HOURS OF LABOUR. The apprentice of the middle ages was bound under the terms of his indenture to obey his master in all things and to devote, if need be, all his time to his master's interests. When he became a journeyman he was little better off, except that he was free to seek a less exacting master at times, which as apprentice he was not. But in general the only restric tions on the working hours of either journeyman or apprentice were the possibilities of the physical body and the absence of an adequate artificial light, and the only alleviations were the fre quent holy days (much restricted later as holidays).
The advent of the factory system at once intensified the evil and initiated the revolt against it. Soon after the grouping of workers in factories came first the machine, which had no special reason for ceasing to work at any point of the 24-hour day, and then a satisfactory artificial light. It was probably the invention of gas and its use in factories which precipitated the movement for restricting the working day.
The revolt began not with, but for, the victims. The factory system massed together machines and children, with effects well known to the student of the early 19th century in England. There was no cry from them ; they were dumb in their factory prisons. They were plentiful in the workhouses of the agricultural south, whence they were taken by lorry loads to the industrial north; there was no particular economic reason for conserving them; the supply was ample.
It was for the children that the cry was made, by Shaftesbury, Oastler and others. The movement was in its first stages purely humanitarian, seeking to ameliorate the lot of the factory lads and lassies. It was slow in action. "Laissez-faire" economic doc trine questioned the wisdom of interfering with "the laws of supply and demand" ; the children came from that stratum of society that as yet was hardly recognised as a part of the nation in a political or social sense, and there remained the hard fact that a machine can run 24 hours a day, and that when it does not it represents waste.
The humanitarian appeal was heard, however, and in the early 19th century the hours of children in factories were restricted by law, and somewhat later, those of women also, though these, being adult, and capable of the "free bargaining" that was con sidered to be so important a factor in securing the most fruitful economic results, were legislated for with much hesitation. As for men, they remained outside the scope of restrictive legislation until the century was three-quarters through.
Not that they had waited for legislation. The factory system and large scale industry had rendered them service in getting them together; they became vocal and unitedly powerful, and their defensive trade union movement took new roots and a new orientation. From the first they protested against the long work ing day, and by the thirties had formulated (largely under Robert Owen's influence) their demand for 8 hours. From then onwards the movement kept the 8-hour day in the forefront of its program, both in Great Britain and on the Continent. Progress, however, was slow until public opinion had been educated firstly by a gradual realization of the importance of the social welfare of the working portion of the community, and secondly, by the experience of the World War of 1914-18. This latter gave an enormous impetus to the movement, and the expressed ideals of the workers as to the hours of labour were very rapidly ap proached in the years following 1914. This was due to three causes in the main. Firstly, the workers realized as never before their importance in the community, and the community as a whole realized it ; consequently, their demands fell on less inat tentive ears. Secondly, the huge demands made upon labour brought into high relief a matter hitherto little considered, namely, the necessity of husbanding labour resources ; though some thought had been given to the question of productivity in relation to working hours, it was only now for the first time that the question of preserving the labour available and making the most economic use of it became a serious problem. Hours of labour, after being inordinately lengthened after the outbreak of war, were later reduced to limits calculated to conserve the efficiency of labour, and the doctrine that production varied directly with hours was definitely killed. In its place in general acceptance came the notion, often previously advocated, it is true, that the efficiency of labour depended upon the general welfare of the workers, and in that general welfare the daily working hours played a large part. The rapidity of the change in opinion may be illustrated from the resolutions of international congresses interested in the question. The semi-official Interna tional Association for Labour Legislation (in which certain con tinental governments were represented, as well as groups of workers, employers and private persons interested in social matters) proposed in 1912 an 8-hour day for certain of the more laborious or dangerous trades, but the official delegates at the 1913 conference arranged by this association contented them selves with the suggested limitation of the working hours of women and children to Io daily. Between the conclusion of the war and 1921, however, many of the European industrial states adopted legislation laying down the 8-hour day and the 48-hour week as normal. (H. A. GR.) In the many countries which adopted new hours of work legis lation about this time, and in others which followed, the establish ment of the 48-hour week, both in industry and in commerce, continued throughout the next few years. However, the 48-hour week in industry has not yet been generally realized. Some Asiatic countries are still under statutory limits of Io or II hours a day. A new phase more recent in development is the movement for the further reduction of hours to the 4o-hour week. This move ment developed in a short space of time, having appeared sud denly during the depression of 1929. It was adopted both by gov ernments and workers' organizations as a remedy for acute un employment. With the lifting of the depression, the movement has begun to be regarded as a permanent reform.
