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(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 workplace a workshop if the persons working
therein were in the employment of the owner or occupier." These are 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
stalls 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
other person^ to help them, each hiring a separate " sitting " or place to work at from
the owner or occupier of the workshop. These will for the future be deemed to be
workshops within the meaning of the Factory Act.
Laundries* do not come within the definitions o£ "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 inspection under other
Acts or by inmates of a bond 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, &c., 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 of the Council being exercised
in regard to them by the Inspector of Factories (sec. 150).
"Workplace" is not defined in the Act, but in a case under sec. 38 of the Public
Health (London) Act, 1891, where the same phrase as in this Act occurs, viz., " factory
workshop and workplace," it was held that the word 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."
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 domestic factories and
underground bakehouses. 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.
* Laundries on factory or workshop premises form part of the factory or workshop, and are subject to all
the provisions of the Act.
Bennett v.
Harding,
1900, Q.B.
397.