CHAPTER IV. III.—CIVIL LEGISLATION, AS AFFECTING MASTERS, SINCE 1824. AFFECTING IV. c. 37. Wages must In a previous chapter we referred to the operation of the Truck III.CIVIL AB Acts prior to 1824. The Act now in force was passed on the MASTERS. 15th October, 1831, viz., 1 & 2 Will. IV. c. 37 (a), and is 1 & 2 Will. intituled "An Act to prohibit payment, in certain trades, of wages Truck Act. in goods or otherwise than in the current coin of the realm." Its leading provisions are, that no contract between masters and workmen is to contain any stipulation as to the manner in which wages shall be expended; that wages must be paid in coin, be paid in otherwise the workman can recover whatever part thereof has not been so paid (6). No set off can be pleaded by a master for goods supplied to the workman, even although he should have been paid his wages in terms of the Act, and have bought goods on credit at the store. This question arose under the previous Truck Act, (a) 1 & 2 Will. IV. c. 37. (b) Chawner v. Cummings, 8 Q. B. 311. The plaintiff, a frame-work knitter, worked as a weaver of gloves for defendant, in frames provided by defendant, at an agreed gross price per dozen pairs. Defendant was a subcontractor, furnishing the work by agreement to a master manufacturer, who found machinery and materials. Defendant settled with plaintiff weekly for the work done, deducting out of the gross price per dozen certain charges which were according to the known custom of the trade, viz., 1st, A frame rent per week; 2nd, a payment per week for use of defendant's premises to work in, standing room for the frame, defendant's trouble and loss of time in procuring materials and conveying them to plaintiff, defendant's responsibility to the master manufacturer under whom he contracted for the work, superintendence of the work, sorting the goods when made, and delivering them to the master manufacturer; 3rd, payment to a boy for winding the coin. AFFECTING MASTERS. IV. c. 37. III. CIVIL AS 12 Geo. I. c. 34, in a case which has been already referred to (H. Monteith & Co., ante, p. 126), where the workers of a cotton 1 & 2 Will. mill, who were always paid in money, of their own accord purTruck Act. chased goods at a store kept by the company-one of the workers who had been dismissed was entitled to a sum of £5 of wages, but he was due some £4 for goods supplied. It was held that there was no set off for such deduction. The present Truck Act, however, specially provides that no set off can be pleaded. The Penalties. penalties on employers are, for a first offence, any sum not exceeding £10 nor less than £5; for a second, a sum not exceeding £20 nor less than £10; and in case of a third offence an employer will be guilty of a misdemeanor, and, being convicted, "shall be punished by fine only at the discretion of the court, so that the fines in any case shall not exceed £100." Offences, when they do not amount to a misdemeanor, can be inquired into before any two justices having jurisdiction, and the penalties can be recovered by any person or persons suing for the same before the said Levied by justices. These can be levied by distress and sale; and in the event of there being no goods or chattels to distrain, or the Imprison- penalties not being paid, the offender can be committed to prison for three calendar months. As to the application of the penalties, the informer may receive any sum not exceeding £20, and the rest of the penalty is to be paid to the rates of the county. All actions must be raised within three months after an offence is Workmen to alleged to have been committed. This Act applies to artificers, applies. workmen, or labourers, &c., employed in or about the making, casting, converting, or manufacturing of iron or steel, or any parts, branches, or processes thereof (c); or in or about the working or getting of any mines of coal (d), ironstone, limestone, salt-rock; or in or about the working or getting of stone, slate, or clay (e), distress. ment for three months on failure of payment. whom Act (c) In Millard v. Kelly, 32 Law Times, 123, a labourer employed in loading boats with iron was held to be within the Act. (d) In Bowers v. Loveken, 25 L. J. Q. B. 371; S. C. 6; E. & B. 584, butty colliers who engaged to get coal at so much per yard, and were bound to work personally, and who did so work, were held within the Act, although they employed other workmen under them. See also Sleeman v. Barrett, 2 H. & C. 934; 10 Jur. N. S. 476; 33 L. J. Exch. 153; 12 W. R. 411; 9 L. T. (e) A contractor to execute a railway cutting at so much per cubic yard, who employs men under him to assist, is not a workman or labourer within the true meaning of this Act, although he does a portion of the work himself. Where the earth removed is clay, quaere whether a labourer engaged in the removal of such earth is a person "employed in or about the working or getting of clay," within section 19. AFFECTING IV. c. 37. or in the making or preparing of salt, bricks, tiles, or quarries; or III. CIVIL AS in or about the making or manufacturing of any kind of nails, chains, rivets, anvils, vices, spades, shovels, screws, keys, locks, 1 & 2 Will. bolts, hinges, or any other articles or hardwares made of iron or Truck Act. steel, or of iron and steel combined, or of any plated articles of cutlery, or of any goods or wares made of brass, tin, lead, pewter, or other metal, or of any japanned goods or wares whatsoever; or in or about the making, spinning, throwing, twisting, doubling, winding, weaving, combing, knitting, bleaching, dyeing, printing, or otherwise preparing of any kinds of woollen, worsted yarn, stuff jersey, linen, fustian, cloth, serge, cotton, leather, fur, hemp, flax, mohair, or silk manufactures whatsoever; or in or about any manufactures whatsoever, made of the last mentioned materials, whether the same be or be not mixed one with another; or in or about the making or otherwise preparing, ornamenting, or finishing of any glass, porcelain, china, or earthenware, or any parts, branches, or processes thereof, or any materials used in any of such last mentioned trades or employments; or in or about the making or preparing of bone, thread, silk, or cotton lace, or of lace made of any mixed materials. The Act does not extend to domestic servants, nor to servants in husbandry. justices en trades speci from sitting construed No justice of the peace engaged in any of the trades above Exclusion of specified, or the father, son, or brother of any such justice, is gaged in allowed to act as a justice under the Act; and where in cities fed in Act and