Employment books shall be drawn up on a form prescribed in the regulations. They shall be supplied to the local authorities from the Ministry of Agriculture, Industry and Commerce, and handed, free of charge, to each worker by the Burgomaster of the place where he usually resides.

Each employment book shall contain the following particulars: the date of birth of the woman under age or child in question; a certificate of vaccination, health and fitness for the allotted work; a certificate that the lower course of elementary instruction (in the sense of §2 of the Act of July 15th, 1877, No. 3961) has been attended, and that the school leaving examination has been passed (unless the school authority shall have certified such person as mentally deficient), and that compulsory classes in the upper course of elementary instruction (in the sense of §1 of the Act of July 8th, 1904, No. 182), where such exist, have been attended.

Manufacturers employing children of either sex who are not in possession of certificates that they have attended the lower course of elementary instruction (in the sense of §2 of the Act of July 15th, 1877, No. 3961), that they have passed the school-leaving examination, and that they have attended compulsory classes in the upper course of elementary instruction (in the sense of §1 of the Act of July 8th, 1904), shall take steps to comply with the provisions of this Act before July 1st, 1910.

The local sanitary officer shall undertake the medical examination and enter the medical certificates in the employment books without demanding any fee from the worker.

Any expenses incurred in connection with the first and subsequent examinations shall be borne by the local authorities. The regulations shall specify the cases in which a medical examination must be repeated.

The employment book, medical and birth certificates and all documents necessary to procure the same shall be free of stamp duty.

3. (§3 of Act No. 242 of June 19th, 1902.) Any person who employs women of any age or children under 15 in any processes designated in this Act and the regulations, shall give notice of the said employment regularly each year on dates determined in the regulations and in the form prescribed therein.

Moreover, any such person shall, in the course of the year give notice of all changes introduced relating to cessation of work, alteration of the firm, introduction of mechanical power, or other circumstances contemplated in the regulations. The said notices shall be presented in duplicate to the Prefect of the district where the undertaking is carried on. The Prefects shall transmit the notices without delay to the Ministry of Agriculture, Industry and Commerce, and keep a register of data taken from the respective notices.

4. (§4 of Act No. 242 of June 19th, 1902, and §3 of Act No. 416 of July 7th, 1907.) Dangerous processes, or those requiring excessive physical exertion, or injurious to health, in which children under 15 and women under age may not be employed, shall be defined by Royal Decree issued after consultation with the Sanitary Council of Industry and Commerce and the Chief Labour Council.

Dangerous and unhealthy processes in which children under 15 and women under age may be employed in exceptional circumstances subject to any precautionary regulations and conditions which may be found necessary, shall be defined in the same manner.

5. (§5 of Act No. 242 of June 17th, 1902, and §§4, 5 and 10 of Act No. 416 of July 7th, 1907.)

work.

No male person under 15 or women under age shall be employed in night

The prohibition of the night-work of women may be rescinded at seasons, and in cases when women are employed in manipulating either raw materials or partly manufactured goods which are liable to rapid changes, if this is absolutely necessary in order to prevent damage to such materials. An Administrative Order shall be issued, in pursuance of this Act, containing detailed provisions regulating the granting of such exceptions.

Night-work shall be work performed between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m. from October 1st to March 31st, and between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. from April 1st to September 30th.

The Minister of Agriculture, Industry and Commerce may, with the approval given, after consultation, of the Provincial Sanitary Council, alter the above limits for the definition of night-work in places where this is necessary in view of special climatic or labour conditions.

The Minister of Agriculture, Industry and Commerce may allow firms now employing women at night to continue to carry on such night-work until December 31st, 1907, provided that the following conditions are complied with : (a) The work of adapting premises or introducing machinery and other alterations required to facilitate the cessation of night-work shall be put in hand at once.

(b) Women under 18 shall not take part in night-work.

(c) Night-work shall be gradually reduced in proportion as the reasons in view of which the above extension of time was allowed, become of less account.

If work is carried on in two shifts, it may begin at 5 a.m. and be continued until II p.m.

On and after January 1st, 1911, the daily period of employment allowed above where work is carried on in two shifts, shall be included between the hours of 5 a.m. and 10 p.m., in accordance with Article 2 of the Berne Convention of September 26th, 1906, and with the exception allowed in Article 8, last paragraph, of the said Convention, provided that the same shall have been ratified by all the signatory States.

