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77
The object of this part of the Factory and Workshop Act is to
prevent work being done 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, or in which there is
dangerous infectious disease. The importance of this with regard to
articles of clothing will be readily appreciated.
Two hundred and thirty-four notices were sent out to employers
reminding them of their duty in the matter, notwithstanding which
20 employers failed to send in lists at the February period and 19 on
the 1st August. The Council has given instructions, that if after notice
and a visit from the Inspector default continued, that legal proceedings
should follow.
Seventy-eight visits were paid to ascertain whether outworkers
were employed.
The system does not appear to be altogether satisfactory, as the
persons employed as outworkers are not engaged continuously or
regularly, and it may happen that when the lis^s are sent in business is
at the moment slack, and few outworkers are being employed. It
would probably be better to require employers to send in the names
and addresses of new outworkers at the time they are taken on, so that
their homes or places of business might be at once inspected, if not
already on the Council's Register. Frequently a worker may have
been employed during the year by several firms, either at one time or
successively, so that the number of names returned does not necessarily
coincide with the actual number of workers. In one instance a man
was on ten lists.
About 1,200 visits were paid to outworkers' premises. The defects
found are included under the heading "Workshops," as the terms are
synonymous in a great many instances. At one time a man may be
doing a little work on his own account, without employing any
assistance except perhaps from members of his own family, his place
is then a " domestic workshop " ; at another time he may be employing
other persons, when it becomes an ordinary " workshop "; and at either
period he may be receiving work from other firms, or from a middleman,
when he becomes an " outworker."
During 1905, cases of notifiable infectious disease occurred in
45 families engaged in clothing trades at home, and in 7 families of
other home workers.
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