14. The domestic worker shall be entitled to leave the service without notice, for specially weighty reasons, as, for instance :

(1) If the nature of the work would make it impossible for him to continue the same without endangering his health.

(2) Should he be unable to remain in the service without affecting his honour.

(3) Should the employer or members of his household ill-treat him. (4) Should the employer or members of his household or persons frequenting the latter place induce or attempt to induce the domestic worker to commit immoral or illegal practices.

(5) Should the employer be about to undertake a journey of some duration, or to take up his domestic domicile outside the jurisdiction of the Viennese police authorities, and, intending to take the domestic worker with him, should he fail to inform him to this effect by the last day on which notice could legally be given prior to the said journey or removal.

(6) Should the parents of the domestic worker require his attendance in the event of a sudden illness, or should any other important matter render imperative the immediate or more or less lengthy presence of the domestic worker, provided that in this case the employer may demand, during the period agreed upon in the contract of work, that the domestic worker shall return to service upon a settlement of the cause of his absence.

(7) Should the employer not pay the wages at the stipulated time, or should it be found that the board is insufficient or that the lodgings are detrimental to health and morals.

Should the employer be to blame for a premature cessation of the contract of work, the domestic worker shall be entitled to compensation in accordance with §II.

18. Every employer shall be bound to care for a domestic worker when ill for a period not exceeding four weeks, provided that the latter has not wilfully contracted the illness, or brought it about through gross negligence, and shall not only pay him his wages but also provide him such board, medical attention, and curatives as may be necessary. Should, however, the contract of work not have existed for four weeks, this obligation shall be limited to fourteen days. The nursing and treatment may also be given, by admitting him to a hospital, or the place of a third party, providea the consent of the domestic worker has been obtained.

Should the nature of the illness require it, the domestic worker may insist upon admission to a hospital.

20. The employer shall be bound to furnish the domestic worker with a certificate setting out the length of service and his qualifications upon the termination of the contract of service.

Additions or marginal remarks which are calculated to render it difficult for the domestic worker to obtain a new situation shall not be entered on the said certificate.

The stamp fees required for legalising the said certificate shall be paid by the employer, and shall not be deducted from the wages.

Should the domestic worker leave the service of his own free will, the employer shall be bound to endorse this on the said certificate.

The police authorities shall, in pursuance of the certificate, supplement the entries already made in the service book on the application of the domestic worker respecting the commencement of service, by entering the date of termination of the contract of service and, if desired by the domestic worker, the essential contents of the said certificate, and they shall certify the entries,

impress the official seal, and return the book, as well as the certificate, to the domestic worker.

This Act shall come into operation on the 1st January of the year following its proclamation.

The Domestic Code, dated 1st May, 1910, as well as other legal regulations relating thereto, as far as they are contrary to this new Domestic Code, shall become void from the date on which the latter comes into force.

III. France

Loi du 22 décembre, 1911, relative à la mise en vigueur de la Convention internationale de Berne sur le travail de nuit des femmes employées dans l'industrie. Act of 22nd December, 1911, relating to the enforcement of the International Convention of Berne respecting the night-work of women employed on industrial work.

I. §4 of the Act of 2nd November, 1892, relating to the labour of children and women is amended as follows:

4. (1) Young male and female workers, up to the age of eighteen, and women may not be employed on any night-work in the businesses enumerated in §1. (2) The night-rest of young female workers, up to the age of eighteen, and of women shall be for a minimum of eleven consecutive hours. This period, however, may be reduced to ten hours in the cases contemplated in Subsection (4) of the present Section and in §7.

(3) All work between 9 o'clock in the evening and 5 o'clock in the morning shall be considered as night work. The work of children of the male sex shall, however, be authorised in underground work in mines, excavations, and quarries, from 4 o'clock in the morning to 10 o'clock at night, and it shall be divided into two shifts, each shift to work not more than nine hours, and subject to the condition that the work of each shift shall be divided by an interval of rest of at least one hour.

