Course revised under the amended procedure of the act of 1901. | They might not only regulate conditions of employment, but also restrict or prohibit employment of any class of workers; where such restriction or prohibition affected adult workers the rules had to be laid for forty days before both Houses of Parliament before coming into operation. The obligation to observe the rules in detail lies on workers as well as on occupiers, and the section in the act of 1891 providing a penalty for non-observance was drafted, as in the case of the mines, so as to provide for a simultaneous fine for each (not exceeding two pounds for the worker, not exceeding ten pounds for the employer).

The provisions as to special regulations of the act of 1901 touch primarily the method of procedure for making the regulations, but they also covered for the first time domestic workshops and added a power as to the kind of regulations that may be made; further, they strengthened the sanction for observance of any rules that may be established, by placing the occupier in the same general position as regards penalty for non-observance as in other matters under the

act.

On the certificate of the secretary of state that any manu-day facture, machinery, plant, process or manual labour used in factories or workshops is dangerous or injurious to life, health or limb, such regulations as appear to the secretary of state to meet the necessity of the case may be made by him after he has duly published notice: (1) of his intention; (2) of the place where copies of the draft regulations can be obtained; and (3) of the time during which objections to them can be made by persons affected. The secretary of state may modify the regulations to meet the objections made. If not, unless the objection is withdrawn or appears to him frivolous, he shall, before making the regulations, appoint a competent person to hold a public inquiry with regard to the draft regulations and to report to him thereon. The inquiry is to be made under such rules as the secretary of state may lay down, and when the regulations are made, they must be laid as soon as possible before parliament. Either House may annul these regulations or any of them, without prejudice to the power of the secretary of state to make new regulations. The regulations may apply to all factories or workshops in which the certified manufacture, process, &c., is used, or to a specified class. They may, among other things, (a) prohibit or limit employment of any person or class of persons; (b) prohibit, limit, or control use of any material or process; (c) modify or extend special regulations contained in the Act. Regulations have been established among others in the following trades and processes: felt hat-making where any inflammable solvent is used; file-cutting by hand; manufacture of electric accumulators; docks, processes of loading, unloading, &c.; tar distilling; factories in which self-acting mules are used; use of locomotives; spinning and weaving of flax, hemp and

jute; manufacture of paints and colours; heading of yarn dyed by

Coal Mines.-The mode of progress to be recorded in the

means of lead compounds. Although the Factory and Workshop Acts have not directly regulated wages, they have made certain provision for securing to the worker that the amount agreed upon shall be received: (a) by extending every act in force relating to the inspection of weights, measures and weighing machines for use in the sale of goods to those used in a factory or workshop for checking or ascertaining the wages of persons em-regulation of coal mines since 1872 can be contrasted in one ployed; (b) by ensuring that piece-workers in the textile trades (and other trades specified by the secretary of state) shall receive, before commencing any piece of work, clear particulars of the wages applicable to the work to be done and of the work to which that rate is to be applied. Unless the particulars of work are ascertainable by an automatic indicator, they must be given to textile workers in writing, and in the case of weavers in the cotton, worsted and woollen trades the particulars of wages must be supplied separately to each worker, and also shown on a placard in a conspicuous position. In other textile processes, it is sufficient to furnish the particulars separately to each worker. The secretary of state has used his powers to extend this protection to non-textile workers, with suitable modifications, in various hardware industries, including pen-making, locks, chains, in wholesale tailoring and making of wearing apparel, in fustian cutting, umbrella-making, brush-making and a number of other picce-work trades. He further has in most of these and other trades used his power to extend this protection to outworkers. With a view to efficient administration of the act (a) certain notices have to be conspicuously exhibited at the factory or workshop. (b) registers and lists kept, and (c) notices sent Adminis to the inspector by the occupier. Among the first the most important are the prescribed abstract of the act, the names and addresses of the inspector and certifying surgeon, the period of employment, and specified meal-times (which may not be changed without fresh notice to the inspector), the air space and number of persons who may legally be employed in each room, and prescribed particulars of exceptional employment; among the second are the general registers of children and young persons cmployed, of accidents, of limewashing, of overtime, and lists of outworkers; among the third are the notice of beginning to occupy a factory or workshop, which the occupier must send within one month, report of overtime employment, notice of accident, poisoning or anthrax, and returns of persons employed, with such other particulars as may be prescribed. These must be sent to the chief

