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58
WORKSHOP SUPERVISION.
arrangements. At the same time it is much to be regretted that no standard is in force for
the Metropolis as a whole.
In certain workshops where only one man has been found working, arrangements have
been made for the exclusive use by the women of the only closet on the premises, and
separate accommodation has not been insisted on.
Outworkers.—The provisions of Sec. 107 of the Factory and Workshop Act, 1901, appear
to be very little understood. A circular letter was issued in October last, drawing special
attention to the Section, but at the close of the year only 184 outworkers—people working
in the homes for contractors and others—were on the Register of the Department.
As reported, the premises of each out-worker are visited and classified either as a workshop
or a work-place, with a further differentiation of "domestic" or ordinary. The
distinctions made are briefly that a work-place is one when the worker is alone and has no
assistants, and a work-shop implies one or more employees. A domestic workshop is one
where the occupier does not depend for a livelihood on the work carried on therein, but has
other sources of income.
Apart from the question of nuisances remediable under the Public Health Act which may
be discovered by such inspection, the most important duty is that connected with the spread
of infectious illness. During the year 19 cases of infectious disease occurred in the homes of
outworkers, but as very few of the outworkers were on the Register, special action could
rarely be taken. The diseases reported were:—
January—December, 1002.
Diphtheria and Membranous Croup 2 Puerperal Fever 1
Erysipelas 2 Measles 7
Scarlet Fever 4 Chicken-pox 3
The list of notifications is now compared daily with the Register of Outworkers, to
enable any necessary action under Sections 109 and 110 of the Act and the Orders made pursuant
thereto, to be prompty taken.
Laundries.—In the northern part of the Borough there are a large number of laundries
situated in a limited area, many of them being very small. Previous to last year they had
not been subject to regular inspection and a good deal of work was found necessary. The
special defects requiring attention were: (i) excessive amounts of steam in wash-houses;
(ii) high temperatures and deficient ventilation of ironing rooms; (iii) bad conditions of drying
grounds ; and (iv) wetness of floors.
Steam.—Many of the wash-houses are nothing but the sculleries of houses built for
occupation as dwellings, and are not provided with special means of removing steam from
the coppers. These rooms are often found full of steam, a condition not favourable to the
health of the workers. A most efficient remedy has been found in the provision of hoods
either connected to the flue of the copper or to a shaft carried up independently through
the roof. The lower edge of the hood is turned up to obviate the dripping of condensed
steam on the workers.
Ironing Rooms.—In laundries which are factories the stove for heating irons must be in
a place separate from the ironing room, but there is no such provision for workshop laundries.
It is a common practice, in the smaller laundries at least, to hang up clothes to dry in the
ironing room. The room is consequently excessively hot and the ventilation very insufficient.
Miss O'Kell reporting on such places says, "The contrast between the air in the ironing
rooms of power laundries and in those of hand laundries, is very marked." To effect much
improvement in the hand laundries structural alterations of an expensive character are often
required. It would be simpler to prohibit the placing of heating stoves in the ironing rooms.
The temperature would thus be kept down and there would be no reason for hanging clothes
in these rooms.