or educational character are included. The persons protected are
girls and women under 21 years, and boys under 16; and women
over 21 only find a place in the law through the prohibition of their
employment within four weeks after childbirth. As the hours of
labour of adult women remain ordinarily unlimited by law, so are
the hours of boys from 16 to 21. The law of Sunday rest dated the
17th of July 1905, however, applies to labour generally in all industrial
and commercial undertakings except transport and fisheries,
with certain regulated exceptions for (a) cases of breakdown or
urgency due to force majeure, (b) certain repairs and cleaning, (c)
perishable materials, (d) retail food supply. Young workers are
excluded from the exceptions. The absolute prohibitions of employment
are: for children under 12 years in any industry, manufacturing
or mining or transport, and for women and girls under 21
years below the surface in working of mines. Boys under 16 years
and women and girls under 21 years may in general not be employed
before 5 a.m. or after 9 p.m., and one day in the seven is to be
set apart for rest from employment; to these rules exception may
be made either by royal decree for classes or groups of processes, or
by local authorities in exceptional cases. The exceptions may be
applied, generally, only to workers over 14 years, but in mines, by
royal decree, boys over 12 years may be employed from 4 a.m. The
law of 1889 fixes only a maximum of 12 hours of effective work, to be
interrupted by pauses for rest of not less than 112 hours, empowering
the king by decree to formulate more precise limits suited to the
special circumstances of individual industries. Royal decrees have
accordingly laid down the conditions for many groups, including
textile trades, manufacture of paper, pottery, glass, clothing, mines,
quarries, engineering and printing works. In some the daily limit
is 10 hours, but in more 1012 or 11 hours. In a few exceptionally unhealthy
trades, such as the manufacture of lucifer matches, vulcanization
of india-rubber by means of carbon bi-sulphide, the age of exclusion
from employment has been raised, and in the last-named
process hours have been reduced to 5, broken into two spells of 212
hours each. As a rule the conditions of health and safeguarding of
employments in exceptionally injurious trades have been sought by
a series of decrees under the law of 1863 relating to public health in
such industries. Special regulations for safety of workers have been
introduced in manufactures of white-lead, oxides of lead, chromate
of lead, lucifer match works, rag and shoddy works; and for dangers
common to many industries, provisions against dust, poisons,
accidents and other risks to health or limb have been codified in a
decree of 1896. A royal decree of the 31st of March 1903 prohibits
employment of persons under 16 years in fur-pulling and in carotting
of rabbit skins, and another of the 13th of May 1905 regulates use of
lead in house-painting. In 1898 a law was passed to enable the
authorities to deal with risks in quarries under the same procedure.
Safety in mines (which are not private property, but state concessions
to be worked under strict state control) has been provided for
since 1810. In matters of hygiene, until 1899 the powers of the
public health authorities to intervene were insufficient, and a law
was passed authorizing the government to make regulations for every
kind of risk in any undertaking, whether classed under the law of
public health or not. By a special law of 1888 children and young
persons under 18 years are excluded from employment as pedlars,
hawkers or in circuses, except by their parents, and then only if they
have attained 14 years. Abuses of the truck system have, since 1887,
been regulated with care. The chief objects of the law of 1887 were
to secure payment in full to all workers, other than those in agriculture
or domestic service, of wages in legal tender, to prohibit
payment of wages in public-houses, and to secure prompt payment of
wages. Certain deductions were permitted under careful control for
specific customary objects: lodging, use of land, uniforms, food,
firing. A royal order of the 10th of October 1903 required use of
automatic indicators for estimating wages in certain cases in textile
processes. The law of the 15th of June 1896 regulates the affixing in
workplaces, where at least five workers are employed, of a notice
of the working rules, the nature and rate of fines, if any, and the mode
of their application. Two central services the mines inspectorate
and the factory and workshop inspectorate, divide the duties above
indicated. There is also a system of local administration of the
regulations relating to industries classed as unhealthy, but the
tendency has been to give the supreme control in these matters to the
factory service, with its expert staff.