aspect with the progress just recorded of factory legislation since 1878. Consolidation was again earlier adopted when large amendments were found necessary, with the result that by far the greater part of the law is to be found in the act of 1887, which repealed and re-enacted, with amendments, the Coal Mines Acts of 1872 and 1886, and the Stratified Ironstone Mines (Gunpowder) Act, 1881. The act of 1881 was simply concerned with rules relating to the use of explosives underground. The act of 1886 dealt with three questions: (a) The election and payment of checkweighers (i.c. the persons appointed and paid by miners in pursuance of section 13 of the act of 1887 for the purpose of taking a correct account on their behalf of the weight of the mineral gotten by them, and for the correct determination of certain deductions for which they may be liable); (b) provision for new powers of the secretary of state to direct a formal investigation of any explosion or accident, and its causes and circumstances, a provision which was later adopted in the law relating to factories; (c) provision enabling any relatives of persons whose death may have been caused by explosions or accidents in or about mines to attend in person, or by agent, coroners' inquests thereon, and to examine witnesses. The act of 1887, which amended, strengthened and consolidated these acts and the earlier Consolidating Act of 1872, may also be contrasted in another aspect with the general acts of factory legislation. In scope it formed, as its principal forerunner had done, a general code; and in some measure it went farther in the way of consolidation than the Factory Acts had done, inasmuch as certain questions, which in factories are dealt with

tration.

Measures and par ticulars to piece. workers.

inspector at intervals of not less than one and not more than three years, as may be directed by the secretary of state.

The secretary of state for the Home Department controls the administration of the acts, appoints the inspectors referred to in the acts, assigns to them their duties, and regulates the manner and cases in which they are to exercise the powers of inspectors. The act, however, expressly assigns certain duties and powers to a chief inspector and certain to district inspectors. Many provisions of the acts depend as to their operation on the making of orders by the secretary of state. These orders may impose special obligations on occupiers and increase the stringency of regulations, may apply exceptions as to employment, and may modify or relax regulations to meet special classes of circumstances. In certain cases, already indicated, his orders guide or determine the action of district councils, and, generally, in case of default by a council he may empower his inspectors to act as regards workplaces, instead of the council, both under the Factory Acts and Public Health Acts. The powers of an inspector are to enter, inspect and examine, by or by night, at any reasonable time, any factory or workshop (or laundry, dock, &c.), or part of one, when he has reason to believe that any person is employed there; to take with him a constable if he has reasonable cause to expect obstruction; to require production of registers, certificates, &c., under the acts; to examine, alone or in the presence of any other person, as he sees fit, every person in the factory or workshop, or in a school where the children employed are being educated; to prosecute, conduct or defend before a court of summary jurisdiction any proceeding under the acts; and to exercise such other powers as are necessary for carrying the act into effect. The inspector has also the duty of enforcing the Truck Acts in places, and in respect of persons, under the Factory Acts. Certifying surgeons are appointed by the chief inspector subject to the regulations of the secretary of state, and their chief duties are (a) to examine workers under sixteen, and persons under special rules, as to physical fitness for the daily work during legal periods, with power to grant qualified certificates as to the work for which the young worker is fit, and (b) to investigate and report on accidents and cases of lead, phosphorus or other poisoning and anthrax.

In 1907 there were registered as under inspection 110,276 factories, including laundries with power, 146,917 workshops (other than men's workshops), including laundries without power; of works under special rules or regulations (included in the figures just given) there were 10,586 and 19,687 nontextile works under orders for supply of particulars to pieceof which 1179 were fatal; of reported cases of poisoning there workers. Of notices of accidents received there were 124,325, were 653, of which 40 were fatal. Prosecutions were taken by inspectors in 4474 cases and convictions obtained in 4211 cases. Of persons employed there were, according to returns of occupiers, 1904, 4,165,791 in factories and 688,756 in workshops.

