Working hours for boys under eighteen were given more specifically in an “inquiry into the health of male munition workers,” made for the committee between February and August, 1916. The investigation followed the same lines as its companion study on the health of female workers, including an examination of over 1,500 boys under eighteen and their working conditions. It was found that “large numbers of boys,” many of them just over fourteen, were “working a net average of sixty-eight and one-half hours per week.” In some cases boys under fourteen had a forty-eight hour week, “but in others boys of eighteen were found to be working an average of over eighty hours per week and it was ascertained that they had worked ninety and even a hundred hours per week.”[242] It is not surprising that the investigator concluded that “hours tend to be too long for the proper preservation of health and efficiency.”
In most cases the Home Office claimed that it had allowed Sunday work only under rather strict conditions. “The Home Office, as a rule, only authorizes Sunday work on condition that each boy or girl employed on Sunday shall be given a day in the same week, or as part of a system of 8 hour shifts in which provision is made for weekly or fortnightly periods of rest. Apart from this, permission for boys over 16 to be employed periodically on Sunday was on July 1 last [1916] only allowed in seven cases, and in three cases for boys under 16. In only one instance are boys employed every Sunday, but this is limited to boys over 16, and the total weekly hours are only about 56. In only one case are girls employed periodically on Sunday, and there the concession is confined to girls over 16.”[243] The employment of girls under 16 at night had been permitted only “in one or two cases ... through exceptional circumstances.” In March, 1916, it was stated that the cases were “under review with the object of arranging for the discontinuance of such employment at the earliest possible moment.”
The recommendations of the Health of Munition Workers Committee called for a considerable improvement in these standards. “The hours prescribed by the factory act [sixty] are to be regarded as the maximum ordinarily justifiable, and even exceed materially what many experienced employers regard as the longest period for which boys and girls can usefully be employed from the point of view of either health or output.” Nevertheless, “in view of the extent to which boys are employed to assist adult male workers and of limitation of supply, the committee, though with great hesitation, recommend that boys should be allowed to be employed on overtime up to the maximum suggested for men, but every effort should be made not to work boys under 16 more than sixty hours per week. Where overtime is allowed substantial relief should be insisted upon at the week ends, and should be so arranged as to permit of some outdoor recreation on Saturday afternoon.” But for girls “similar difficulties did not often arise,” and the committee advised weekly hours of sixty or less and brought forward the claims of the eight hour, three shift system. Under the exceptional circumstances existing, the committee believed that overtime might be continued on not more than three days a week for both boys and girls, provided the specified weekly total of hours was not exceeded.
The absolute discontinuance of Sunday work was strongly advised. “The arguments in favor of a weekly period of rest ... apply with special force in the case of boys and girls; they are less fitted to resist the strain of unrelieved toil, and are more quickly affected by monotony of work.... It is greatly to be hoped that all Sunday work will shortly be completely stopped.”
In regard to night work, an earlier report of the committee,[244] published in January, 1916, held that girls under eighteen should not be employed on a night shift “unless the need is urgent and the supply of women workers is insufficient. In such cases the employment should be restricted to girls over 16 years of age, carefully selected for the work.” But for boys, “it does not seem practical to suggest any change of system, but the committee hope that care will be taken to watch the effect of night work on individual boys and to limit it as far as possible to those over 16.” In the subsequent memorandum on “Juvenile Employment,” the committee “remained of the opinion that girls under eighteen and boys under sixteen should only be employed at night if other labor can not be obtained. Wherever possible it should be stopped.”
The interdepartmental committee on hours of labor, organized late in 1915, which based its action on the recommendations of the Health of Munition Workers Committee, was instrumental in securing improved regulations for protected persons in munition factories as well as for women. The general order of September 9, 1916, made special arrangements for boys and girls over and under sixteen, respectively. Sunday work was abolished for each of these classes of workers. The maximum working week for girls was to be sixty hours, as before the war. But girls between sixteen and eighteen, like adult women, might work overtime on three days a week, provided the weekly maximum was not exceeded. Boys over sixteen were permitted to work as much as sixty-five hours a week, on three days a week as long as twelve hours and a quarter, and twelve hours on other week days. Under this scheme work on Saturday must stop not later than 2 p.m. In “cases where the work was of a specially urgent character,” the twelve hour day and sixty-five hour week, but not the overtime, might be worked by boys of fourteen.[245] The committee had already forbidden the employment of girls under sixteen at night. The prohibition was extended by the general order to boys under fourteen and girls under eighteen, and boys under sixteen were allowed to do night work only in “urgent” cases.
Long as these hours seem according to American standards, they undoubtedly represented a considerable reduction from the hours worked by many munition plants during the early months of the war. But it is doubtful if these standards were completely reached even in the latter part of the struggle. An official report published shortly after the armistice admits that “boys and girls of fourteen and fifteen have been working for as much as twelve hours a day, sometimes more, and have been employed for considerable periods on night work.”[246] The Health of Munition Workers Committee, in its final report dated April, 1918, was still obliged to recommend the discontinuance of night work by girls between sixteen and eighteen and urged that it was “undesirable” for boys under sixteen, though in both cases it was decreasing. “Special concessions” allowing girls under sixteen to work at night had by that time been withdrawn.
Safety, Health and Comfort
The action of the Ministry of Munitions looking to the betterment of working conditions for women and girl munition workers, and the “welfare” movement which followed in other industrial occupations were described in the section on women workers.
The Ministry of Munitions urged the extension of “welfare supervision,” on which it laid much stress, to boys as well as to women and girls. Such action was among the recommendations of the Health of Munition Workers Committee: