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Definitions.
Factories include (1) all places in which mechanical power is used in aid of the
manufacturing processes ; and (2) all places, whether mechanical power is used or not, in which
the industries specified in Part I. of Schedule VI. to the Act are carried on (that is, print works,
bleaching and dyeing works, earthenware works, lucifer match works, percussion cap works,
cartridge works, paper staining works, fustian cutting works, blast furnaces, copper mills, iron
mills, foundries, metal and india rubber works, paper mills, glass works, tobacco factories,
letterpress printing works, bookbinding works, flax scutch mills, electrical stations).*
Workshops include—
(1) The places specified in Part II. of Schedule VI. (that is, hatworks, ropeworks, bakehouses,
lace warehouses, ship-building yards, quarries, pit banks of metalliferous mines, dry
cleaning works, carpet beating works, and bottle washing works),† unless mechanical power is
used and they are in consequence factories within the meaning of the Act.
(2) Any other premises (not being factories) in which manual labour is exercised by way
of trade or for purposes of gain in or incidental to the making, altering, repairing, ornamenting,
finishing or adapting for sale of any article and to or over which the employer of the persons
working there has the right of access or control.
(3) Any workplace (termed in the Act "tenement workshop") in which "with the
permission of or under agreement with the owner or occupier two or more persons carry on any
work which would constitute the work-place a workshop if the persons working therein were in
the employment of the owner or occupier." These were included for the first time by the Act
of 1901. Previously they were partially or wholly excluded because some or all of the persons
working there were not employed but worked on their own account. Instances of tenement
workshops are (a) the Sheffield file-cutting shops, where file-cutters work on their own account,
with or without other persons to help them, at stocks hired by them from the owner or occupier
of the shop; (b) journeymen tailors' workshops where journeymen tailors work on their own
account, with or without other persons to help them, each hiring a separate " sitting " or place
to work at from the owner or occupier of the workshop. These are now deemed to be workshops
within the meaning of the Factory Act.
Laundries * do not come within the definitions of "factory" and "workshop"; but under
sec. 103 of the Act, they are so far as sanitation and means of escape from fire are concerned to
be treated as factories if mechanical power is used; if mechanical power is not used, as
workshops. Laundries however which are worked by inmates of a prison, reformatory school,
industrial school or any institution subject to Government inspection under other Acts or by
inmates of a bona fide religious or charitable institution, or by members of the same family
dwelling on the premises, are excluded from the Act, if the inmates of the prison, etc., or the
members of the family work the laundry by themselves or with the assistance of not more than
two persons from outside.
Factories and workshops belonging to or in the occupation of the Crown are excluded
from the jurisdiction of the District Council: the powers which in other factories and workshops
belong to the Council are in them exercised by the Inspector of Factories (sec. 150.)
"Workplace" is not defined in the Factory Act, but the term is used in the
several Public Health Acts, and in a case under sec. 38 of the Public Health
(London) Act, 1891, where the phrase "factory, workshop, and workplace" occurs, it
was held that the word "workplace" is not to be limited to places where something
is being manufactured or made, but includes any "place where work is done
permanently, and where people assemble together to do work permanently of some kind or
other." It is therefore a word of wider signification than the word "workshop." In the case in
question a stable and stable yard where men were employed as cab cleaners and horse keepers was
held to be a workplace. Similarly the Secretary of State has been advised that the kitchens
of restaurants, &c., though they are not workshops, come within the meaning of the term
"workplace."
Bennett v.
Harding,
1900, 2 Q.B.
397.
Factories.
In the case of factories the duties of a District Council are few. The Council is charged
with the duty of seeing that every factory in its district is provided with means of escape in case
of fire; and also has special duties in regard to bakehouses and domestic factories. These
duties, which apply also in the case of workshops, will be further referred to below. Another
duty in regard to factories, though not arising under the Factory and Workshop Act, is (in
districts where Part III. of the Public Health Acts Amendment Act, 1890, is in force) the
enforcement of the requirement in sec. 22 of that Act as to the provision of suitable and sufficient
sanitary conveniences, and (elsewhere) the enforcement of sec. 38 of the Public Health Act,
1875.
Workshops and Workplaces.
In regard to workshops and workplaces, District Councils have important duties, which
may be classified under four heads: (1) the sanitary condition of workshops and workplaces
generally; (2) provision of means of escape from fire in workshops; (3) special sanitary regulations
for bakehouses; (4) home work.
† The definitions of these places in the schedule should be consulted.
° Laundries on factory or workshop premises form part of the factory or workshop and are subject to all the
provisions of the Act.
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