Another group of legislative measures deals with the hours of labour of specified classes of workers, women and children, and men engaged in hazardous occupations. India and South Africa, a number of States in the U.S., and a number of Provinces in Canada and Australia have laws setting a direct limit to hours of work in underground mines. Factory acts and factory and shop acts in Australia, Great Britain, Egypt, and Japan, and similar laws in the U.S. provide regulations covering women and children who are often regarded as being less favourably situated than men in coping with the conditions of work. Another type of legislation secures the aim of limiting hours of labour by in direct means. In Australia and New Zealand where arbitration awards are the final step of collective bargaining, these awards deal in detail, along with other conditions of work, with the regu lation of hours of work within the bounds of provisions contained in both factory and shop acts and the arbitration acts themselves.
In some countries decisions of joint or tripartite bodies including hours of work, are given force of law by competent authority. In Italy and Spain these decisions are part of a direct statutory system of hours regulation, whereas in Great Britain they issue from trade boards set up under the Trade Boards Acts.
There remains to be noted the huge mass of collective agree ments upon hours of labour which, although not always possessing the force of law, does in fact regulate hours very successfully in many countries, principally in Great Britain, the United States, and the Scandinavian countries. Attempts have been made to secure that certain clauses in collective agreements including those concerning hours should be made binding throughout the occupation covered. Measures to this effect have been introduced, for example, in France and the Netherlands. On the whole, the hours fixed by collective agreements are often shorter than those fixed by law. This is true even in countries where both modes of regulation exist. (S. PE.) Exceptions to the General Rule.—All national legislation on the subject of hours provides for exceptions of a general nature, affecting the whole field of application of the legislation, as well as for exceptions in particular cases.
To provide for the former class of exceptions, which may be classified as those arising from national necessity, clauses are usually inserted which give the administration power to suspend or relax temporarily the regulations normally in force. In the case of the draft international convention (see later) it is pro vided that "the operation of the provisions of this convention may be suspended in any country by the Government in the event of war or other emergency endangering the national safety" (Article 14). Exceptions in particular cases may be classified as those which arise (i ) from considerations of the worker himself or herself, (2) from the size of the industrial undertaking, (3) from the nature of the work, (4) from the situation of the coun try concerned with regard to climatic conditions, character of population, or other factor rendering it abnormal from an indus trial point of view, and (5) from exceptional circumstances.
(1) In the first class may be placed those exceptions which are provided for domestic industries and small establishments where only members of the same family are employed. Man agers and persons holding posts of responsibility or of confidence are generally exempt.
(2) As to the size of the industrial undertaking, different stand ards have been adopted. Whilst in Sweden concerns employing not more than four workers are exempt from the application of the Eight-hour Act of 1919 (save where such concerns are situ ated in towns with a population of over 1,500) in Japan 15 is the number of employees requisite to bring an undertaking within the scope of the Factory Act, and in India it was 20 until 1921, when the number was reduced to ten.
(3) The third class of exceptions is connected with the nature of the work. The case which appears to have presented most difficulty in national legislation is the continuous process. In many industries processes are employed which take long periods for their completion, and which cannot be intermitted without damage to or total loss of the material operated upon. In such cases a shift system is adopted, and a certain elasticity is required to facilitate changes. In other cases the process, whilst not being continuous in the strict sense of the word, is yet longer than the normal working day of 8 hours. The arrangement of shifts for such cases presents further difficulties for which exceptions must be provided.
The international convention on hours permits a 56-hour week in "those processes which are required by reason of the nature of the process to be carried on continuously by a succession of shifts." The opposite case is where the work is of so intermittent a nature that it is felt that a longer day may be worked without in jury to the worker. It is difficult to define exactly what is meant by this "intermittence." The work of a gatekeeper or watchman who has no other duties may be instanced, but there are border line cases which are treated differently in different legislations. The Washington meeting of the International Labour Conference tried to meet such cases by permitting the legislative authorities, under certain safeguards, to allow permanent exceptions where the work is "essentially intermittent." Seasonal industries form a further category under this heading. Both national and international legislation permit extension of thg working day in industries engaged upon material susceptible of rapid deterioration, or material which is available at certain seasons only and which must be treated immediately. Similarly, industries dependent upon weather conditions are usually allowed considerable elasticity in the daily or weekly total of working hours. In this connection a device of averaging the weekly hours over a period is fairly common, and has been adopted in inter national legislation.