(4) To women of more than eighteen years of age there shall be granted, in certain industries to be specified by regulations issued by the public authorities, after simple notification, and on the conditions to be specified in the said regulations, the option of extending the work up to 10 o'clock at night, at certain seasons of the year, for a total period which shall not exceed sixty days. In no case may the working day be extended beyond the limit of twelve hours.

(5) There shall be granted to certain industries fixed by the said regulations of the public authorities, authorisation of temporary exemption, after a previous simple notification and subject to the conditions specified in the said regulations, from the provisions of Sub-sections (1) and (3) of the present Section.

(6) Moreover, in the event of a stoppage of work, owing to accidental interruption or to force majeure, the employer may, in any industry whatever, and within the limit of the number of days' work lost, be granted exemption from the provisions of Sub-sections (1) and (3) of the present Section, by giving previous notification to the inspector, on the conditions specified in the regulations above referred to. The employer, however, may not avail himself of this exemption for more than fifteen nights in one year without authorisation by the inspector."

2. The present Act shall come into force on 1st January, 1912.

IV. Great Britain and Ireland

Act to provide for insurance against loss of health and for the prevention and cure of sickness and for insurance against unemployment, and for purposes incidental thereto. Dated 16th December, 1911.* (1 and 2 George V., Ch. 55.)

1.

V. Italy

R. decreto n. 104 che aggiunge un capoverso alle disposizioni del R. decreto riordinante il Consiglio della previdenza e delle assicurazioni sociali. 24 febbraio, 1910. (Gazzetta Ufficiale 1910, n. 71, p. 1,461.)

Royal Decree No. 104, adding a part to the provisions contained in the Royal Decree, reorganising the Provident and Social Insurance Council. (Dated 24th February, 1910.)

2.

Decreto ministeriale per la inclusione d'una voce nell' elenco riguardante le industrie ammesse a fruire della eccezioni pel riposo festivo II aprile, 1910. (Gazzetta Ufficiale 1910, n. 86, p. 1,752.)

Ministerial Decree for the inclusion of an item in the list relating to the industries admitted to the benefit of the exceptions with regard to rest on holidays. (Dated 11th April, 1910.)

In Table "B," approved by Royal Decree of 31st October, 1908, † there shall be included the item indicated in the accompanying list, relating to the industries admitted to the benefit of the exceptions fixed by §2 (c) of the Act referred to.

TABLE B.

Industries admitted to the benefit of exemption from the obligation of the weekly rest for a maximum period of six weeks in the year [§2 (c) of the Act, and §6 of the Regulations].

This Act is available to British and American readers in many editions. An official version is published by Wyman & Sons, Fetter Lane, London, E.C., at 6d.

† Text E.B. V., p. 286.

3. Legge del 17 luglio 1910, n. 520, relativa alla istituzione di una Cassa di maternità. (Gazzetta Ufficiale 1910, n. 181; Bollettino dell'Ufficio del lavoro XIII., 1,311; XIV., 731.)

Act of the 17th July, 1910 (No. 520), relating to the institution of a Maternity Fund.

I. A Maternity Fund shall be instituted with the object of subsidising the women workers contemplated by the Act (Codified Text), dated 10th November, 1907,* No. 818, relating to the employment of women and children in cases of childbirth and abortion.

The office of the Fund shall be in Rome.

It shall be managed by the National Provident Invalidity and Old-Age Fund for Workmen, as a self-governing section of the National Fund itself, and shall enjoy all the benefits (with the exception of the endowments and the receipts referred to in Part II. of the Act, Codified Text, dated 30th May, 1907,† No. 376), privileges, and exemptions from taxation granted to the latter institution.

The certificates, public deeds, receipts, and all other documents necessary in order that women workers may enjoy the benefits of the Fund shall be exempt from stamp tax and registration fees, and shall be granted free of charge.

2. The receipts of the Maternity Fund shall consist of the following:

(1) A compulsory annual contribution to be paid at the rate of : 1 Lire for every female worker between fifteen and twenty years of age; 2 Lire for every female worker between twenty and fifty years of age.

