Bulletin of the International Labour Office

I. Protection of Women. In ITALY the Acts regulating the employment of women and children, dated June 19th, 1902 (G.B. I., p. 548) and July 7th, 1907 (E.B. II., p. 288) were consolidated by an Act dated November 10th, 1907 (E.B. II., p. 578.)

2. Sunday Rest and Saturday Afternoon Holiday. §3 of the FRENCH Act establishing a weekly day of rest, dated July 13th, 1906 (E.B. I., p. 185), names amongst the industries where the day of rest may be allowed in rotation :-" (10) Industries in which the raw material is of a highly perishable nature; (11) Industries in which any interruption of work would involve the loss or depreciation of the article in course of manufacture," and announces the issue of administrative regulations to define these industries, and also any other classes of undertaking permitted to make use of the right to adopt the rotation system. Regulations of the kind in question were issued by a Decree, dated August 14th, 1907 (which will appear in E.B. III., No. 1), and were further explained in a circular dated September 9th, 1907 (E.B. II., p. 573).

In the UNITED KINGDOM, the Factory and Workshop Act of 1901 requires the employment of women, young persons, and children in factories and workshops to cease at an earlier hour on Saturdays than on the other days of the week. However, if it is shown to the satisfaction of the Secretary of State that the customs or exigencies of a trade carried on in a non-textile factory or workshop require some other day of the week to be substituted for Saturday, he may, by order, allow such a substitution as a special exception. The Secretary of State made use of this power in respect of certain industries in an order dated December 26th, 1907 (E.B. II., p. 577).

3. Payment of Wages. The provisions of §116 of the British Factory and Workshop Act, which requires certain particulars to be supplied to pieceworkers, in order to enable them to calculate the wages due to them (particulars clause) may be extended by the Secretary of State with any modifications which may seem good, to non-textile factories and workshops of any kind. This power was applied in an order dated September 23rd, 1907 (E.B. II, p. 576) in respect of factories or workshops in which the mixing, casting or manufacture of brass or articles of brass is carried on.

4. Employment Bureaux. An AUSTRIAN Ministerial Order, dated August 6th, 1907 (Title, E.B. II., p. 571) regulates the manner of keeping the books of registry offices and employment agencies.

In pursuance of the NORWEGIAN Act relating to State and Municipal subventions to employment bureaux, dated June 12th, 1906 (E.B. I., p. 305), the Department of Commerce and Industry, issued, on July 5th, 1907, regulations respecting the management and business of public employment bureaux. (Title, E.B. II., p. 582.)

5. Emigration and Immigration. In AUSTRIA, the Ministry of the Interior issued a Decree on November 30th, 1907 (E.B. II., p. 571), with a view to work being found for emigrants expected to return from America.

II. Labour Legislation of Particular Trades.

1. Mines, Smelting Works, etc. The FRENCH "Conseil général des Mines," at a sitting on November 3rd, 1906, decided upon the desirability of holding an inquiry into the use of naked lights in inflammable mines, and in pursuance of this decision a circular was issued on January 24th, 1907, ordering the investigation to be undertaken. As a result of the inquiries, the Minister of Public Works issued a circular, dated October 21st, 1907 (E.B. II., p. 575), prohibiting the use of naked lights in all inflammable mines and extending to all such mines the system adopted in respect of explosives in mines subject to fire-damp.

In order that the miners' safety delegates (delegués à la securité des ouvriers mineurs) in France might be able to verify the facts in accident cases, in accordance with the duties laid upon them by the Act of July 8th, 1890, a Ministerial Decree, dated July 11th, 1899, required all accidents causing at least 20 days incapacity to be reported to them. The failure to notify certain cases where no such extended period of disablement was anticipated, gave rise to the issue of a circular, dated October 22nd, 1907 (E.B. II., p. 575), ordering that all accidents shall be notified if there exists any doubt as to the duration of the disablement resulting therefrom.

2. Chemical Industries and Unhealthy Trades. In BELGIUM, the manufacture of phosphoric acid and of phosphates was added to the list of dangerous, unhealthy and injurious trades, by an Order, dated November 26th, 1907 (E.B. II., p. 572).