"

by statutes distinct from the Factory Acts, have been included | hibition of employment underground of boys has been successively in the Mines Regulation Acts, e.g. the prohibition of the payment extended from boys of the age of ten in 1872 to boys of twelve in 1887 and to boys of thirteen in 1900. The age of employment of of wages in public-houses, and the machinery relating to weights boys and girls above ground in connexion with any mine is raised and measures whereby miners control their payment; further, from ten years in 1872 to twelve years since 1887. The hours of partly from the less changing nature of the industry, but probably employment of a boy below ground may not exceed fifty-four in any mainly from the power of expression gained for miners by their one week, nor ten in any one day from the time of leaving the surface to the time of returning to the surface. Above ground any boy or organization, the code, so far as it went, at each stage answered girl under thirteen (and over twelve) may not be employed on more apparently on the whole more nearly to the views and needs of than six days in any one week; if employed on more than three days the persons protected than the parallel law relating to factories. in one week, the daily total must not exceed six hours, or in any other This was strikingly seen in the evidence before the Royal Comcase ten hours. Protected persons above thirteen are limited to the same daily and weekly total of hours as boys below ground, but there mission on Labour in 1892-1894, where the repeated expression are further provisions with regard to intervals for meals and proof satisfaction on the part of the miners with the provisions hibiting employment for more than five hours without an interval of as distinct from the administration of the code ("with a few at least half an hour for a meal. Registers must be kept of all trifling exceptions") is in marked contrast with the long and protected persons, whether employed above or below ground. varied series of claims and contentions put forward for amend-Section 38 of the Public Health Act 1875, which requires separate and sufficient sanitary conveniences for persons of each sex, was first ment of the Factory Acts. extended by the act of 1887 to the portions of mines above ground in which girls and women are employed; underground this matter is in metalliferous mines in Cornwall now provided for by special rules. Ventilation, the only other requirement in the acts that can be classed as sanitary, is provided for in every mine in the "general rules which are aimed at securing safety of mines, and which, so far as ventilation is concerned, seek to dilute and render harmless noxious of any persons in mines not provided with at least two shafts is made or inflammable gases. The provision which prohibits employment much more stringent by the act of 1887 than in the previous code, by increasing the distance between the two shafts from 10 to 15 yds.. and increasing the height of communications between them. Other provisions amended or strengthened are those relating to the following points: (a) Daily personal supervision of the mine by the certificated manager; (b) classes of certificates and constitution of board for granting certificates of competency; (c) plan of workings of any mine to be kept up to a date not more than three months previously at the office of the mine; (d) notice to be given to the inspector of the mine which cause loss of life or serious personal injury, or are caused district by the owner, agent or manager, of accidents in or about any by explosion of coal or coal dust or any explosive or electricity or any other special cause that the secretary of state specifies by order, and which causes any personal injury to any person employed in or accident occurs causing loss of life or serious personal injury shall be about the mine; it is provided that the place where an explosion or for inspection for at least three days, unless this would tend to increase or continue a danger or impede working of the mine: this was new in the act of 1887; (e) notice to be given of opening and abandonment of any seam; (f) plan of an abandoned mine or scam abandonment of any mine: this was extended to the opening or to be sent within three months; (g) formal investigation of any explosion or accident by direction of the secretary of state: this provision, first introduced by the act of 1886, was modified in 1887 to admit the appointment by the secretary of state of "any com petent person to hold the investigation, whereas under the earlier section only an inspector could be appointed.