Holland.—The first law for regulation of labour in manufacture was passed in 1874, and this related only to employment of children. The basis of all existing regulations was established in the law of the 5th of May 1889, which applies to all industrial undertakings, excluding agriculture and forestry, fishing, stock-rearing. Employment of children under 12 years is prohibited, and hours are limited for young persons under 16 and for women of any age. These protected persons may be excluded by royal decree from unhealthy industries, and such industries are specified in a decree of 1897 which supersedes other earlier regulations. Hours of employment must not exceed 11 in the 24, and at least one hour for rest must be given between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m., which hour must not be spent in a workroom. Work before 5 a.m. or after 7 p.m., Sunday work, and work on recognized holidays is generally prohibited, but there are exceptions. Overtime from 7 to 10 p.m., under conditions, is allowed for women and young workers, and Sunday work for women, for example, in butter and cheese making, and night work for boys over 14 in certain industries. Employment of women within four weeks of childbirth is prohibited. Notices of working hours must be affixed in workplaces. Underground work in mines is prohibited for women and young persons under 16, but in Holland mining is a very small industry. In 1895 the first legislative provision was made for protection of workers against risk of accident or special injury to health. Sufficient cubic space, lighting, ventilation, sanitary accommodation, reasonable temperature, removal of noxious gases or dust, fencing of machinery, precautions against risk from fire and other matters are provided for. The manufacture of lucifer matches by means of white phosphorus was forbidden and the export, importation and sale was regulated by a law of the 28th of May 1901. By a regulation of the 16th of March 1904 provisions for safety and health of women and young workers were strengthened in processes where lead compounds or other poisons are used, and their employment at certain dangerous machines and in cleaning machinery or near driving belts was prohibited. No penal provision against truck exists in Holland, but possibly abuses of the system are prevented by the existence of industrial councils representing both employers and workers, with powers to mediate or arbitrate in case of disputes.
Switzerland.—In Switzerland separate cantonal legislation prepared the way for the general Federal labour law of 1877 on which subsequent legislation rests. Such legislation is also cantonal as well as Federal, but in the latter there is only amplification or interpretation of the principles contained in the law of 1877, whereas cantonal legislation covers industries not included under the Federal law, e.g. single workers employed in a trade (métier) and employment in shops, offices and hotels. The Federal law is applied to factories, workshops employing young persons under 18 or more than 10 workers, and workshops in which unhealthy or dangerous processes are carried on. Mines are not included, but are regulated in some respects as regards health and safety by cantonal laws. Further, the Law of Employers’ Liability 1881–1887, which requires in all industries precautions against accidents and reports of all serious accidents to the cantonal governments, applies to mines. This led, in 1896, to the creation of a special mining department, and mines, of which there are few, have to be inspected once a year by a mining engineer. The majority of the provisions of the Federal labour law apply to adult workers of both sexes, and the general limit of the 11–hours’ day, exclusive of at least one hour for meals, applies to men as well as women. The latter have, however, a legal claim, when they have a household to manage, to leave work at the dinner-hour half an hour earlier than the men. Men and unmarried women may be employed in such subsidiary work as cleaning before or after the general legal limits. On Saturdays and eves of the eight public holidays the 11-hours’ day is reduced to 10. Sunday work and night work are forbidden, but exceptions are permitted conditionally. Night work is defined as 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. in summer, 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. in winter. Children are excluded from employment in workplaces under the law until 14 years of age, and until 16 must attend continuation schools. Zürich canton has fixed the working day for women at 10 hours generally, and 9 hours on Saturdays and eves of holidays. Bâle-Ville canton has the same limits and provides that the very limited Sunday employment permitted shall be compensated by double time off on another day. In the German-speaking cantons girls under 18 are not permitted to work overtime; in all cantons except Glarus the conditional overtime of 2 hours must be paid for at an enhanced wage.
Sanitary regulations and fencing of machinery are provided for with considerable minuteness in a Federal decree of 1897. The plans of every new factory must be submitted to the cantonal government. In the case of lucifer match factories, not only the building but methods of manufacture must be submitted. Since 1901 the manufacture, sale and import of matches containing white phosphorus have been forbidden. Women must be absent from employment during eight weeks before and after childbirth. In certain dangerous occupations, e.g. where lead or lead compounds are in use, women may not legally be employed during pregnancy. A resolution of the federal council in 1901 classed thirty-four different substances in use in industry as dangerous and laid down that in case of clearly defined illness of workers directly caused by use of any of these substances the liability provided by article 3 of the law of the 25th of June 1881, and article 1 of the law of the 26th of April 1887, should apply to the manufacture. Legislative provision against abuses of the truck system appears to be of earlier origin in Switzerland (17th century) than any other European country outside England (15th century). The Federal Labour Law 1877 generally prohibits payment of wages otherwise than in current coin, and provides that no deduction shall be made without an express contract. Some of the cantonal laws go much farther than the British act of 1896 in forbidding certain deductions; e.g. Zürich prohibits any charge for cleaning, warming or lighting workrooms or for hire of machinery. By the Federal law fines may not exceed half a day’s wage. Administration of the Labour laws is divided between inspectors appointed by the Federal Government and local authorities, under supervision of the cantonal governments. The Federal Government forms a court of appeal against decisions of the cantonal governments.