Exceptions are usually provided in connection with what is known as "preparatory and complementary" work. There is fre quently the necessity of the earlier attendance in factories of a certain number of the personnel whose work must be done before the general work can commence ; there are others, similarly, who must continue after the conclusion of the general work. Cases in point are the engineers and other workers in the engine-room of a factory. In some national legislation, and in international legis lation, exceptional provision is made for such workers.
(4) The fourth class of exceptions arises in international legis lation, where it has been found necessary, in order to attempt a rough equation between countries dissimilarly situated with re gard to climate, character of population or other industrial factor, to permit a longer working day in the one than in the other. Thus in the Washington Convention, a 57-hour (6o hours in the raw silk industry) week is permitted for Japan, and a 6o-hour week for British India, and elasticity is provided in the application of the Convention to "colonies, protectorates and possessions not fully self-governing" for "such modifications as may be necessary to adapt its provisions to local conditions." (5) The circumstances which, under national and international legislation, permit of the temporary suspension of the general application of the limitation of hours have already been treated. Some national legislations consider that the danger to an industry arising from the pressure of foreign competition is a sufficient war rant for relaxation of rules in its particular case. (H. A. GR.) The existing position in the more important industrial States, including those of the British empire, may be summarized as follows: I. Working Hours in Industry. Great Britain.—Hours of work in Great Britain are fixed by collective bargaining for the most part. The system of collective agreements has developed widely since 1919. Together with the Coal Mines Acts, collective agreements covered over 70% of the total employed population as early as 1921. The hours of work of adult males are not limited by law except in mining, hazardous industries, and in sheet-glass works. The Factories Act of 1937 and the Employment of Women, Young Persons and Children Act of 1920 (as amended by the Act of July 1936) regulate the employment of women and children.
The trade board system under the Trade Board Acts of 1909 and 1918 provides that the minister may set up a trade board to fix normal hours of work and wages in any trade which he con siders inadequately provided for in that respect, and orders of these boards are binding. The trade boards cover a variety of less important trades. The hours fixed by such boards are weekly or daily hours, above which overtime rates must be paid, and the limitations are not considered statutory. The average weekly hours in 1938 were under 48 : building, 47 ; engineering, 48; mining and quarrying (other than coal), 46; clothing industries, 46; chemical manufactures, 48; textile industry, 48.
Australia.—Collective agreements are widespread in most oc cupations. In States where an arbitration system is in force, registered collective agreements are enforceable in the same way as awards, and in some cases may be made the common rule in the industry concerned. Supplementing collective bargaining are the factories or factories and shops acts in all States, limiting hours of work and overtime for women and children in factories. Wage board acts and arbitration acts provide for detailed regula tion of hours (and other conditions of employment) by awards of industrial boards and arbitration courts. The hours of work fixed by these various bodies are the hours for which daily or weekly minimum wage is payable. Hours of work in 1937 were 44 in mining, clothing, building, 45 in rail transport and engineering.
Canada.—The present Dominion enactment affecting hours of labour generally is the Fair Wages and Hours of Labor Act passed in 1935. The act fixes daily and weekly limits of hours on work performed under Government contract. Only Alberta and British Columbia have general hours of work acts which cover a wide range of occupations, setting direct limits to the hours of work. New Brunswick, Ontario, Quebec, and Saskatchewan have legisla tion limiting the hours of work of women and children only in factories, and in Ontario and Quebec also in shops. Hazardous industries are also regulated, and hours are regulated in and in mines. Aside from legislative regulation, hours of work are regulated by machinery set up in most Provinces under recent enactments to provide for the fixing of standard hours and wages industry by industry. Most of these enactments enable hours to be regulated in any industry or occupation, but in practice, the schedules of wages and hours issued under these enactments cover only a limited field at present. (S. PE.) India.—The hours question in India is of first rate importance not only by reason of its repercussion on Indian social condi tions, but because of the continual discussion, at times somewhat bitter, between the workers and employers in India and those in her great industrial rival in the East, Japan.