Since the act of 1887 there have followed five minor acts, based on the recommendation of the officials acting under the acts, while two of them give effect to claims made by the miners before the Royal Commission on Labour. Thus, in 1894, the Coal Mines (Checkweigher) Act rendered it illegal for an employer ("owner, agent, or manager of any mine, or any person employed by or acting under the instructions of any such owner, agent, or manager") to make the removal of a particular checkweigher a condition of employment, or to exercise improper influence in the appointment of a checkweigher. The need for this provision was demonstrated by a decision of the Court of Session in Edinburgh, which upheld an employer in his claim to the right of dismissing all the workmen and re-engaging them on condition that they would dismiss a particular checkweigher. In 1896 a short act extended the powers to propose, amend and modify special rules, provided for representation of workmen on arbitration under the principal act on any matter in difference, modified the provision for plans of mines in working and abandoned mines, amended three of the general rules (inspection before commencing work, use of safety lamp and non-inflamm-left able substances for stemming), and empowered the secretary of state by order to prohibit or regulate the use of any explosive likely to become dangerous. In 1900 another brief act raised the age of employment of boys underground from twelve to thirteen. In 1903 another amending act allowed as an alternative qualification for a manager's certificate a diploma in scientific and mining training after at least two years' study at a university mining school or other educational institution approved by the secretary of state, coupled with practical experience of at least three years in a mine. In the same year the Employment of Children Act affected children in mines to the extent already indicated in connexion with factories. In 1905 a Coal Mines (Weighing of Minerals) Act improved some provisions relating to appointment and pay of checkweighers and facilities for them and their duly appointed deputies in carrying out their duties. In 1906 the Notice of Accidents Act provided for improved annual returns of accidents and for immediate reporting to the district inspector of accidents under newly-defined conditions as they arise in coal and metalliferous mines.

The "general rules" for safety in mines have been strengthened in many ways since the act of 1872. Particular mention may be made of rule 4 of the act of 1887, relating to the inspection of conditions as to gas ventilation beyond appointed stations at the entrance to the mine or different parts of the mine; this rule generally removed the earlier distinction between mines in which inflammable gas has been found within the preceding twelve months, and mines in which it has not been so found; of rules 8, 9, 10 and 11, relating to the construction, use, &c., of safety lamps, which are more detailed and stringent than rule 7 of the act of 1872, which they replaced; of rule 12, relating to the use of explosives below ground; of rule 24, which requires the appointment of a competent male person not less than twenty-two years of age for working the machinery for lowering and raising persons at the mine; of rule 34, which first required provision of ambulances or stretchers with splints and bandages at the mine ready for immediate use; of rule 38, which strengthened the provision for periodical inspection of the mine by practical miners on behalf of the workmen at their own cost. With reference to the last-cited rule, during 1898 a Prussian mining commission visited Great Britain, France and Belgium, to study and compare the various methods of inspection by working miners established in these three countries. They found that, so far as the method had been applied, it was most satisfactory in Great Britain, where the whole cost is borne by the workers' own organiza. tions, and they attributed part of the decrease in number of accidents per thousand employed since 1872 to the inauguration of this

Act of

While the classes of mines regulated by the act of 1887 are the same as those regulated by the act of 1872 (ie. mines of coal, of stratified ironstone, of shale and of fire-clay, including works above ground where the minerals are prepared for 1887. use by screening, washing, &c.) the interpretation of the term "mine." is wider and simpler, including "every shaft in the course of being sunk, and every level and inclined plane in the course of being driven, and all the shafts, levels, planes, works, tramways and sidings, both below ground and above ground, in and adjacent to and belonging to the mine." Of the persons responsible under penalty for the observance of the acts the term "owner" is defined precisely as in the act of 1872, but the term agent is modified to mean any person appointed as the representative of the owner in respect of any mine or any part thereof, and, as such, superior to a manager appointed in pursuance of this act." Of the persons protected, the term young person" disappeared from the act, and "boy," i.e. "a male under the age of sixteen years," and girl," i.e. "a female under the age of sixteen years,' take their place, and the term woman means, as before," a female of the age of sixteen years and uptrards." The prohibition of employment underground of women and girls remains untouched, and the pro

"1

44

"

44

"1

General rules.