(2) The proceeds of monetary fines for infractions of the present Act and of the Regulations in pursuance thereof and of the amounts paid in by the employer or manufacturer according to the terms of §7 of the present Act.

(3) By legacies and donations made to the Fund by charitable bodies or private individuals, or any other proceeds which may hereafter be intended for the Fund.

The compulsory yearly contribution referred to in Sub-section (1) shall be payable half by the female worker and half by the employer or manufacturer.

That portion of the contribution payable by the female worker shall be deducted from her wages by the employer or manufacturer, who shall be prohibited from keeping back, under that head, any larger amount for any reason or pretext under penalty of a fine ranging from 50 to 500 Lire.

3. The Fund shall grant every female worker, in the event of childbirth or abortion, an allowance of 30 Lire, on conditions which shall be determined in the Regulations, an exception being made in cases of intentional abortion, as provided for in §381 of the Penal Code, whereto the allowance shall not apply.

The allowance shall be paid to the mother during the first week of accouchement, according to the rules which will be laid down in the Regulations; these may, moreover, stipulate for the allowance to be wholly or partially advanced by the employer or manufacturer, subject to its being refunded by the Maternity Fund.

* Text E.B. II., pp. LXIII., 578.

† Text E.B. IV., p. 329.

За.

The allowance referred to in the foregoing Section shall be increased to 40 Lire for accouchement, by means of an allowance of 10 Lire granted by the State.

4. The contribution referred to in §2 shall be paid by instalments at such times as may be stipulated in the Regulations, and the payment shall be effected through the employer or manufacturer in such shape and form as the said Regulations shall enact.

5. The credit attaching to the allowance may neither be transferred, pledged, nor attached.

Any agreement made with the object of avoiding payment of the allowances or diminishing the measure thereof laid down by the provision of §3 shall be null and void.

6. The steps necessary in order to obtain the allowance referred to in $3 and 3a shall be taken within the term of one year, reckoning from the date of childbirth or abortion; except in the case of an intentional abortion being proceeded against, in which case the said provisions shall be understood to be suspended until a definite decision is given.

The female worker shall be entitled to the aforesaid allowance even in cases when the whole amount or part of the amount of the contributions payable according to the terms of §2 shall not have been paid. Any person who shall have been guilty of such omission shall be liable to a fine of from 50 to 500 Lire, and, in such a case, the employer or manufacturer shall, in addition, be compelled to pay into the Maternity Fund an amount equivalent to ten times that which was unpaid.

7. The Board of Directors of the National Provident Invalidity and Old Age Fund for Workmen shall provide for the management of the Maternity Fund by a committee appointed by the former institution.

The above-mentioned committee shall be composed, to the extent of onethird, of representatives of employers and manufacturers, and one-third of representatives of female workers to be selected by the Minister of Agriculture, Industry, and Commerce, the former from amongst manufacturers, and the latter from amongst workpeople belonging to Boards of Arbitration (Collegi di Probiviri), the members of which employ women.

8. The collection of amounts due to the Maternity Fund, connected with and for the purposes of the present Act, shall be effected by the management of the Fund, in the manner and subject to the privileges and all rules in force relating to the collection of direct taxes.

9. The present Act shall not apply to the State in respect of female workers employed in its establishments and for whom, according to special Acts and Regulations, an Allowance Fund is ensured in cases of accouchement, and which is not inferior to that established by the present Act.

10. By means of Regulations to be ratified by a Royal Decree within six months subsequent to the ratification of the present Act, and after the Higher Labour Council, the Provident and Mutual Insurance Council, and the State Council have been heard, rules shall be drawn up for the working and management of the Fund, and penalties fixed for the non-observance of the said rules.

II. The Minister of Agriculture Industry and Commerce shall lay before Parliament every year the report and balance sheet of the Fund, together with a report respecting the technical reform of the working thereof.