settle principles, and to leave detailed decisions and the working-out of extensions to other bodies, reserving to itself a varying
amount of ultimate control. This legislation by inferior law-
making bodies takes several forms:
(a) Provisional Orders, made by Government departments and having the force of law provided they are expressly sanctioned by Parliament, e.g. under the Workmen's Compensation Act, 1906;
(6) Statutory Orders, made by Government departments and requiring to be laid before Parliament for varying periods, but taking effect unless Parliament actively intervenes, e.g. under the Factory Acts;
(c) Determinations such as those under the Trade Boards Acts dealing with wages to be paid in specified trades;
(d) Legislation by local by-laws made by local authorities in exercise of the permissive powers bestowed by Act of Parliament.
Women and Children. As regards recent legislation on the subject of the employment of women, young persons and children, it is to be observed that important measures regarding the employment of children were embodied in the Education Act, 1918, which consolidated and amended the various Acts relating to the national system of public education. But, owing to financial exigencies, the operation of several provisions of this Act was postponed in 1920-1.
Under the Act, subject to specified exceptions, no exemption from school attendance may be granted to any child between the ages of 5 and 14 years, and 15 years is substituted for 14 years as the normal elementary school-leaving age. Subject to certain conditions, all young persons are required to attend continuation schools for a specified number of hours in each year, at such times or on such days as the local education authority may require; and the local educa- tion authority may require, in the case of young persons who are under an obligation to attend a continuation school, that their employment shall be suspended on any day when their school attendance is required. The Employment of Children Act, 1903, is also amended so that a child under the age of 12 may not be em- ployed, and a child of the age of 12 or upwards may not be employed on any Sunday for more than 2 hours, or on any day on which such child is required to attend school before the close of school hours on that day, nor on any day before 6 o'clock in the morning or after S o'clock in the evening. By a further amendment of the Act of 1903, the employment of children in street trading is prohibited, and certain amendments are made to the Prevention of Cruelty to Chil- dren Act, 1904, in so far as that Act deals with the employment of children for the purpose of singing, playing or performing, or being exhibited for profit or offering anything for sale. The local education authority may further, if they are satisfied by a report of the school medical officer or otherwise, that any child is being employed in such a manner as to be prejudicial to his health or development or as to render him unfit to obtain the proper benefit from his educa- tion, either prohibit or attach such conditions as they think fit to his employment. No child (which expression is defined to mean any child up to the age when his parents cease to be under an obligation to cause him to receive efficient elementary instruction or to attend school under the enactments relating to elementary education and the by-laws made thereunder) may be employed in any factory or workshop to which the Factory and Workshop Acts, 1901 to 191 1 , apply: or in any mine to which the Coal Mines Act, 1911, applies: or in any mine or quarry to which the Metalliferous Mines Acts, 1872 and 1875, apply: unless lawfully so employed when the Educa- tion Act becomes operative. The Education (Scotland) Act, 1918, is broadly on the same lines, although it differs in details.
A further important step was taken by the Employment of Women, Young Persons and Children Act, 1920.
Its main purpose was to give legislative ratification in the United Kingdom (a) to three draft conventions adopted at Washington by the first session of the General Conference of the International Labour Organization of the League of Nations, fixing 14 as the mini- mum age for the admission of children to industrial employment, and prohibiting, with certain exceptions, night-work in industrial under- takings by young persons under the age of 1 8 and by all women with- out distinction of age, and (6) to the draft convention fixing the minimum age for the admission of children to employment at sea, adopted at Genoa by the second session of the General Conference. The Act also contains a section permitting double shifts (averaging each not more than 8 hours per day) for women and young persons between the hours of 6 A.M. and 10 P.M., subject to any conditions which the Secretary of State may prescribe. The object of this section was to continue the powers of the Home Secretary in this respect which, in the emergency of the war, he had exercised under section 150 of the Factory and Workshop Act, 1901, as extended by Defence of the Realm Regulation No. 6, A. The provisions of the clause aroused considerable opposition, and, during the progress of the bill through Parliament, a departmental committee was ap- pointed to inquire into the whole question of allowing women and young persons to be employed on the system of two-day shifts. The
committee decided generally that the Home Office should retain its existing power of deciding in which cases the adoption of the system should be allowed, and that for this purpose the adoption of the system in any works should be dependent upon the issue of a Home Office Order and subject to such conditions to secure the welfare of the workers as might be attached by the Home Office. The relevant section of the Act also provides that the Secretary of State may not make an order in any industry if objection is jointly made by organizations representing the majority of employers and workers in the industry ; the section and orders made thereunder are to remain in force for a period of five years and no longer.