3. Clothing and Cleaning Trades. In the UNITED KINGDOM the Act of August 28th, 1907 (E.B. II., p. 265), made laundries, with certain modifications, subject to the same provisions as those applying to all other non-textile factories and workshops under the Factory and Workshop Act of 1901. Consequently the Secretary of State has power, in pursuance of §151 of the Factory and Workshop Act to allow separate departments of laundries to be treated as separate factories or workshops and such permission was granted, subject to certain conditions, by an Order dated December 26th, 1907. (E.B. II., p. 577.)

4. Polygraphic Trade. In DENMARK the series of regulations previously issued in pursuance of the Factory Act has been extended by a set of rules applicable to lithography and photography and other reproducing processes, dated May 31st, 1907 (Title E.B. II., p. 573). Besides the usual rules relating to the size, construction, ventilation, and heating of workrooms, the regulations contain provisions respecting the storing of acids and corrosive, inflammable or poisonous materials and the use of respirators in bronzing and other dusty processes.

WORKMEN'S INSURANCE

I. INTERNATIONAL.

I. By a resolution of the GERMAN Federal Council, adopted on May 4th, 1905 (Amtliche Nachrichten des Reichsversicherungsamtes, No. 5; May 15th, 1905. See E.B. II., p. 1), certain provisions of the Accident Insurance Acts were repealed in favour of subjects of the Grand-Duchy of LUXEMBURG. Accordingly, the suspension of annuities in the case of foreigners whose usual

place of abode is not within the realm ceases to apply to Luxemburg. But the right to draw an annuity depends upon the condition that the claimant shall, so long as he does not reside within the territory of either the German Empire or of Luxemburg, conform to any regulations issued for the purpose by the Imperial Insurance Office. In the case of foreigners living in Luxemburg, the Grand-Duchy is held to be a frontier district, so that the dependants of such persons maintain their rights to benefit. The resolution applies retrospectively on and after April 15th, 1903.

An agreement relating to compensation for injuries resulting from industrial accidents was concluded between FRANCE and ITALY on June 9th, 1906. (See E.B. II., pp. 2 and 567.) By this agreement workmen of Italian nationality meeting with accidents arising from their employment on French territory are entitled to the same compensation as if they were French workmen, and vice versa. Employers and insurers in either country have the right to pay compensation due, through the agency of the Consular authority in the other country; these authorities are bound to procure the necessary papers of identity, etc. Compensation claims are met by the Italian National Accident Insurance Fund or the French National Old Age Pensions Fund, as the case may be, by insurance at rates given in a scale appended to the agreement. This scale is only in force for the time being provisionally; it is to be revised, as required, by the administrations of the two funds in the light of experience gained. The exemption from duties and financial advantages granted by the laws of either country are to apply in respect of the other. The agreement is to remain in force for five years from a date agreed upon by the two States, and will be renewed, by tacit consent, from year to year thereafter, unless either party makes use of the right to give notice of withdrawal.

3. Similarly, in pursuance of a convention relating to compensation for injuries resulting from industrial accidents, concluded between FRANCE and LUXEMBURG on June 27th June, 1906 (E.B. II., p. 4) subjects of the State of Luxemburg meeting with industrial accidents in France receive the same compensation and guarantees as those granted to French subjects by accident insurance laws in force in France, and vice versa. Persons employed only temporarily, for less than six months, in the opposite country, and persons in the employment of transport undertakings are compensated under the laws of their own country. The exemptions from duties, etc., granted by Luxemburg legislation are extended to cover documents necessary in administering French legislation in Luxemburg. The convention came into force one month after ratification, and may be denounced at the conclusion of any year thereafter.

4. Finally, an Accident Insurance Treaty was concluded between GERMANY and the NETHERLANDS on August 27th, 1907. This Treaty is drawn up on the principle recommended by the third General Assembly of the International Association for Labour Legislation,* namely, that under workmen's insurance and employer's liability legislation the nationality, residence or temporary place of abode of a claimant should make no difference either to himself or his dependants, but that the domicile of the undertaking should alone be the determining factor.

This principle underlies the German Accident Insurance law, which affects only undertakings carried on within the realm. "Notwithstanding, the definition of undertakings within the realm need not necessarily be limited

*Held at Basle, Sept. 26-28th, 1904. Report of proceedings (in German) published by Gutsav Fischer, Jena, 1905.

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