viding a penalty of 40s. for failure of an employer to keep exhibited the notice of the provisions of the acts, which in the absence of a penalty it had been impossible to enforce. The penalty for employment contrary to the acts is a fine not exceeding £1 for each person so employed, and for failure to comply with the requirements as to seats, a fine not exceeding £3 for a first offence, and for any subsequent offence a fine of not less than £1 and not exceeding £5.

convictions.

nothing to fear from explosions of gas, underground fires or inunda- | borough (and in the City of London the Common Council) were tions.' He attributed the difference to a lax observance of pre-empowered by the act of 1892 to appoint; the latter procautions which might in time be remedied by stringent administration of the law. In 1905 there were 97 fatal accidents resulting in 99 deaths. In 1900 there were 92 prosecutions against owners or agents, with 67 convictions, and 13 prosecutions of workers, with 12 convictions, and in 1905 there were 45 prosecutions of owners or agents with 43 convictions and 9 prosecutions of workmen with 5 In 1883 a short act extended to all "workmen" who are manual labourers other than miners, with the exception of domestic or menial servants, the prohibition of payment of wages in Payment of wages public-houses, beer-shops and other places for the sale in public. of spirituous or fermented liquor, laid down in the Coal Mines Regulations and Metalliferous Mines Regulation Acts. The places covered by the prohibition include any office, garden or place belonging to or occupied with the places named, but the act does not apply to such wages as are paid by the resident, owner or occupier of the public-house, beer-shop and other places included in the prohibition to any workman bona fide employed by him. The penalty for an offence against this act is one not exceeding £10 (compare the limit of £20 for the corresponding offence the Act), and all offences may and penalties recovered in England and Scotland under the Summary Jurisdiction Acts. The act does not apply to Ireland, and no special inspectorate is charged with the duty of enforcing its provisions.

"

houses.

A wide interpretation is given by the act of 1892 to the class Shop " of workplace to which the limitation of hours applies. means retail and wholesale shops, markets, stalls and Meaning warehouses in which assistants are employed for hire, of "shop." and includes licensed public-houses and refreshment houses of any kind. The person responsible for the observance of the acts is the employer" of the young persons (i.e. persons under the age of eighteen years), whose hours are limited, and of the "female assistants" for whom seats must be provided. Neither of the act of 1899) is defined; but other terms have the meaning assigned to them in the Factory and Workshop Act 1878. The "employer" has, in case of any contravention alleged, the same power as the "occupier" in the Factory Acts to exempt himself from fine on proof of due diligence and of the fact that some other person is the actual offender. The provisions of the act of 1892 do not apply to members of the same family living in a house of which the shop forms part, or to members of the employer's family, or to any one wholly employed as a domestic servant.

term "employer "nor " shop assistant"

In London, where the County Council has appointed men and women inspectors to apply the acts of 1892 to 1899, there were, in 1900, 73,929 premises, and in 1905, 84,269, under inspection. In the age. In 1900 the number of young persons under the acts were: latter year there were 22,035 employing persons under 18 years of indoors, 10,239 boys and 4428 girls; outdoors, 35.019 boys, 206 girls. In 1905 the ratio between boys and girls had decidedly altered: indoors, 6602 boys, 4668 girls; outdoors, 22,654 boys, 308 girls. The number of irregularities reported in 1900 were 9204 and the prosecutions were 117; in 1905 the irregularities were 6966 and the prosecutions numbered 34. As regards the act of 1899, in only 1088 of the 14,844 shops affected in London was there found in 1900 to be failure to provide seats for the women employed in retailing goods. The chief officer of the Public Control Department reported that with very few exceptions the law was complied with at the end of the first year of its application.

As regards cleanliness, ventilation, drainage, water-supply and sanitary condition generally, shops have been since 1878 (by 41 Vict. c. 16, s. 101) subject to the provisions of the Public Health Act 1875, which apply to all buildings, except factories under the Factory Acts, in which any persons, whatever their number be, are employed. Thus, broadly, the same sanitary provisions apply in shops as in workshops, but in the former these are enforced solely by the officers of the local authority, without reservation of any power, as in workshops for the Home Office inspectorate, to act in default of the local authority.