In certain organized industries, including factory industries, mines and plantations, hours are regulated by law. The Factories Act of 1911 (amended 1922, 1923 and 1926) defines a factory as any establishment in which mechanical power is used and where 20 or more persons are employed, and further gives the local Government powers to extend the definition to cover establish ments employing more than 1 o persons, whether mechanical power is used or not. In 1926, 7,251 establishments, employing over a million and a half of persons, were classed as "factories" in the meaning of these acts.
Following upon the special clause adopted for India in the international convention on hours of labour at Washington in 1919 (a convention which India has ratified) hours in factories are limited to 11 per day and 6o per week for adults, and to 6 per day for children between ages of 12 and 15. These legal maxima, however, are not reached in many cases. In 1926, for instance, 40% of factories employing men and of those employing women worked 54 hours per week or less, and 3o% of the estab lishments employing children worked 3o hours per week or less.
The law provides further for rest periods, and for the weekly rest day. Overtime is not permitted for children and women (ex cept, for the latter, in fish-curing and canning). Nor are children and women (with the same exception) permitted to work at night between 7 P.M. and 5.3o A.M.
Hours in mines are governed by the Mines Act of 1901, amended in 1923. About a quarter of a million workers are covered, in cluding 120,000 underground workers, over thirty thousand of whom are women. Their legal hours are 54 per week underground and 6o on the surface, but as in the case of factories these maxima are not general. On the other hand, the fact that there is no re striction on the daily working hours means that at times inordi nately long "shifts" are worked. A bill to remedy this, and to check the night work of women in mines is under consideration.
Tea, coffee. and rubber plantations employ roughly a million per sons, whose hours were, until recently, regulated by the law con cerning contracts of labour. Since the abolition of these contracts, the hours have remained approximately the same, namely 9 per day for a 6-day week. But the prevalence of task-work in thi§ industry renders it impossible to give any exact account of the hours actually worked.
There is no general legislation governing hours in transport work, but they appear to be influenced by the hours worked in factories especially in the larger ports, and to follow them fairly closely. In Government service the postal and telegraph workers' hours are regulated in the same manner as those of other lower grade Government employees, and are approximately the same as in factories. With regard to the railways, the Government has expressed its intention of applying the 6o-hour week principle to all workers except the running staff. (H. A. GR.) The Indian Factories Act of 1934 and the Mines Act, 1923, amended to reduce hours in 1935, regulate hours of work in factories and mines. Hours of work are regulated in factories not covered by the Factories Act by the Provincial Act of for the Central Provinces.
Union of South Africa.—Under the Factories Act of as amended in 1931, and the Mines and Works Act of 1911 as amended in 1931, hours of work are restricted in factories and in mines (other than coal and metal) respectively. Regulation of hours in shops is covered by provincial legislation, such as the shop hours ordinances of the Cape of Good Hope, Transvaal, Natal, etc.
In industries not covered by the laws, hours (and wages) are fixed by industry through agreements under the Industrial Con ciliation Act. These agreements are made by local or national joint industrial councils and may be declared binding by the Minister of Labour on the whole industry or trade within the area concerned. Occasionally hours so fixed are below those fixed in statutory regulation.
New Zealand.—The Factories Act amended in 1936 prescribes a 4o-hour normal working week. The Court of Arbitration may order a week not exceeding 44 hours where the 4o-hour week is impracticable. The Shops and Offices Act, also amended in 1936, provides a 44-hour week for employees of shops, hotels, and restaurants.
The Industrial Conciliation Act amended in 1936 provides for the regulation of employment by collective agreements and arbi tration award. Agreements made pursuant to the act, and awards of the arbitration court are binding upon the members concerned and also may be extended to cover the entire industry.
France.—The act of June 21, 1936, incorporated into the labour code, introduced the principle of a 4o-hour week in all industrial and commercial undertakings and fixed hours of work in under ground mines. The application of the 4o-hour week principle is made by decrees issued through the Council of Ministers after consultation with representatives of employers' and workers' or ganizations and with the trade sections of the National Economic Council.
Collective agreements have become more widespread during recent years. These agreements, made binding by the minister on all employers and workers of representative organizations in the occupation concerned, supplement the statutory provisions on the matter of hours of work.
