Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - V. Social Movements - 1. Labour Questions and Social politics - Legislation for the Protection of Workers. (Factory Laws etc.). By M. Marcus and J. A. E. Molin
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v. social movements.
Legislation for the Protection of Workers. (Factory Laws etc.)
It is proposed to give below firstly an historical account of the
development in Sweden of legislation providing for the protection of workers,
secondly an account of the present legislation on the subject, particularly
of the Act of the 29th June 1912 (Lagen om Arbetarskydd den 29 Juni
1912), which is the general law on the subject.
I. Historical account.
1. Previous to the eighties. In a number of statutes from past times
one can point to regulations that to a certain extent parallel certain points
in the present legislation for the protection of workers. Thus the Guild
Statute (Skråordning) of 1621 already prescribed a minimum age for
apprentices, namely 14 years, and a century later, in the Guild Statute of
1720, one finds the same regulations, only more clearly formulated. The
Hall Statutes (Hallordning) of 1739 and 1770 prescribed for the "children"
(lärobarnen) employed in the factory work of those days a minimum age
of "from 10 to 12 years", and enjoined upon the manufacturer to "hold
the children in the fear of God and a Christian manner of life, and to cause
them to receive meet and fitting instruction in reading and knowledge of
the Scriptures".
The Factory and Workshop Statute of 1846 contained regulations
providing for a minimum age of 12 years, and to these were annexed by a
Proclamation of 1852 regulations for the prohibition of night labour:
work between 9 p. m. and 5 a. m. being prohibited for workers under
the age of 18, on penalty of a fine. However, this entire body of
legislation no doubt existed solely on paper. The introducer of a Bill in
the Riksdag during the session from 1856—58 was doubtless right in
pointing out that "something was wanting, not on account of the
inde-finiteness of the regulations, but on account of the inadequateness of the
control". Here he had laid his finger not merely on the really weak spot
in the legislation, but also on a circumstance which continued to be the
great defect of Swedish legislation on this head during the greater part of
the century.
In spite of sundry proposals previously brought forward in the Riksdag
for a revision of the regulations providing for the protection of children,
the "Liberty of Trade Ordinance" (Näringsfrihetsförordning) of 1864 did
not carry the legislation on this subject much further. It was not till 1870
that a real reform in this line falls to be recorded. On the 18th February
1870 was issued an Ordinance providing particularly for protection against
the occurence of necrosis among the workers employed in the manufacture
of lucifer matches. The Ordinance prescribed the adoption of special
measures of precaution as regards the premises in which the work was
carried on, and the working processes, and raised the minimum age at
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