boroughs or corporate towns the magistrates may be so dis- in judgment. qualified, provision is made for the county justices, not themselves ineligible, hearing and determining any offence committed against the Act. While the legislature has been thus careful to protect the interests of the workman, it is specially provided that nothing Act not to be contained in the Act shall be construed to prevent an employer to prevent from supplying any artificer with medicine or medical attendance; from supplyor with any fuel or materials, tools, or implements employed in articles. his trade or occupation, if he is employed in mining; or any hay, corn, or other provender to be consumed by any horse or other beast of burden employed by him; nor from demising to any workman or labourer the whole or part of any tenement, at any rent to be therein reserved; nor from supplying or contracting to supply any victuals dressed or prepared under the roof of any Riley v. Warden, 2 Exch. 59; Shar- mar v. v. Barns, 26 L. J. Q. B. 82, 319; S. employers ing certain AFFECTING MASTERS. IV. c. 37. III. CIVIL AS such employer, and there consumed by such artificer; nor from making any deductions from wages in respect of such rent, or of the articles before referred to, provided they do not exceed the 1 & 2 Will. real value thereof, but then only when such deductions are agreed Truck Act. to by a contract in writing, signed by the workmen. Employers are also permitted to advance to workmen money to be contripermitted to buted by the latter to any friendly society or savings' bank duly contribu- established by law, or to make advances to them for their relief in sickness, or for the education of their children. Advances be made for tions to friendly societies. FACTORY 3 & 4 Will. IV. c. 103. young persons. It is a very common practice for employers to give orders to grocers and others to furnish their workmen with goods, but this was stated to be illegal in the case of Finlayson (f). Per Lord Benholm-" When payment of wages is attempted to be made by an employer by orders on a shop, whether he is or is not interested in the profits of such shop, as I read the Act of Parliament, such practices are illegal." The Acts which have from time to time been passed with the view of regulating factories and mills are very numerous. Several Acts have been passed for the appointment of inspectors for the preservation of the health, and for regulating the education and hours of work, of children employed in mills and factories. The most general of these Acts is the 7 & 8 Vict. c. 15. By the 3 & 4 Will. IV. c. 103, persons under eighteen years Children and of age are not allowed to work at night—that is, between halfpast eight in the evening and half-past five in the morning; but this provision is not to extend to apprentices or others employed in certain processes, nor to children above thirteen employed in packing, nor to lace manufactories. Children whose hours of labour are limited to forty-eight weekly, require to attend a school chosen either by the parents or an inspector, and one penny in (f) Finlayson, 1st July, 1864; Scottish Jurist, vol. xxxvi. p. 647. As to the right of artificers to recover wages if not paid in the current coin, see case of Weaver v. Floyd, 21 L. J. Q. B. 151; and as to set-off, consult Riley v. Warden, 2 Exch. 59. To constitute an offence against the Act, it is not necessary that the payment of wages in goods instead of money should be the result of any contract or understanding between the employer and the workmen; the mere payment is enough. Wilson v. Cookson, 13 C. B. N. S. 496; 9 Jur. N. S. 177; 32 L. J. M. C. 177; 11 W. R. 426; 8 L. T. N. S. 53. The offence is complete where the note is given, although the goods were delivered out of the jurisdiction of the convicting justice. Ashworth v. Drury, 28 L. J. M. C; 5 S. C. 32; Law Times Rep. 103. Affidavits in support of a rule for a certiorari to remove a conviction under section 9 should be intituled "In the Queen's Bench" simply. Ex parte Wallworth, 4 D. & L. 403. AFFECTING every shilling is to be deducted from the child's earnings for the III. CIVIL AS expense thereof. It is unlawful to employ children unless they produce weekly to the factory-masters the schoolmaster's ticket of attendance. Inspectors may form regulations for the enforcement of the Act. The interior walls of mills and ceilings of rooms are to be lime-washed every year. Acts, 7 Vict. of inspector. By the 7 Vict. c. 15, the inspector has power to enter a Factory factory at any time by day or night when any person shall be c. 15. Powers employed therein, and to enter by day any place which he shall have reason to believe to be a factory, and any school in which children employed in factories are educated, and at all times to take with him into such factory the certifying surgeon of the district and a constable or peace officer whom he may need to assist him; and shall have power to examine, either alone or in the presence of any one he shall think fit, every person whom he shall find in a factory or in such a school, or whom he may have reason to believe to be or to have been employed in a factory within two months previously to the time when he shall require him to be examined touching any matter within the provisions of the Act, and the inspector may require such person to make a declaration of the truth of the matters respecting which he shall have been examined. The inspector is also to have the power to examine the register, certificates, notices, and other documents kept in pursuance of the Act, and every person who shall refuse to be examined, or refuse to sign his name, or affix his mark, to a declaration of the truth of the matters respecting which he shall have been examined, or who shall in any manner attempt to conceal, or otherwise prevent any child or other person from appearing before or being examined by an inspector, or who shall prevent or knowingly delay the admission of an inspector to any part of a factory or school, or shall prevent an inspector from pursuing his examinations, shall be deemed guilty of wilfully obstructing the inspector in the execution of the powers intrusted to him. about to oc tory to send All persons intending to occupy a factory are required to Persons send, within one month, a written notice to the office of the cupy a facfactory inspectors, London, stating the name of the factory, the notice to place, the post-office, the nature of the work, and amount of the spector. moving power, and the name of the firm. The inspectors are empowered to fix the surgeons' fees, and factory in |