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118
Factory and Workshops Act, 1901.
This Act came into force on January 1st, 1901, and consolidated with amendments
all previous Acts.
This Act requires the Council to "keep a Register of all workshops situated
within the district."
It also requires the Medical Officer of Health in his Annual Report to the
Council to report on the administration of the Act in workshops and workplaces,
and to send a copy of the Report to the Secretary of State.
Workshops include (a) ropeworks, bakehouses, carpet-beating works, etc.; (b)
any other premises in which manual labour is exercised by way of trade or for purposes
of gain, in or incidental to the making, altering, repairing, etc., of any article,
and over which the employer of the persons working there has the right of access
or control; (c) any 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."
Laundries are also treated as workshops unless worked by inmates of a religious
or charitable institution, or by the members of one family, with or without the
assistance of two others.
A Workplace includes a stable, the kitchen of a restaurant and other places
where people assemble together to do work permanently of some kind or other.
Duties with regard to Workshops and Workplaces.
(1) The sanitary condition of workshops and workplaces refers to:—
(а) Cleanliness.—The Act provides a penalty for refusing to comply with the
Council's notices to have the workshop limewashed or cleansed.
The workshops were all cleansed during the year, most of the owners
doing it voluntarily, but in 522 cases, notices had to be served before it
was done.
(b) Air Space.—250 cubic feet is allowed for each person, and 400 during
time. Overcrowding occurred in 79 cases. In 77 instances it was abated
as a result of notices that were served. In two cases Police Court proceedings
had to be taken.
(c) Ventilation.—Any workshop not properly ventilated may be dealt with
as a nuisance.
Alteration had to be made in 107 workshops to effectually ventilate
them. 29 hoods were provided to the gas-stoves.