6. (§6 of Act No. 242 of June 19th, 1902.) No woman shall be employed for one month after confinement. In exceptional circumstances a woman may resume work at an earlier date, but in no case before three weeks have elapsed, and then only provided that she procures from the Sanitary Authorities of the district where she usually resides a certificate stating that her state of health is such as to admit of her performing the work in question without injurious results.

7. (87 of Act No. 242 of June 19th, 1902,and §6 of Act No. 416 of July 7th, 1907.) No child of either sex between the ages of 12 and 15 years shall be employed for more than 11 hours, and no woman, of any age, for more than 12 hours in any 24.

If work is carried on in two shifts, as contemplated in §5, last paragraph but one, the duration of a shift shall not exceed 8 hours.

The period of employment shall be reckoned from the moment of entering the factory, workshop, workplace, pit, mine or quarry, until the moment of leaving the same, breaks for rest only being excepted.

8. (§8 of Act No. 242 of June 19th, 1902, and §7 of Act No. 416 of July 7th, 1907.) The period of employment of children and women of any age shall be broken by one or more periods of rest, the duration of which shall, if the total period of employment is from 6-8 hours, amount to at least one hour; if the total period of employment is from 8-11 hours, at least one and a half hours; if the total period of employment exceeds 11 hours, at least 2 hours.

With the consent of the workmen concerned, the one and a half hour break may be reduced to one hour, if work is not carried on for more than 11 hours; or even to half an hour, if work is carried on in two shifts as contemplated in $5, last paragraph but one.

In no case shall a child or woman under age be employed for more than six hours without a break.

9. (§9 of Act No. 242 of June 19th, 1902.) Women of any age and children under 15 shall be allowed a complete day of rest (24 hours) in every week.

10. (§10 of the Act No. 242 of June 19, 1902.) Without prejudice to the provisions of any other Act or regulations, all owners, directors, managers, contractors, who employ children or women of any age shall, in accordance with the regulations, adopt or cause to be adopted in all workplaces and rooms attached, bedrooms, rooms provided for women to nurse their infants and mess-rooms, such measures as are necessary in view of the requirements of hygiene, safety and morality.

In factories where women are employed they shall be allowed to nurse their infants either in a special room attached to the industrial premises or arrangements shall be made for permitting them to leave work for the purpose under conditions and at hours determined in the rules of employment, apart from the breaks for rest prescribed in §8.

In factories where at least 50 women are employed, a special room shall always be available for the nursing of infants.

II. (§II of Act No. 242 of June 19th, 1902.) The rules of employment drawn up for the undertakings designated in this Act shall conform to the provisions of the Act and of the regulations contemplated in §15. Their authenticity must be proved by certificate of the Mayor, and they must be affixed in a place where they can be easily read by the persons concerned and by the officials named in the following Sections.

12. (§12 of Act No. 242 of June 19th, 1902, and §8 of Act No. 416 of July 7th, 1907.) The enforcement of this Act shall rest with the Minister of Agriculture, Industry and Commerce, who shall exercise the necessary supervision through the agency of the Inspectors of Industry, the Mining Engineers and their assistants, and the officers of the Judicial Police.

Members of the inspecting staff shall have the right to enter freely all parts of the undertakings designated in §1, and shall ascertain whether the provisions of this Act and the Order are being contravened.

The official reports made on contraventions shall be transmitted without delay to the Judicial Authorities having jurisdiction.

A copy of such reports shall be forwarded for the perusal of the local Prefect.

The provisions of the third paragraph of §5 of Act No. 80 of March 17th, 1898, respecting the revealing of trades secrets, shall apply to the persons. mentioned above.

13. (§13 of Act No. 242 of June 19th, 1902.) Any person bound to observe the provisions of the first nine Sections of this Act who shall contravene the same, shall be punishable by fine not exceeding 50 lire for each person employed in respect of whom the offence was committeed. Notwithstanding, the total fine imposed shall not exceed 5,000 lires.

Contraventions of the provisions of §§10 and II shall be punishable by fine of from 50 to 500 lire.

Contraventions of the regulations contemplated in §15 shall be punishable by a fine not exceeding 50 lire.

Where the offence is repeated the said fines shall be increased by from one-sixth to one-third.

Fines imposed shall be paid into the National Old Age and Invalidity Insurance Fund founded by Act No. 350 of July 17th, 1898.

14. (§14 of Act No. 242 of June 19th, 1902.) In the case of offences punishable by fine only, the accused person may procure the withdrawal of the prosecution by paying before the proceedings commence, a sum equivalent to the highest fine fixed for the offence together with the costs.

