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41
OUTWORKERS.
In my last Annual Report I drew your attention to the fact
that an order had been made by the Local Government Board
in November, 1891, by which employers of labour who
employ persons in making at their own homes wearing apparel,
cabinet furniture, upholsterers' work, and the manufacture
of electro-plate and files, that it was their duty to keep a list of
such employees, and that these lists must be open to our inspection,
and the order further requested that the homes of
these outworkers should be frequently visited, with a view to
their workrooms, being kept in a sanitary condition. In
the early part of this year I addressed a circular letter to all
employers of labour of this description in our district, drawing
their attention to this order, and requesting to be informed of
the homes of these outworkers; most of them responded, and we
were thus placed in possession of something like 620 addresses
where work was being done at their homes, they were scattered
in various parts of our district as well as the adjoining parishes,
the addresses of the latter with their employers were sent on to
the various District Boards; in our own area there were 377
different outworkers' homes all of which were visited and in
almost all cases the workrooms were found to be in a cleanly
condition ; where sanitary defects were discovered notices were
served and the nuisances remedied. This work of inspection
took up a considerable amount of time of the Inspectors. One
may regard this work as serving a very useful purpose to the
community at large, as it ensures their wearing apparel being
made in cleanly and properly ventilated workrooms, and in the
event of infectious diseases taking place in these houses we are
enabled to communicate the fact directly to the employers, and
so proper precautions can be taken before the clothing is
either sent to the shop or sold to the public, during the last
year numerous instances of this has occurred; in one case the
outworker had some hundreds of coats stored on the same
premises where a case of Scarlet Fever had occurred. I find
that we are one of a very few of the authorities that have made
any attempt to grapple with this work; this is to be regretted,
as we know that unless it is undertaken all over London their
must necessarily be many hundreds of houses in every district
that escape observation, as where work is given out by employers
outside the area of one's district to employees inside the
district, it is impossible for us to become aware of their existence
unless all the local authorities carry out the order of the Board
in a like manner. It is thought by some that work of this
magnitude ought to be carried out by a central body which
would co-operate with the local authorities ; with this I agree,
as unless we have a considerable increase in the staff of Inspectors
the order cannot be carried out in its entirety. In our own
district with only one year's experience I find that it involves a
large amount of extra work, and these outworkers' homes will