View report page

101
UNDERGROUND WORKROOMS.
Attention has been called to the necessity for further restrictions upon the
use of underground workrooms.
This matter is an important one as affecting the preservation of the health
of workers in underground premises, and it must be obvious that some higher
standard should be required than obtains in the case of aboveground workrooms,
which have the advantage of light and ventilation.
Under the Factory and Workshop Act, 1901, notice of the establishment
of a factory or workshop is required to be given to the Factory Department,
Whitehall, within one month of their occupation, but this does not apply
to workplaces, and in the majority of instances underground workrooms
come within this category.
Therefore, while factories and workshops come immediately under the
supervision of the Factory Inspector, who informs the local authority, workplaces
may be established and be in existence for any length of time without
any control unless they happen to be accidentally discovered.
A local authority has power to deal with all insanitary conditions in
workshops and workplaces, and to some extent in factories, but it is obvious
that if the knowledge of the existence of a "workplace" is dependent upon
casual discovery, workers therein are not so well protected as those
engaged in "workshops," the existence of which is notifiable. Kitchens of
restaurants come within the designation of a "workplace."
Where any definite nuisance exists in an underground workplace, it can be
dealt with, but many such places are totally unfit for the purposes for which
they are used, and it is next to impossible to make them thoroughly sanitary.
It is useless to take such cases into Court because of the difficulty of getting
a conviction when everything has been done that could reasonably be expected,
although the place in question would still be unsuitable.
Further restriction upon the use of underground workplaces is, in my
opinion, necessary, and the compulsory notification of their establishment, as
obtains in the cases of factories and workshops, would be a step in the
required direction.