[PUBLIC-NO. 252-64TH CONGRESS.] [H. R. 17700.]. An Act To establish an eight-hour day for employees of carriers engaged in interstate and foreign commerce, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That beginning January first, nineteen hundred and seventeen, eight hours shall, in contracts for labor and service, be deemed a day's work and the measure or standard of a day's work for the purpose of reckoning the compensation for services of all employees who are now or may hereafter be employed by any common carrier by railroad, except railroads independently owned and operated not exceeding one hundred miles in length, electric street railroads, and electric interurban railroads, which is subject to the provisions of the Act of February fourth, eighteen hundred and eighty-seven, entitled "An Act to regulate commerce," as amended, and who are now or may hereafter be actually engaged in any capacity in the operation of trains used for the transportation of persons or property on railroads, except railroads independently owned and operated not exceeding one hundred miles in length, electric street railroads, and electric interurban railroads, from any State or Territory of the United States or the District of Columbia to any other State or Territory of the United States or the District of Columbia, or from one place in a Territory to another place in the same Territory, or from any place in the United States to an adjacent foreign country, or from any place in the United States through a foreign country to any other place in the United States: Provided, That the above exceptions shall not apply to railroads though less than one hundred miles in length whose principal business is leasing or furnishing terminal or transfer facilities to other railroads, or are themselves engaged in transfers of freight between railroads or between railroads and industrial plants. SEC. 2. That the President shall appoint a commission of three, which shall observe the operation and effects of the institution of the eight-hour standard workday as above defined and the facts and conditions affecting the relations between such common carriers and employees during a period of not less than six months nor more than nine months, in the discretion of the commission, and within thirty days thereafter such commission shall report its findings to the President and Congress; that each member of the commission created under the provisions of this Act shall receive such compensation as may be fixed by the President. That the sum of $25,000, or so much thereof as may be necessary, be, and hereby is, appropriated, out of any money in the United States Treasury not otherwise appropriated, for the necessary and proper expenses incurred in connection with the work of such commission, including salaries, per diem, traveling expenses of members and employees, and rent, furniture, office fixtures and supplies, books, salaries, and other necessary expenses, the same to be approved by the chairman of said commission and audited by the proper accounting officers of the Treasury. 150a which each of the parties to the controversy shall recommen "All testimony before the board of investigation shall be gir affirmation, and any member of the board shall have the por oaths of affirmations. It shall be furnished such assistants as in carrying on its work. "Each member of the board of investigation shall receive s as may be fixed by the Board of Mediation and Conciliation, traveling and other necessary expenses. So much as may be appropriation of the Board of Mediation and Conciliation for th ing June thirtieth, nineteen hundred and seventeen, is hereb for the payment of the necessary and proper expenses of boards Authority for incurring expenses, including subsistence, by bo tion shall first be obtained from the Board of Mediation and C "SEC. 13. Pending the efforts of the Board of Mediation an induce the employer or employers and employees to submit the arbitration, and until the investigation of such controversy investigation provided for in section twelve of this act has bec its report thereon published, it shall be unlawful for the emplo to declare or cause a lockout, or for the employees, acting in declare or cause a strike on account of such controversy. "SEC. 14. Any railroad company declaring or causing a locko or agent of any railroad company who assists or participate y causing a lockout contrary to the provisions of this act, shall of not less than $500 nor more than $5,000 for each day or po such lockout exists. "Any officer, agent, or employee of any organized body of l ganization who declares or causes a strike contrary to the prov shall be liable to a fine of not less than $500 nor more or part of a day that such strike exists. Any person who incites, encourages, or aids in a declare or continue a lockout, or any person who ai agent, or employee of any organized body of lab claring or causing a strike contrary to the prov of a misdemeanor and liable to a fine of not les "SEC. 15. If at any time any railway en the transportation of the mails shall cease in its operation because of a strike of its e States shall have power to direct the oper judgment essential for military purposes part of the military forces or such civi United States such persons as he may "Any person refusing when so dr drafted shall be guilty of a crime a ished by fine not exceeding or by both such fine and imprison "SEC 16. Any provisions of thirteen, which are inconsist pealed." SEC. 3. That pending the report of the commission herein provided for and for a period of thirty days thereafter the compensation of railway employees subject to this Act for a standard eight-hour workday shall not be reduced below the present standard day's wage, and for all necessary time in excess of eight hours such employees shall be paid at a rate not less than the pro rata rate for such standard eight-hour workday. SEC. 4. That any person violating any provision of this Act shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction shall be fined not less than $100 and not more than $1,000, or imprisoned not to exceed one year, or both. Approved, September 3, 1916. Approved, September 5, 1916. VII. GREAT BRITAIN. ADJUSTMENT OF RAILWAY DISPUTES IN GREAT BRITAIN. The settlement of disputes as to wages and hours of labor of all classes of railway employees in Great Britain has been provided for since the year 1907, by a series of private agreements negotiated by the Board of Trade. After a threatened railway strike in 1907 an agreement was entered into by the railroads and their employees which arranged for the conciliation or arbitration of all controversies. This arrangement was found to be unsatisfactory in several ways, and after the great railway strike in the United Kingdom in 1911, a royal commission was appointed to investigate and suggest remedies to meet the defects which had been found by experience to exist in the agreement of 1907. As a consequence of the work of this commission, as well as of conferences between the railroads and their employes, a supplementary arrangement was entered into under the auspices of the Board of Trade by which wage disputes are now adjusted. A thorough study was made of these agreements by the United States Bureau of Labor, the results of which were published in 1912. From this study, the following extracts, giving a history of the agreements and an analysis of their operation have been taken. In Great Britain, since November 6, 1907, the settlement by conciliation and arbitration of questions in dispute between railway companies and their employees relating to the rates of wages or hours of labor of any class engaged in the manipulation of traffic has been under an agreement secured through the Board of Trade and signed by representatives of the railway companies and of the leading railway men's trade-unions. This agreement was the outcome of a series of protracted conferences following a threatened general railway strike in 1907. The agreement was signed initially on behalf of 11 of the principal railway companies, but its terms were afterwards accepted by 35 others. The 46 companies which entered into this agreement, together with one other company which had a scheme of conciliation of its own, employed over 97 per cent of the railway workers in the United Kingdom, Under the plan agreed upon conciliation boards were formed for each railway company, to deal with questions referred to them either by the company or its employees which could not be settled through the usual channels. The various grades or occupations of men coming under the scheme were grouped in a suitable number of sections or groups of grades, for each of which a sectional conciliation board was formed. Each sectional board consisted on the men's side of one or more representatives elected by and from among the employees of the particular section in each district, and on the company's side included an appropriate number of officers representing the company, with one or more directors, if practicable. In addition to the sectional boards there was for each railway a central conciliation board, consisting of one or more representatives chosen from each sectional board. The plan provided that any application for a change in rates of wages or hours of labor was first to be made in the usual course through the officials of the departments concerned. A reply was to be given within two months, and if no reply were received within that time, or if the decision were not accepted, the men could require the matter to be referred to the sectional conciliation board, which was to be at once convened to consider it. If the sectional board failed to reach a settlement, the question might be referred, on the motion of either side, to the central board, and upon the failure to reach an agreement by the central board the question should go to arbitration. In case of arbitration a single arbitrator was to be appointed for the particular case by agreement between the two sides of the conciliation board, or, in default of agreement, by 1 Bulletin of the Bureau of Labor, No. 98, January, 1912. Article entitled "Conciliation and arbitration of railway labor disputes in Great Britain," pp. 82-122. |