Belgium.—Collective labour agreements, although relatively few, fix hours of work more favourably than do the laws. Among the more important of these agreements is the one covering 30,000 workers in the textile industry. The general law is the eight-hour day act of June 1921. The latter is supplemented by Royal Orders applying to the exceptions provided in the act. The eight-hour day was extended to other occupations by an act of June 15, 1937. Progressive reduction of hours to 4o per week in hazardous in dustries is provided for in an act of July 9, 1936. This act has al ready been applied to underground metal mines and claypits. A separate order, independent of the general hours legislation, limits hours in the diamond industry to 4o.
Germany.—Collective rules issued under the national labour act of Jan. 1934 are the main instrument for detailed regulation of hours of work. These collective rules are issued by labour trustees after consultation with a committee of experts. In some instances previous collective agreements have become collective rules. The hours of work order of July issued under the national labour act, set general provisions for regulation of hours of all wage-earning and salaried employees.
Separate enactments cover certain activities which require special treatment. Hours of work in certain branches of the tex tile industry, home work, work in some institutions, and in some shops are regulated by such special enactments.
Italy.—In 1934, a 4o-hour week was introduced provisionally in about 6o industries through collective agreements following a general agreement between the National Fascist Confederations of manufacturers and of industrial workers. Previously a Legisla tive Decree of March 1923, and a Royal Decree of Sept. 1923, provided for limitations of hours of work of wage and salaried employees of industrial and commercial undertakings to 8 daily and 48 weekly.
The reduction was made permanent in 1935 and was em bodied more recently in legislation through the Royal Legislative Decree of May 1937. Collective agreements exist in a great majority of occupations. These often regulate hours of work in categories excluded from the other regulations. These agreements are binding on all members of occupations within the given area whether members of the trade association or not. (S. PE.) Japan.—The controversy between the two leading industrial states of the East has been mentioned above, in relation to India. The restriction of hours in Japan virtually begins with the adop tion of the Washington convention in 1919, when Japan was given the privilege, if she ratified the convention (which she has not done) of working a S7-hour week (6o hours in the raw silk indus try). Since that event Japan has moved rapidly in regard to social legislation, but appears to have followed British practice in dealing first with the conditions of labour of women and children. As to hours, the most important legislation is the act of March 29, 1923, which amends the original Factory Act of 1911. By it the working hours of women and young persons under 16 are limited to I I daily, though an extension of two hours beyond this maxi mum is permissible, "according to the nature of the work in each instance." These terribly long hours are roughly equivalent to those obtaining in India. In some other industries, though rela tively few, they have been reduced by collective agreements, but the rapid expansion of the trade union movement has as yet hardly touched the factory women, and the agreements do not affect their hours. Statistics of actual hours worked are available in certain cases and for limited areas. See e.g. the Monthly Report of the Osaka chamber of commerce, which shows the daily working hours during 1927 to vary from 8 to 12 in that town with an average of about io. (H. A. GR.) Netherlands.—The act of Nov. 1, 1919, as subsequently amended and supplemented by regulations revised and con solidated in 1936, is the basic enactment regulating hours of work. The act classifies different undertakings and specifies that the latter come under the law at fixed dates.
Collective agreements play an increasing part in the regulation of hours of work. The act of May 25, 1937 provides that national or regional collective agreements be made binding by the Minister of Social Affairs for the whole country or for a given district if the majority of workers in an industry are considered by the minister to be covered by the given agreement.
Switzerland.—The 48-hour week is fixed by the factory act of June 18, 1914, as amended in 1919 and 1923. Hours of work are also the subject of regulation in the order of Oct. 3, 1919. Longer hours can be authorized by the Federal Council for specific in dustries. The Federal Council under a Federal act fixes the hours of work of public servants, some of which are also covered by regulations issued through several Federal departments.
Several cantons have their own laws covering employments not included under Federal provisions, such as the workers' protec tion act of 1933 in Valais, and the act of Sept. 15, 1936 in Ticino.
(S. PE.) The United States.—The legal regulation of the hours of labour, like most other forms of labour legislation in the United States, has been tardy and shows a considerable degree of di versity. This has been due to several, not wholly unrelated, causes : the general spirit of individualism that has prevailed in a newer country ; the imperfect organization of the wage-earners themselves, both industrially and politically, and their conse quently feeble voice in legislative matters; the Federal form of government with its multiplicity of jurisdictions; State and sec tional differences and rivalries and the fear, if labour laws are too advanced, of interstate competition ; and, not least of all, written constitutions often strictly interpreted by courts of last resort.
