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.) 707
ranee Committee. The latter in 1888 issued its reports, containing inter alia
proposals for a law providing for the protection of the lives and the health
of workmen employed in certain trades. The Comittees emphasised very
strongly the necessity of a special Government inspection, in order to ensure
that the law was duly observed, and, in fact, incorporated amongst its
proposals regulations with that object. In the Bill on the subject which
was drafted on the basis of the Committee’s proposals and was brought
before the Riksdag in 1889, the powers of the inspectors were somewhat
curtailed. The Riksdag further accentuated this cautiousness, and laid
particular stress on the obligation of inspectors of trades to observe in
the course of their duties "how the purpose of the law may be attained
without unreasonable expense, with the least possible inconvenience to the
emplo3rer".
The sphere which came within the scope of the Act of the 10 May 1889
was mainly industry pursued on a manufacturing scale, to which, by the Act
of the 13th December 1895, was added industrial business transacted by State
or commune. The Act contained firstly a general obligation for employers
to adopt "all the arrangements which, with regard to working premises,
machinery, and tools, or otherwise with regard to the character of the work, may be
necessary to protect the lives and the health of the workers", and secondly a
number of detailed regulations with regard to such arrangements. The number of
inspectors of trades was fixed, to begin with, at 3. In 1895 they were
increased to 5, besides an inspector for the manufacture of explosives. When the
Act relating to the employment of children in trades had also been placed under
the supervision of the inspectors of trades, the number of inspectors was fixed
at 8 (besides the inspector of explosives).
The special Protection of Workers Act which Sweden possessed as early
as 1870, and which had reference to a particular disease occuring among
workers employed in the manufacture of lucifer matches, was superseded
on the 9 December 1896 by the Act for the Prevention of Necrosis among’
Workers in Match Factories, which is the present law on the subject. (See
below.)
3. 1900 and foil. At the beginning of the nineties the chief laws
providing for the protection of workers, as the above account will have
shown, were the Act of 1900 relating to the Employment of Women and
Children in certain Trades, and the Protection of Workers Act of 1889.
As regards handicraft, the Children’s Employment Act of 1881 was still
in force, although owing to inadequate supervision, it seems to have been
but little effective. The same appears to have been the case with the two
Acts issued in the nineties for the Protection of Children against
Employment at Night and on Sundays and Holidays in certain kinds of Sales
(Ordinances of 10th July 1891 and the 4th December 1896), and against
Employment at Public Exhibitions (Ordinance of the 10th December 1897),
amended on the 13th November 1908). These last-named ordinances are
still in force (see page 713).
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
