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
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
legislation for the protection of workers. (factory laws etc.) 705
which children were eligible for employment in this kind of work, to
15 years. This Ordinance of 1870 is as a matter of fact the first special
trade statute in Sweden.
At the sessions of the Riksdag in 1870 new proposals were introduced
for an amendment of reforms of the legislation for the protection of
children, and in 1875 the Riksdag finally called for new legislation on
the subject. The task of drafting proposals was entrusted to a Committee,
the first Committee on the Protection of Workers in Sweden.
The proposals of the Committee, which were brought forward in its report of
1877, aimed in the first place at placing under the supervision of special
Government inspectors all manufacturing enterprises or crafts in which workers
under 18 were employed. The minimum age was fixed at 12, the hours of
labour in factories and mines for children under 14 at 6 hours and for "young
persons", between the ages of 14 and 18, at 11 hours. Night labour was forbidden
for all children both in factories and the crafts. For labour under ground in
mines or quarries no children under the age of 14 might be enqiloyed, nor yet
girls between the ages of 14 and 18. Children employed in factory work should
attend an elementary school for at least 2 hours a day, or receive other
equivalent instruction. Finally, it was enacted that no child might be put to work
before having acquired the minimum knowledge required by the elementary
schools, nor be employed where, owing to physical debility or infirmity, the child
might be deemed likely to suffer injury from the work.
2. The eighties and nineties. The immediate consequence of the
proposals of the 1877 Committee was the issue on the 18 november 1881
of the Statute providing for the employment of children in factory work,
handicrafts, or other trades.
This Statute irremediably invalidated one of the cardinal principles in the
Committee’s proposals, by commuting its regulations providing for supervision by
Government inspectors for regulations providing for control through the medium
of boards of health and communal authorities. On the other hand, the hours
for labour were reduced for "young persons" from 11 hours to 10.
The new Statute, which was to have entered into force on the 1st January
1882, aroused vehement opposition, above all on the part of the industrial
interest. The result was that a postponement of its enforcement was conceded as
regards industry as a whole up to the 1st June 1882, and as regards the iron
industry in particular actually to the 1st November 1883. The saw-mill
and timber yard trades were entirely exempted from its provisions. As regards
the iron industry, the employment of boys from 14 to 18 years of age was
conceded during the 12 hours out of the 24, and also in night labour, provided
the shifts were organized in accordance with a certain prescribed system.
In the eigthies the manufacturers and artisans made representations to
the Swedish Government for the amendment of certain regulations in the
Statute of 1.881; also in the Riksdag proposals were brought forward
to that effect. The Government in fact instituted through the medium of
the län governments an investigation into the effects of the Statute.
Partly in consequence of the results yielded by these investigations and
representations, partly owing to the stimulus that the International Con-
45—133179. Sweden. I.
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