The Federal Government naturally has control over the work ing conditions of its own employees and of those of contractors doing Government work. An act passed by Congress in 1868 set a standard of eight hours per day for this group, and, by amend ments added in 1892, 1912 and 1913, this has gradually been made more effective for both direct and indirect employees of the Government.
Congressional authority over interstate and foreign commerce has also been belatedly extended to the limitation of hours for railroad employees and seamen. By an act passed in 1907 the maximum hours for men operating trains on railroads in the District of Columbia, in the territories or on interstate lines were fixed at 16 per day, with provision for consecutive hours of rest between work-periods ; and the hours of telegraphers and train despatchers, whose functions were regarded as still more inti mately connected with the public safety, were limited to nine per day in all places kept open day and night. The Adamson Law of 1916, passed to forestall a general strike of the railway brother hoods, went still further and established eight hours as the standard working-day for the operating force with overtime pay when this number of hours is exceeded. The hours of officers and seamen when their vessels are in port, by acts passed in 1913 and 1915, have been limited to nine. The efforts, however, of Con gress to extend Federal authority over labour conditions in manufacturing establishments within the confines of the respec tive States, either under the power over interstate commerce or under the taxing power, as in the child-labour laws of 1916 and 192o, have been quashed by the Supreme Court; and the child labour amendment to the Constitution, submitted in 1924, has so far made little headway toward approval by the States.
More than half of the States and a large proportion of the municipalities have adopted laws or ordinances fixing the eight hour day for public work, often with certain exceptions for fire men, policemen and certain workers in public institutions. The States have likewise availed themselves in varying degrees of their unquestioned power to regulate the hours of minors; and, prin cipally within the past I5 years, the eight-hour day and the 48 hour week, usually with a total prohibition upon night work, have been set as the standard for all children under 16 in about three fourths of the States. The right to limit the hours of women has not been so readily admitted by the courts and has been less fully exercised, although there are now only five States wholly without such laws. The movement for shorter hours for women antedated the Civil War and was taken up again in earnest in the '7os when the Massachusetts ten-hour law was passed. A severe set-back was given in 1895 when the Illinois supreme court decided that an eight-hour law for women in factories was a viola tion of freedom of contract and hence unconstitutional. But all doubts as to the reasonableness and legitimacy of such measures would seem to have been removed by the favourable decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court in a case involving the Oregon ten-hour law in 1908 and another involving the California eight-hour law in 1915. Some States content themselves with fixing the length of the working-day, while a considerable number also limit the hours per week. Some nine States, together with the District of Columbia and the territory of Puerto Rico, several of them ad mittedly of slight industrial importance, have eight-hour laws for women, and six States, including Massachusetts and New York of the first industrial rank, require the 48 hour week. The New York law of 1927 is weakened by troublesome exceptions. Fifteen other States provide for a working-day of less than Io hours, while 18 States in 1926 permitted women to be employed for Io hours or more per day, North Carolina setting the generous limit of II hours per day or 6o per week. More than 12 States forbid night work for women in some occupations, several others place stricter requirements respecting hours upon night work and a few, like Wisconsin, Oregon and Kansas. have delegated this and some other features of labour law to their industrial commissions. State legislation upon the hours of labour for men, aside from that regulating public employment, already mentioned, is still in a much more dubious constitutional position. Where men, women and children work in the same establishments the adult male con tingent has benefited from restrictions upon the hours of the other two parties. More than half of the States place limitations upon the hours of men engaged in transportation similar to those in the Federal act of 1907 (a 16 hour maximum for the operating force and usually eight hours for telegraphers and train despatch ers). The courts have held that where Federal and State regu lations come in conflict State legislation must give way. About 12 States also have limited the hours of street-car motormen and con ductors (usually to i o or 12) and fix the maximum time during which these hours shall fall.
Next to railroading mining is the industry most often regulated; and some 16 States now have eight-hour laws applying to some or all classes of workers in and about mines and smelters. That of Arizona, a great copper-producing State, is probably the broadest, and that of Pennsylvania, where coal and iron predominate, is probably the nar rowest in its scope. Colorado in 1927 followed Arizona and Nevada in extending the eight-hour limit to cement and plaster mills. Begin ning with the Utah case in 1898 such laws have been upheld by the Supreme Court because of the dangerous character of the work and because of the inequality of bargaining power between employers and employees. The decision of the Supreme Court in 1917 in a case in volving the Oregon ten-hour law also appears to establish the right of State legislatures to restrict in some degree the hours of all workers in factories. But whether judicial leniency would extend to general eight-hour laws is not yet determined.
