Art. 3 of the law gives the King the power to prohibit or to regulate the labor of children or youths under sixteen, in certain industries particularly unhealthful or dangerous.
The royal decrees of February 19, 1895, August 5, 1895, and April 5, 1898, have applied this legal provision in the following manner:
(1) Prohibition of labor of children and youths under sixteen in sixty-five industries, enumerated in Articles 1 and 2 of the decree of February 19, 1895. These industries are, for the most part, the chemical ones, or those which manufacture injurious products.
(2) In the lucifer-match factories:
(a) The labor of children and youths under sixteen is prohibited where paste containing white phosphorus is made, or in the factories where matches dipped in such paste are dried. Such labor is also prohibited where matches are dipped in white phosphorus.
(b) Children under fourteen may not be employed in filling boxes with white phosphorus matches (Article 3 of the royal decree of February 19, 1895).
(3) In factories where india-rubber is treated with carbon sulphuret, the presence and the labor of children and youths under sixteen are prohibited (Art. 4 of the same decree).
(4) Art. 6 enumerated a series of industries in which certain places are closed to children and youths under sixteen, because of the injurious and unhygienic character of the labor performed there. Art. 7 prohibits the admission into certain places and labor therein of children under fourteen.
(5) The royal decree of August 5, 1895, regulates the employment of children in rag-shops.
(6) Finally, by force of a royal decree of April 5, 1898 (intercalated into the decree of February 19, 1895, Art. 5) it is forbidden to employ children and youths under sixteen in all places where the treatment of hare and rabbit skins is performed; in all places where the hare and rabbit skins are prepared before the treatment; also in all processes which the skins undergo after the treatment, carrying, brushing, cutting.