FACTORIES IN BRITAIN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23106, 4 February 1937, Page 10

FACTORIES IN BRITAIN

CONDITIONS AND HOURS (British Official Wireless) RUGBY, Feb. 2. (Received Feb. 3, at 5.5 p.m.) The Government's Factories Bill, issued to-day, consists of 14 parts and a total of 152 clauses. Various distinctions which exist in the present law between factories and workshops and between textile and non-textile factories are abolished, and only one term, "factories," is employed. The part of the Bill dealing with general provisions as to health strengthens the existing provisions and introduces new proposals. The latter provide for securing in every factory sufficient and suitable lighting and power, and require reasonable arrangements to be made for medical supervision of workers in certain circumstances, as, for example, in cases of outbreaks of disease in particular factories. In the part dealing with general provisions as to safety, the provisions of the existing law have been largely recast and the Bill contains a number of new proposals requiring or giving power to require the adoption of various safety devices or arrangements for the protection of workers, particularly in work involving special risks. General and special provisions as to the welfare of workers are set out and new proposals are made for notification and investigation of industrial accidents and diseases. In the part of the Bill dealing with conditions of work for women and young persons greatly reduced hours are proposed.