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Workshops and Workplaces.
In regard to workshops and workplaces, District Councils have important duties, which
may bo classified under four heads :(1) the sanitary condition of workshops and workplaces
generally; (2) provision of means of escape from fire; (3) special sanitary
regulations for bakehouses; (4) homework.
Sanitation. (Sees. 2, 3, 7 and 8.)
The District Council is made the authority responsible for the sanitary condition of the
workshops and workplaces in its district, while the Factory Inspector is responsible for
the sanitary condition of factories. "Sanitary conditions" include (a) the cleanliness,
(b) air space, (c) ventilation, and (d) drainage of the floors of workshops and workplaces.
For these purposes the provisions of sec. 91 of the Public Health Act, 1875, apply and
are supplemented by additional provisions in the Factory Act. It should be noted that
the other sanitary provisions in Part I. of the Act, viz., with regard to temperature and
sanitary conveniences (sees. 6 and 9) are not brought under the law relating to
public health, and will therefore be enforced by the Factory Inspectors.
The requirements of the Act in the matters above-mentioned which it is the duty of a
District Council to enforce are as follows:—
(a) Cleanliness (sec. 2).—Every workshop and workplace must be kept in a cleanly
state and free from effluvia, and if not so kept may be dealt with by the Council as a
nuisance under sec. 91 of the Public Health Act, 1875.
If the medical officer of health, or the inspector of nuisances, certifies that it is
necessary, for the health of the persons employed that a workshop* or any part of a
workshop, should be limewashed, cleansed or purified, the District Council may give
notice to the owner or occupier of the workshop to carry out such limewashing, cleansing
or purifying as the case may require, within a time specified in the notice. If the person
to whom the notice is addressed fails to comply with it in the time specified, he will be
liable to a penalty of 10s. for each day during which the default continues, and the
Council may themselves undertake the work and recover the expense from him in a
summary manner.
(a) Air space (sees. 2, 3).—Workshops and workplaces must not be overcrowded while
work is carried on so as to be dangerous or injurious to the health of the persons
employed, and a workshop or workplace which is overcrowded may be dealt with as a
nuisance under sec. 91 of the Public Health Act. A workshop is deemed to be overcrowded
unless in each room at least 250f cubic feet of air space (or during overtime
400) are allowed for each person employed in the room, and the Act requires a notice to
be affixed in the workshop specifying the number of persons who may be employed in
each room of the workshop.
(c) Ventilation (sees. 2, 7).—Every workshop and workplace must be ventilated in
such a manner as to render harmless as far a practicable any gases, vapours, dust or
other impurities generated in the course of the work that are a nuisance or injurious to
health. Any workshop or workplace not so ventilated may be dealt with as a nuisance
under sec. 91 of the Public Health Act.
* In Loudon, this power extends also to domestic factories and to workplaces.—Public Health (London)
Act, 1891, sec. 25.
†Under sec. 3 (3) of the Act the Secretary of State has power to alter this amount in the case of a
workshop, not being a domestic workshop, which is occupied by night as a sleeping apartment. He proposes
to make an order increasing the amount in such cases to 400 cubic feet.