In consequence of the Report of the Commissioners, the Factory Act Extension Act, 1867, was passed. It applied specifically to any premises where paper manufacture, letter-press printing and bookbinding were carried on; and generally to any premises where fifty or more people were employed in any manufacturing process. The hours allowed for women and young persons were from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., or from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., with intervals amounting to one and a half hours for meals; on Saturday, work had to cease at 2 p.m. By way of exception, women employed in bookbinding could work fourteen hours a day, provided that their total hours did not exceed sixty per week.
To those trades, such as litho-printing, that did not come under the above Act, was applied the Workshops Regulation Act of the same year, the provisions of which resembled, though they did not coincide with those of the foregoing enactment. The same aggregate number of hours per day and week was established, but more elasticity was permitted in workshops, women and young persons being allowed to work in them for the hours specified at any time between 5 a.m. and 9 p.m., and until 4 p.m. on Saturdays.
Factory and Workshop Act, 1878.
The discrepancies in the regulations applying to different classes of work were productive of a good deal of inconvenience, and after the Commission of 1876 came the Factory and Workshop Act, 1878, having as its object the consolidation and amendment of the existing statutes with a view to rendering their administration more even and secure. The main provisions of the law as it now affects the printing and kindred trades were laid down, although since that date there have been various additions and amendments. By this Act a distinction was drawn between factories and workshops, the chief difference being that, in the former, machinery propelled by steam, water, or other mechanical power must be in use; while in the latter, no such agency must be employed. Certain classes of works, however, apart from all question of mechanical power, were defined as factories and not workshops. Under these came paper-staining works, foundries (including typefoundries), except premises in which such process was carried on by not more than five persons, and as subsidiary to the repair or completion of some other work—paper mills, letter-press printing works, and bookbinding establishments.
Factory and Workshop Act, 1901.
As regards hours of work and overtime, slight modifications have been effected by legislation subsequent to the year 1878, and the present state of the law as laid down in the Factory and Workshop Act, 1901, is as follows:—The regular hours for women and young persons except Saturday, are 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., or 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., with an allowance of one and a half hours for meals, one hour of such meal-time being before 3 p.m. On Saturday the period of employment may be 6 a.m. to 2 p.m., 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., or 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., with not less than half-an-hour for meals. But where a woman or young person has not been actually employed for more than eight hours on any day in a week, and notice of this has been affixed in the factory or workshop and served on the inspector, she may be at work on Saturday from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m., with an interval of not less than two hours for meals.
There are various special restrictions and exceptions applying to different classes of work. No protected person may take a meal or remain during meal-time in any part of a factory or workshop where typefounding is carried on, or where dry powder or dust is used in litho-printing, playing-card making, paper-staining, almanac-making, paper-colouring and enamelling. In certain industries, including printing, bookbinding, machine ruling and envelope making, women may work three days a week, and for thirty days during the year, two hours overtime, provided that such employment ceases at 10 p.m., and that they have two hours for meals. But this limit of overtime applies to the factory or workshop as a whole, and not to the overtime of individual workers.
2. ECONOMIC AND INDUSTRIAL EFFECTS OF LEGISLATION.
The foregoing brief summary of the law has naturally preceded the question as to how far legislation has affected women in these particular trades. When restrictions are imposed upon the labour of any class of wage-earners, their economic position must be altered for good or evil, unless the trade can so adjust itself as to meet exactly the requirements of these restrictions. If the worker is of great importance, an effort will be made to adapt the trade to the novel conditions; if another class of workers or machinery, free from all restrictions, can be as easily used, it is probable that the labour affected will be ousted.