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87
HOME WORK PROVISIONS OF THE FACTORY ACT.
In October, the Secretary of State addressed a letter to the Council (and Sanitary
Authorities generally) to "bring specially before them the question of the enforcement by the
Council, and their officers, of the provisions in the Act which deal with the subject of home-work;
that is, work in the manufacture, repair, &c., of articles by the worker in his or her own house."
Those provisions, contained in sections 107 to 114,* summarised in a Memorandum on the duties of
local authorities under the Factory Act, issued to the Council by the Secretary of State in December,
1901, confer " very important powers of controlling the conditions under which certain classes of
work are done in the homes of the workers." Given for the first time to District Councils by the
Act of 1901, the said powers "aim at the prevention of home-work being done (1) in dwellings
which are injurious or dangerous to the health of the workers themselves; e.g , through overcrowding,
want of ventilation or other insanitary conditions; (2) in premises where there is dangerous
infectious disease." The Secretary of State forwarded with the letter a "Return (to an address of
the House of Commons) as to the administration in each (Borough) during 1904, by the Local
Authorities, of the Home-work provisions, as shown by the reports of the Medical Officers of Health
sent to the Home Office, under section 132 of the Act," giving information on specified matters,
including "the number of outworkers' lists received by the Local Authority under section 107, and
the number of outworkers shown therein." The letter of the Secretary of State and the Return
were referred to the Public Health Committee, in obedience to whose instructions I reported on the
subject for the information of the Council, as follows :—
"The 'Memorandum' referred to sets out the provisions of the Act as they relate (1) to the
'Employment of persons in unwholesome premises' (Section 108), and (2) to the 'Making of
wearing apparel where there is scarlet-fever or small-pox in the dwelling-house' (Section 109);
Section 110 relates to the 'Prohibition of home-work in places where there is infectious disease.'
With regard to (1) no cause for the intervention of the Council's officers arose in 1904; but as
regards (2), nine cases of scarlet-fever, or diphtheria, in the homes of outworkers, were notified.
All of the patients (children) were removed to hospital forthwith; the premises were disinfected and
there was no spread of disease.
"Outworkers.—In the Return adverted to, the 'information with regard to home-work
contained in the Tables for 1904, supplied by the Home Office for the use of the Medical Officer of
Health, has been tabulated,' for all District Councils, etc. In the Secretary of State's letter,
directing attention to the remarks in the introduction to the Return, it is stated that 'not only were
the tables often omitted, or very imperfectly filled up, but the inference cannot be avoided that in a
considerable number of districts little use has been made by the local authorities of their important
powers under the Home-work provisions.' This observation, as it regards Kensington, applies only
to the provisions of Section 107 which relate to 'Lists of Outworkers required to be kept in certain
trades.'
"The Secretary of State reminds the Council that, 'in addition to the ordinary sanitary
inspection under the Public Health Act of outworkers' dwellings, which is even more necessary in
their case than in the cases of ordinary dwellings,' the following 'special obligations' are placed
on the Council:—
"(1) The Lists of Outworkers should be duly received from employers and the necessary
steps taken to enforce them in case of default."
"With regard to this 'obligation' I may state that strenuous efforts have been made, from
the time the Act came into operation (January 1st, 1902), to ensure delivery by employers of the halfyearly
lists; but with imperfect results. The matter was dealt with in the annual report of the
Medical Officer of Health for 1902 (page 92), in the following terms:—
"Outworkers.—Under the Factory and Workshop Act, 1901, Sec. 107, the occupier of any
factory or workshop, or the occupier of any place from which any work is given out, is directed
to keep lists of all outworkers employed, and to send on or before the 1st day of February, and
the 1st day of August, in each year, copies of these lists to the Council of the district in which
the factory or workshop is situate. With a view to make known to the occupiers of workshops,
etc., the duty devolving upon them by the Act in this regard, notice was given in the local
newspapers, by way of advertisements, and a copy of the notice was forwarded to upwards of
1,000 persons, in occupation of premises where the scheduled businesses were being carried on,
together with a print of the Home-work Order, issued by the Secretary of State, and the Schedule
* Sections 111-114 have little practical bearing on the administration of the Act in the Royal Borough. They relate
to—Application of the Act to domestic factories and workshops (111); Dangerous processes in domestic factories and workshops
(112); Abstracts for domestic factories and workshops (113), and Non-application of the Act to certain domestic workshops (114).