inspectors of mines that special rules for
safety had been established in over 2000 quarries. In the reports for
1905 it was reported that the accounts of blasting accidents indicated
that there was "still much laxity in observance of the Special rules,
and that many irregular and dangerous practices are in vogue." The
absence or deficiency of external fencing to a quarry dangerous to the
public has been since 1887 (50 & 51 Vict. c. 19) deemed a nuisance
liable to be dealt with summarily in the manner provided by the Public
Health Act 1875.
In 1905, 94,819 persons were employed, of whom 59,978 worked inside
the actual pits or excavations, and 34,841 outside. Compared with
1900, there was a total increase of 924 in the number of persons
employed. Fatal accidents resulted in 1900 in 127 deaths; compared
with 1899 there was an increase of 10 in the number of deaths, and, as
Professor Le Neve Foster pointed out, this exceeded the average
death-rate of underground workers at mines under the Coal Mines Acts
during the previous ten years, in spite of the quarrier "having
nothing to fear from explosions of gas, underground fires or
inundations." He attributed the difference to a lax observance of
precautions which might in time be remedied by stringent
administration of the law. In 1905 there were 97 fatal accidents
resulting in 99 deaths. In 1900 there were 92 prosecutions against
owners or agents, with 67 convictions, and 13 prosecutions of workers,
with 12 convictions, and in 1905 there were 45 prosecutions of owners
or agents with 43 convictions and 9 prosecutions of workmen with 5
convictions.
Payment of wages in public-houses.
In 1883 a short act extended to all "workmen" who are manual labourers
other than miners, with the exception of domestic or menial servants,
the prohibition of payment of wages in public-houses, beer-shops and
other places for the sale of spirituous or fermented liquor, laid down
in the Coal Mines Regulations and Metalliferous Mines Regulation Acts.
The places covered by the prohibition include any office, garden or
place belonging to or occupied with the places named, but the act does
not apply to such wages as are paid by the resident, owner or occupier
of the public-house, beer-shop and other places included in the
prohibition to any workman _bona fide_ employed by him. The penalty
for an offence against this act is one not exceeding £10 (compare the
limit of £20 for the corresponding offence under the Coal Mines Act),
and all offences may be prosecuted and penalties recovered in England
and Scotland under the Summary Jurisdiction Acts. The act does not
apply to Ireland, and no special inspectorate is charged with the duty
of enforcing its provisions.
_Shop Hours._--In four brief acts, 1892 to 1899, still in force, the
first very limited steps were taken towards the positive regulation of
the employment of shop assistants. In the act of 1904 certain additional
optional powers were given to any local authority making a "closing
order" fixing the hour (not earlier than 7 P.M. or on one day in the
week 1 P.M.) at which shops shall cease to serve customers throughout
the area of the authority or any specified part thereof as regards all
shops or as regards any specified class of shops. Before such an order
can be made (1) a prima facie case for it must appear to the local
authority; (2) the local authority must inquire and agree; (3) the order
must be drafted and sent for confirmation or otherwise to the central
authority, that is, the secretary of state for the Home Department; (4)
the order must be laid before both Houses of Parliament. The Home Office
has given every encouragement to the making of such orders, but their
number in England is very small, and the act is practically inoperative
in London and many large towns where the need is greatest. As the
secretary of state pointed out in the House of Commons on the 1st of May
1907, the local authorities have not taken enough initiative, but at the
same time there is a great difficulty for them in obtaining the required
two-thirds majority, among occupiers of the shops to be affected, in
favour of the order, and at the same time shop assistants have no power
to set the law in motion. In England 364 local authorities have taken no
steps, but in Scotland rather better results have been obtained. The
House resolved, on the date named, that more drastic legislation is
required. As regards shops, therefore, in place of such general codes as
apply to factories, laundries, mines--only three kinds of protective
requirement are binding on employers of shop assistants: (1) Limitation
of the weekly total of hours of work of persons under eighteen years of
age to seventy-four inclusive of meal-times; (2) prohibition of the
employment of such persons in a shop on the same day that they have, to
the knowledge of the employer, been employed in any factory or workshop
for a longer period than would, in both classes of employment together,
amount to the number of hours permitted to such persons in a factory or
workshop; (3) provision for the supply of seats by the employer, in all
rooms of a shop or other premises where goods are retailed to the
public, for the use of female assistants employed in retailing the
goods--the seats to be in the proportion of not fewer than one to every
three female assistants. The first two requirements are contained in the
act of 1892, which also prescribed that a notice, referring to the
provisions of the act, and stating the number of hours in the week
during which a young person may be lawfully employed in the shop, shall
be kept exhibited by the employer; the third requirement was first
provided by the act of 1899. The intervening acts of 1893 and 1895 are
merely supplementary to the act of 1892; the former providing for the
salaries and expenses of the inspectors which the council of any county
or borough (and in the City of London the Common Council) were
empowered by the act of 1892 to appoint; the latter providing a penalty
of 40s. for failure of an employer to keep exhibited the notice of the
provisions of the acts, which in the absence of a penalty it had been
impossible to enforce. The penalty for employment contrary to the acts
is a fine not exceeding £1 for each person so employed, and for failure
to comply with the requirements as to seats, a fine not exceeding £3 for
a first offence, and for any subsequent offence a fine of not less than
£1 and not exceeding £5.