"

Shop Hours.-In four brief acts, 1892 to 1899, still in force, the first very limited steps were taken towards the positive regulation of the employment of shop assistants. In the act of 1904 certain additional optional powers were given to any local authority making a "closing order" fixing the hour (not earlier than 7 P.M. or on one day in the week 1 P.M.) at which shops shall cease to serve customers throughout the area of the authority or any specified part thereof as regards all shops or as regards any specified class of shops. Before such an order can be made (1) a prima facie case for it must appear to the local authority; (2) the local authority must inquire and agree; (3) the order must be drafted and sent for confirmation or otherwise to the central authority, that is, the secretary of state for the Home Department; (4) the order must be laid before both Houses of Parliament. The Home Office has given every encouragement to the making of such orders, but their number in England is very small, and the act is practically inoperative in London and many large towns where the need is greatest. As the secretary of state pointed out in the House of Commons on the 1st of May 1907, the local authorities have not taken enough initiative, but at the same time there is a great difficulty for them in obtaining the required two-thirds majority, among occupiers of the shops to be affected, in favour of the order, and at the same time 'shop assistants have no power to set the law in motion. In England 364 local authorities have taken no steps, but in Scotland rather better results have been obtained. The House resolved, on the date named, that more drastic legislation is required. As regards shops, therefore, in place of such general codes as apply to factories, laundries, mines-only three kinds of protective requirement are binding on employers of shop assistants: (1) Limitation of the weekly total of hours of work of persons under eighteen years of age to seventy-four inclusive of meal-times; (2) prohibition of the Truck. Setting aside the special Hosiery Manufacture employment of such persons in a shop on the same day that they (Wages) Act 1874, aimed at a particular abuse appearing chiefly have, to the knowledge of the employer, been employed in any in the hosiery industry-the practice of making excessive factory or workshop for a longer period than would, in both charges on wages for machinery and frame rents-only two classes of employment together, amount to the number of hours acts, those of 1887 and 1896, have been added to the general permitted to such persons in a factory or workshop; (3) provision | law against truck since the act of 1831, which repealed all prior for the supply of seats by the employer, in all rooms of a shop Truck Acts and which remains the principal act. Further or other premises where goods are retailed to the public, for the amendments of the law have been widely and strenuously deuse of female assistants employed in retailing the goods-themanded, and are hoped for as the result of the long inquiry seats to be in the proportion of not fewer than one to every by a departmental committee appointed early in 1906. The three female assistants. The first two requirements are contained Truck Act Amendment Act 1887, amended and extended the in the act of 1892, which also prescribed that a notice, referring act without adding any distinctly new principle; the Truck to the provisions of the act, and stating the number of hours Act of 1896 was directed towards providing remedies for matters in the week during which a young person may be lawfully shown by decisions under the earlier Truck Acts to be outside employed in the shop, shall be kept exhibited by the employer; the scope of the principles and provisions of those acts. Under the third requirement was first provided by the act of 1899. the earlier acts the main objects were: (1) to make the wages The intervening acts of 1893 and 1895 are merely supplementary of workmen, i.e. the reward of labour, payable only in current to the act of 1892; the former providing for the salaries and coin of the realm, and to prohibit whole or part payment of expenses of the inspectors which the council of any county or wages in food or drink or clothes or any other articles; (2) to

Shop assistants, so far as they are engaged in manual, not merely clerical labour, come under the provisions of the Truck Acts 1831 to 1887, and in all circumstances they fall within the sections directed against unfair and unreasonable fines in the Truck Act of 1896; but, unlike employés in factories, workshops, laundries and mines, they are left to apply these provisions so far as they can themselves, since neither Home Office inspectors nor officers of the local authority have any specially assigned powers to administer the Truck Acts in shops.