The Women and Young Persons (Employment in Lead Processes) Act, 1920, prohibited the employment of women and young persons in certain processes connected with lead manufacture, and regulated their employment in certain processes involving the use of lead com- pounds in accordance with the recommendation of the Washington Conference concerning lead-poisoning.
Hours. In addition to the above special measures concerning the employment of women, young persons and children, a bill was introduced in 1921 by the Minister of Labour, providing, subject to certain necessary exceptions and conditions, for the establishment of a maximum working week of 48 hours. A measure for this purpose was recommended by the provisional joint committee appointed by a National Industrial Conference of employers and workpeople held in Feb. 1919, to consider means for removing the existing labour unrest, and by the Washington General Conference. The terms of the bill were still under discussion in 1921. Hours of employment in the coal- mining industry and in shops have been regulated by special measures. (See HOURS or LABOUR.)
Coal-Mines. The coal-mining industry has been the subji of a number of special laws, which may be accounted for by the vital position which the industry holds in the economic life of the community, the strong organization of the workers, and the exceptional conditions under which the work has to be carried on. The Coal Mines Act, 1911, amended slightly by the Coal Mines Act, 1914, consolidated the existing law relative to coal- mines. The Act deals with management (certificates of com- petency, etc.); provisions as to safety, health, accidents; em- ployment of boys, girls and women; prohibition of payment of wages in licensed premises and provision as to weekly payment of wages; inspectors, etc. It did not, however, amend the Coal Mines Regulation Act, 1908, relating to the 8-hour day, nor such part of existing legislation as related to checkweighing. In 1912 the Coal Mines (Minimum Wage) Act was passed to terminate a general strike of coal-miners and provided that certain district minimum rates, fixed by district boards under the Act, should form part of the terms of contract of every person employed underground in a coal-mine.
During the World War the Government assumed control of the coal-mines. Early in 1919 the Coal Industry Commission Act was passed, in connexion with a threatened general strike of coal-miners, to enable the Government to set up a commission to inquire into the condition of the industry. In accordance with an interim report of this commission, the Coal Mines Act, 1919, was passed, providing for a reduction, as from July 16 1919, of the hours of labour of coal-mine workers below ground from 8 to 7 per day, and making provision, contingent upon the condition of the industry, for a further reduction in 1921.
The Mining Industry Act, 1920, established the Mines De- partment of the Board of Trade for the exercise of the powers of that department and also of the transferred powers of the Secretary of State relating to mines and quarries.
This Act authorized the Board of Trade, for a period of one year from Aug. 31 1920, to issue directions regulating the export of coal and the supply of coal for the bunkering of vessels, and regulat- ing the pithead price to be charged for coal sold for consumption in the British Isles and for the bunkering of vessels other than vessels proceeding to ports outside the British Isles. While any such direc- tions are operative, the Board of Trade can also give directions as to the wages to be paid to workers in coal-mines and to regulate the distribution of profits on principles similar to those shown in the Coal Mines (Emergency) Act, 1920, so as to secure as far as practicable an equitable distribution as between the different collieries.
The Act further provides for the constitution of (a) Pit Committees for each coal-mine where a resolution in favour thereof is passed by the majority of the workers employed in or about the mine; (b) District Committees; (c) Area Boards, and (d) a National Board. Pit
