Apprentices could not work during the night (between 9 pm and 6 am), and their working hours could not exceed 12 hours a day, excluding the time taken for breaks. Įach apprentice was to be given two sets of clothing, suitable linen, stockings, hats, and shoes, and a new set each year thereafter. The buildings must have sufficient windows and openings for ventilation, and should be cleaned at least twice yearly with quicklime and water this included ceilings and walls. Under the Act, regulations and rules came into force on 2 December 1802 and applied to all textile mills and factories employing three or more apprentices or twenty employees. At best, it only partially paved the way its restriction to apprentices (where there was a long tradition of legislation) meant that it was left to later Factory Acts to establish the principle of intervention by Parliament on humanitarian grounds on worker welfare issues against the "laissez-faire" political and economic orthodoxy of the age which held that to be ill-advised. As the first attempt to improve the lot of factory children, it is often seen as paving the way for future Factory Acts. It allowed (but did not require) local magistrates to enforce compliance with its requirements, and therefore went largely unenforced. Although the Act included some hygiene requirements for all textile mills, it was largely concerned with the employment of apprentices it left the employment of 'free' (non-indentured) children unregulated. 73) was introduced by Sir Robert Peel it addressed concerns felt by the medical men of Manchester about the health and welfare of children employed in cotton mills, and first expressed by them in 1784 in a report on an outbreak of 'putrid fever' at a mill at Radcliffe owned by Peel. The Health and Morals of Apprentices Act 1802 ( 42 Geo. Health and Morals of Apprentices Act 1802 įurther information: Health and Morals of Apprentices Act 1802 Introduction of the ten-hour day proved to have none of the dire consequences predicted by its opponents, and its apparent success effectively ended theoretical objections to the principle of factory legislation from the 1860s onwards more industries were brought within the Factory Act. The Factory Acts also included regulations for ventilation, hygienic practices, and machinery guarding in an effort to improve the working circumstances for mill children. The Factories Act 1847 (known as the Ten Hour Act), together with Acts in 18 remedying defects in the 1847 Act, met a long-standing (and by 1847 well-organised) demand by the millworkers for a ten-hour day. The regulation of working hours was then extended to women by an Act of 1844. The early Acts concentrated on regulating the hours of work and moral welfare of young children employed in cotton mills but were effectively unenforced until the Act of 1833 established a professional Factory Inspectorate. The Factory Acts were a series of acts passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom beginning in 1802 to regulate and improve the conditions of industrial employment. Children at work in a cotton mill (Mule spinning England 1835)
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