forbid agreements, express or implied, between employer and
workmen as to the manner or place in which, or articles on which,
a workman shall expend his wages, or for the deduction from
wages of the price of articles (other than materials to be used
in the labour of the workmen) supplied by the employer. The
act of 1887 added a further prohibition by making
The Truck
Act 1887. it illegal for an employer to charge interest on any
advance of wages, "whenever by agreement, custom,
or otherwise a workman is entitled to receive in anticipation of
the regular period of the payment of his wages an advance as
part or on account thereof." Further, it strengthened the section
of the principal act which provided that no employer shall have
any action against his workman for goods supplied at any shop
belonging to the employer, or in which the employer is interested,
by (a) securing any workman suing an employer for wages against
any counter-claim in respect of goods supplied to the workman
by any person under any order or direction of the employer,
and (b) by expressly prohibiting an employer from dismissing
any worker on account of any particular time, place or manner
of expending his wages. Certain exemptions to the prohibition
of payment otherwise than in coin were provided for in the act
of 1831, if an agreement were made in writing and signed by
the worker, viz. rent, victuals dressed and consumed under the
employer's roof, medicine, fuel, provender for beasts of burden
used in the trade, materials and tools for use by miners, advances
for friendly societies or savings banks; in the case of fuel, pro-
vender and tools there was also a proviso that the charge should
not exceed the real and true value. The act of 1887 amended
these provisions by requiring a correct annual audit in the case
of deductions for medicine or tools, by permitting part payment
of servants in husbandry in food, drink (not intoxicants) or
other allowances, and by prohibiting any deductions for sharpen-
ing or repairing workmen's tools except by agreement not forming
part of the condition of hiring. Two important administrative
amendments were made by the act of 1887: (1) a section
similar to that in the Factory and Mines Acts was added, empower-
ing the employer to exempt himself from penalty for contra-
vention of the acts on proof that any other person was the actual
offender and of his own due diligence in enforcing the execution
of the acts; (2) the duty of enforcing the acts in factories,
workshops, and mines was imposed upon the inspectors of the
Factory and Mines Departments, respectively, of the Home
Office, and to their task they were empowered to bring all the
authorities and powers which they possessed in virtue of the
acts under which they are appointed; these inspectors thus
prosecute defaulting employers and recover penalties under the
Summary Jurisdiction Acts, but they do not undertake civil
proceedings for improper deductions or payments, proceedings
for which would lie with workmen under the Employers and
Workmen Act 1875. The persons to whom the
benefited benefits of the act applied were added to by the act
by Truck
of 1887, which repealed the complicated list of trades
Acts.
contained in the principal act and substituted the
simpler definition of the Employers and Workmen Act, 1875.
Thus the acts 1831 to 1887, and also the act of 1896, apply to
all workers (men, women and children) engaged in manual
labour, except domestic servants; they apply not only in mines,
factories and workshops, but, to quote the published Home
Office Memorandum on the acts, "in all places where
people are engaged in manual labour under a contract with an
employer, whether or no the employer be an owner or agent or
a parent, or be himself a workman; and therefore a workman
who employs, and pays others under him must also observe the
Truck Acts.' The law thus in certain circumstances covers
outworkers for a contractor or sub-contractor. A decision of
the High Court at Dublin in 1900 (Squire v. Sweeney) strengthened
the inspectors in investigation of offences committed amongst
outworkers by supporting the contention that inquiry and
exercise of all the powers of an inspector could legally take
place in parts of an employer's premises other than those in
which the work is given out. It defined for Ireland, in a narrower
sense than had hitherto been understood and acted upon by

Persons

the Factory Department, the classes of outworkers protected,
by deciding that only such as were under a contract personally
to execute the work were covered. In 1905 the law in England
was similarly declared in the decided case of Squire v. The
Midland Lace Co. The judges (Lord Alverstone, C.J.; and
Kennedy and Ridley, J.J.) stated that they came to the con-
clusion with "reluctance," and said: "We venture to express
the hope that some amendment of the law may be made so as
to extend the protection of the Truck Act to a class of work.
people indistinguishable from those already within its provisions."
The workers in question were lace-clippers taking out work to
do in their homes, and in the words of the High Court decision
I though they do sometimes employ assistants are evidently,
as a class, wage-earning manual labourers and not contractors
in the ordinary and popular sense." The principle relied on in
the decision was that in the case of Ingram v. Barnes.