15. ($15 of Act No. 242 of June 19th, 1902, and §9 of Act No. 416 of July 7th, 1907.)

The provisions necessary for enforcing this Act shall be drawn up within six months of the coming into force of Act No. 416 of July 7th, 1907, and embodied in the Order issued by Royal Decree on January 29th, 1903 (No. 41). A single uniform text shall be compiled and issued by Royal Decree, after consultation with the State Council, the Chief Sanitary Council, the Council of Industry and Commerce and the Labour Council.

Any later amendments of the regulations shall come into force four months after their notification.

16. (§16 of Act No. 242 of June 19th, 1902.) All legal provisions contrary to this Act are hereby repealed.

VIII. Norway

1. Vedtaegt for de offentlige arbeidskontorer. Utfaerdiget af handels- og industridepartementet den 5te juli 1907.

1. Regulations for public employment bureaux. Issued by the Department of Commerce and Industry, July 5th, 1907. (A German translation may be found in Der Arbeitsnachweis " I., No. 6, and 'Soziale Rundschau IX., 214.)

66

IX. Switzerland

66

CANTONS.

VAUD.

1. Loi créant une caisse cantonale vaudoise des retraites populaires. (Le 2 mars 1907.)

1.

Act to create a general old age pensions fund for the Canton of Vaud. (March 2nd, 1907.)

I. There shall be created at Lausanne, under the name of the " Old Age Pensions Fund of the Canton of Vaud," a mutual fund for assurance against old age with the object of facilitating and encouraging the institution of old age pensions under the most favourable conditions.

2. The said fund, which shall be recognised as a legal person, shall carry on operations subject to the control, and with the guarantee, of the State. The fund shall be administered and financed independently of State

affairs.

The fund shall be exempt entirely from all Cantonal and Communal taxes, including stamp duty.

A detailed report on the work of the fund, its financial position and its investments shall be published annually as a supplement to the Administrative Report of the Council of State.

4. The fund shall accept contributions from all persons domiciled in the canton and from all natives of the canton domiciled outside the canton, and shall apply the same to the institution of old age pensions. Each person assured shall fix the age for beginning to receive his pension somewhere between 50 and 65 years.

5. The payment of contributions shall be optional, and may be effected at any time. They may be interrupted or suspended as the person assured may desire, without prejudice to the rights acquired by virtue of previous contributions.

Each contribution shall be held to be a separate operation, not binding the assured person in any way in the future.

The amount of the pension to which a right has been acquired shall be fixed at the conclusion of each financial year for all contributions paid during the same, on the basis of the scale in force at the date when the contribution was paid.

6. The fund may legally accept the contributions of married women, or persons under age without the consent of their husbands, parents or guardians.

7. The contributions may be made with or without reservation (à capital réservé, à capital abandonné). In the latter case they shall become the definite property of the fund, and in the former case they shall be refunded on the death of the assured, without interest, to the persons designated by him. 8. No pension exceeding 1,200 francs per annum shall be acquired on capital deposited with or without reservation.

In no case shall a sum exceeding 1,000 francs be contributed in respect of the same person in the course of one financial year.

This maximum shall be reduced to 250 francs in the 10 years preceding the age fixed for the payment of the pension to begin.

9. Pensions shall be payable at the conclusion of each quarter. On the first occasion the amount of the pension due in respect of the period elapsed since the date when the assured reached the age to receive the pension shall be calculated pro rata. The exemption allowed in respect of the minimum of existence granted by the Act relating to the taxation of movable property (impot mobilier) shall apply to pensions.

Pensions shall not be subject to attachment or distraint in respect of any amount resulting from contributions paid by the State or by third persons.

IO. The scales and conditions serving as a basis for the operations of the pensions fund shall be subject to the approval of the Council of State which may, at any time, require the same to be amended.

II. The State shall co-operate in the institution of old age pensions by allocating an encouragement premium (prime d'encouragement) to all persons for whom a minimum sum of 6 francs shall have been contributed in the course of one financial year, either directly or through a third person, subject to the exceptions prescribed in §13.

Encouragement premiums shall be paid in without reservation at the conclusion of each financial year of the fund, and shall go towards the formation of a pension payable at the same age as that accruing in respect of the corresponding contributions paid by the assured himself.

12. The encouragement premium granted by the State shall be equal to :