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FACTORY AND WORKSHOP ACT (1901) AMENDMENT BILL.
This Amendment Bill was an attempt by Private Members to give effect,
with some slight modification, to the clause affecting laundries of religious or
charitable institutions, as provided for in the original draft of the Factory and
Workshop Act Amendment Bill of 1901.
Under the existing law laundries carried on in religious or charitable institutions
by way of trade or for purposes of gain are exempted from the operations
of the Factory and Workshop Act.
This exemption was made originally in the Factory and Workshop Act,
1895, when laundries were brought within the scope of the Factory Act.
The Factory and Workshop Act Amendment Bill, 1901, contained considerable
amendments of the provisions relating to laundries, while those of religious
and charitable institutions were to be placed under supervision under certain
conditions. In Committee, however, so much opposition was made to these
proposals that the clause was withdrawn by the Government, and the law of
1895 on the subject was left unaltered.
In 1902, in consequence of considerable discussion both in the House of
Commons and the House of Lords, the Home Secretary, in a circular letter
dated the 24th January of that year, endeavoured to ascertain whether any
considerable number of these institutions would be willing to receive visits
from Factory Inspectors, and intimated that if such were the case he would
instruct these officers to visit them and offer such advice and assistance as
might be in their power. He also stated that, if so desired, the visits would
be made by Lady Inspectors of the Home Office Staff.
The results of this enquiry are summarised in a Parliamentary White Paper
issued last year, which conclusively proves that there are a very large number
of institutions taking in laundry work from outside and carrying on their trade
without the supervision to which all other laundries are subjected.
It is common knowledge that owing to the operations of French law the
number of these places has largely increased in this country of recent years,
and it has been stated that manv thousands of women are now ensured in an
unfair competition with those working in laundries to which the existing
Factory Act applies.
It will be seen from this return that 264 such institutions with laundries are
known to exist, and that 204 of these are carried on for the purpose of gain,
Of the latter, 117 have expressed their willingness to accept inspection by the
Factory Department and 87 declined to accept inspection or gave no definite
answer to the Home Office Circular. There were also about 60 others who
failed, after a reminder, to reply to it; as to these it is not known, therefore,
whether they carried on laundry work for gain or not.