"

Act 1896.

At the time of the passing of the act of 1887 it seems to have been
generally believed that the obligation under the principal act to pay
the entire amount of wages earned" in coin rendered
Meaning of
illegal any deductions from wages in respect of fines.
"wages."
Important decisions in 1888 and 1889 showed this belief
to have been ill-founded. The essential point lies in the definition
of the word "wages" as the "recompense, reward or remuneration
of labour," which implies not necessarily any gross sum in question
between employer and workmen where there is a contract to perform
workman was to get as his recompense for the labour performed. As
a certain piece of work, but that part of it, the real net wage, which the
soon as it became clear that excessive deductions from wages as well
as payments by workers for materials used in the work were not
illegal, and that deductions or payments by way of compensation to
employers or by way of discipline might legally (with the single
exception of fines for lateness for women and children, regulated by
the Employers and Workmen Act 1875) even exceed the degree of
loss, hindrance or damage to the employer, it also came clearly into
view that further legislation was desirable to extend the principles
at the root of the Truck Acts. It was desirable, that is to say, to
hinder more fully the unfair dealing that may be encouraged by half-
defined customs in work-places, on the part of the employer in making
a contract, while at the same time leaving the principle of freedom
of contract as far as possible untouched. The Truck Act The Truck
of 1896 regulates the conditions under which deductions
can be made by or payments made to the employer, out
of the "sum contracted to be paid to the worker," i.e. out of any
gross sum whatever agreed upon between employer and workmar.
It makes such deductions or payments illegal unless they are in
pursuance of a contract; and it provides that deductions (or pay
ments) for (a) fines, (b) bad work and damaged goods, (c) materials,
machines, and any other thing provided by the employer in relation
to the work shall be reasor ible, and that particulars of the same in
writing shall be given to the workman. In none of the cases men-
tioned is the employer to make any profit; neither by fines, for
they may only be imposed in respect of acts or omissions which cause,
or are likely to cause, loss or damage; nor by sale of materials, for
the price may not exceed the cost to the employer; nor by deduc-
tions or payments for damage, for these may not exceed the actual or
estimated loss to the employer. Fines and charges for damage must
be "fair and reasonable having regard to all the circumstances of the
case," and no contract could make legal a fine which a court held
to be unfair to the workman in the sense of the act. The contract
between the employer and workman must either be in writing signed
by the workman, or its terms must be clearly stated in a notice
constantly affixed in a place easily accessible to the workman to
whom, if a party to the contract, a copy shall be given at the time of
making the contract, and who shall be entitled, on request, to obtain
from the employer a copy of the notice free of charge. On cach
occasion when a deduction or payment is made, full particulars in
keep a register of deductions or payments, and to enter therein
writing must be supplied to the workman. The employer is bound to
work-particulars of any fine made under the contract, specifying the
amount and nature of the act or omission in respect of which the fine
was imposed. This register must be at all times open to inspectors
of mines or factories, who are entitled to make a copy of the contract
or any part of it. This act as a whole applies to all workmen in-
cluded under the earlier Truck Acts; the sections relating to fines
apply also to shop assistants. The latter, however, apparently are
left to enforce the provisions of the law themselves, as no inspectorate
is empowered to intervene on their behalf. In these and other cases
a prosecution under the Truck Acts may be instituted by any person.
Any workman or shop assistant may recover any sum deducted by
or paid to his employer contrary to the act of 1896, provided that
proceedings are commenced within six months, and that where he
has acquiesced in the deduction or payment he shall only recover
the excess over the amount which the court may find to have been,
fair and reasonable in all the circumstances of the case. It is ex-
pressly declared in the act that nothing in it shall affect the provisions