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142
Factory and Workshop Bill. (H.L.)
This Bill was a Bill intituled, an Act to repeal Section 157 of the
Factory and Workshops Act, 1901.
Section 157 of the Factory and Workshops Act, 1901, provides that
certain provisions of that Act shall not apply to men's workshops, i.e.,
workshops in which only men are employed. Amongst the provisions
excluded by this section is Section 116, which provides for particulars
of work and wages being given to piece workers. Section 116 applies
in the first instance only to workers in textile factories, but by subs. (5)
the Secretary of State is empowered by special order to extend the provisions
of Section 116 (inter alia) to outworkers, and the Secretary of
State has by order extended Section 116 to outworkers in various
industries. It has, however, recently been held (19th January, 1912)
in the case of Seal v. Alexander that the effect of Section 157, above
alluded to, is to exclude from the provisions of section 116 piece-workers
who receive their work from workshops in which only men are employed.
It results from this decision that, while outworkers to whom work is given
out from factories and other classes of workshops, and also outworkers
to whom work is given out from shops, warehouses, or any other place
which is not a men's workshop, receive particulars of their work and the
rate of wage to be paid for the work, outworkers who get their work from
men's workshops will not.
and complete descriptions of the premises visited where any work is carried
on, and to classify such premises in their note books before handing them
to the clerks for the particulars to be entered in the journals, registers and
index files.
It can be easily understood that the classification of premises where
ivork is executed will vary from time to time, according to the pressure
of work or the nature of the work carried on—outworkers' premises may
become domestic workshops, and also workshops,* and even factories ; workshops
may become factories ; and workplaces may become ivorkshops or
factories, between the visits of the Sanitary Inspectors.
* To wit, in Table A, under " Laundries, Domestic Workshops," there were 9 on the
register at the end of the year, but during the year, especially in the summer, some of
these premises were " Workshop Laundries," and the inspections would come under
Workshop Laundries.