TABLE OF CONTENTS Part II. Occupational Diseases in Minnesota.. Part III. Apprenticeship in Minneapolis... Part IV. Inspections and Orders Issued.... Part V. Report on Women and Children... Part VI. Special Investigations Page LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL Office of Department of Labor and Industries. To the Honorable. Senators and Representatives of the Legislature of the State of Minnesota. Gentlemen: In compliance with the laws of Minnesota creating the Department of Labor and Industries, I have the honor to transmit herewith the fifteenth biennal report of the work of this department. Respectfully yours, ACKNOWLEDGMENT This department's work has been materially assisted during recent years by the hearty co-operation received from other state departments and from municipal officials. I desire at this time to particularly acknowledge the generous assistance received during the past two years from the Railroad and Warehouse Commission, the State Board of Health, the State Fire Marshal, Attorney General, and Dairy and Food Commission; and from the municipal boards of health, building inspection departments, police departments and fire departments of Minneapolis and St. Paul. The legal aid departments of the United Charities of Minneapolis and St. Paul have also responded heartily to our requests to aid workmen in securing redress of wrongs they had suffered. WILLIAM F. HOUK, Commissioner of Labor. REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF LABOR. One of the most important duties imposed by law upon this department is the duty of observing the operation of the labor laws of this state and making suggestions_to the legislature for the improvement and development of the laws. Before presenting the detailed report on our work we will therefore present our recommendations for the improvement of the state's labor laws. We are making recommendations in this report which we consider of far-reaching importance. The recommendations have all been thoroughly discussed and threshed out by the members of the department and we believe that each of them would be a just, proper and practicable improvement in our labor laws. The recommendations involve amendments to the workmen's compensation act, the law creating this department, the accident report law, the law regulating private employment agencies, the health and sanitary laws of the state as affecting industrial camps and work places. The Workmen's Compensation Act. Three years of experience under the workmen's compensation act have revealed its virtues and its defects. It was frequently stated at the session of 1913, when the compensation act was enacted, that the new act was a radical departure from the old liability system, that it was acknowledged to be but a conservative step in the right direction, and that the act would constitute a beginning from which a permanent law framed along lines that experience would dictate could be built up. We believe that experience has now dictated. Radical modifications can and ought to be made in the law. Further experience under our present act will teach us little that is new. We know now as well as we will ever know what the defects of our law are. We may not yet be ready to work out a law that will permanently solve our compensation problem, but we can overcome the faults in our present law. This department is not so short-sighted that it believes that its recommendations, if adopted, would give us a perfectly satisfactory compensation law, but it believes that the changes advocated would work a long step in the right direction. The department's recommendations for amendment to the compensation act are discussed in detail in the workmen's compensation report, and will simply be enumerated here. They are: 1. That the approval of settlements in undisputed cases be performed by a bureau of compensation in the department of labor instead of by the district courts. 2. That the bureau of compensation be empowered to formally arbitrate disputes, with the right reserved to the parties to refuse (within a definite number of days) to abide by the bureau's decision and to take the matter into court. 3. That a penalty be imposed upon employers who fail to get their settlements approved under section 22. 4. That the officers of the department of labor be given the power to witness signatures in compensation matters and that their witnessing have the same legal value as an attestation by a notary public. 5. That the rate of compensation be increased from 50 per cent of the wage to 66 2-3 per cent of the wage. 6. That the waiting period be reduced to one week. 7. That all persons totally and permanently disabled receive compensation for 550 weeks. 8. That all persons actually dependent receive the same percentage of the wage as a person non-fatally injured receives. 9. That all the medical care necessary to cure from the injury be provided by the employer. |