The principle of one-day-of-rest-in-seven had by 1926 been recog nized for one or more industries by six States. The most effective acts are those of Massachusetts (1913), New York (1913) and Wisconsin (1919) and the latter State has since sought to secure greater elasticity by transferring this power to the State industrial commission.
The hours actually worked in American industries vary somewhat less widely than do the laws attempting to regulate them and are commonly fewer than would be permitted by the letter of the law. The relative scarcity of many grades of labour as compared with resources and the demands of industry, especially in periods of pros perity, has made for both shorter hours and higher wages. The Census of Manufactures in 1923 indicated that over 46% of all workers in this group of occupations enjoyed the 48 hour week or better, and this was a slight drop-back from the more prosperous conditions repre sented by the previous census in 1921. Although neither Alabama nor Iowa has legal restrictions upon the hours of women, the Women's Bureau in 1925 found that only one-sixteenth of the women workers covered in their survey in Iowa were employed as much as ten hours per day, and that Alabama had less than half as many ten-hour women workers as South Carolina with its ten-hour legal limit. The labour laws of North Carolina permit a 6o hour week but a study of the cotton goods manufacturing industry by the Federal Bureau of Labour Statistics in 1926 showed that North Carolina women were actually working only two hours longer per week than the women of Maine under the protection of a 54-hour law.
In well-organized trades, such as printing and publishing, the build ing industry and men's clothing, the method of collective bargaining rather than resort to legislation has been dependent upon and a ma jority of the workmen have the 44 hour week—an eight-hour day with Saturday half-holiday. Several of these trades, notably the painters, the fur workers and others in the clothing trades have already made great progress toward a 4o-hour week of five days, and this is now the announced goal of all organized labour. That neither strong organization nor legislation is always necessary to secure shorter hours is proved by the week of approximately 5o hours that generally prevails in the thriving motor industry. Here, also, Mr. Ford in 1926 declared his adherence to the five-day week. In the iron and steel industry, where formerly the 12 hour day and the seven-day week were prevalent, the average full-time hours for all departments it 1926 were 54.4 per week and those in the blast furnace department, which had previously been the worst offender, were S9.8 as compared with 76.9 in 1913. These reductions, made chiefly in 1923, were in part the result of popular pressure and criticism, in part a concession to mani festations of discontent among the workers, and in part due merely to enlightened self-interest. (W. B. Car.) The years of the depression, brought a curtailment of hours in industry. These years were characterized by a work-sharing movement and a movement in some segments of industry to introduce the five-day week as a permanent policy. Both of these tendencies were absorbed into the National Recovery Administration of of which one objective was the regulation of hours. It sought to reduce hours in order to spread employment, and in order to lay the foundation for the shorter working week in general throughout in dustry. A study by the Brookings Institution disclosed that in 85•5% of the NRA codes the 4o-hour week was designated as the standard week, and that 7.2% of the codes established less than a 4o-hour week as standard. It must be recalled that more than one third of the employees of the country were exempt from the jurisdiction of the NRA.
After 1935 there was a tendency toward the lengthening of the work week, but there has been no widespread restoration of the stand ards of the late 1920S. In fact, the passage of the Walsh-Healey Act in 1936 and the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 seems to have heralded an era of the standard maximum working week of 4o hours. The Walsh-Healey Act requires that contracts in excess of $10,000 made by any executive department or any other agency or instrumentality of the Federal Government, for materials, equipment, or supplies, contain the stipulation for an eight-hour day and a 4o-hour week for all persons employed by the contractor fulfilling the contract. The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 sought to establish, among other objectives, a maximum working week of 4o hours in successive stages between 1938 and 1940 when the 4o-hour week went into effect.
State legislation has not kept pace with Federal legislation in the regulation of hours. Many States passed minor acts regulating hours in 1938 but none passed the necessary laws to supplement the juris diction of the Fair Labor Standards Act.
Hours of Labour, United States, in Production and Manufacturing Industries as a Whole, *As compiled from the Monthly Labor Review, Nov. i937, Table II, and "Employment and Payrolls"; Monthly Labor Review, March i937, Table V; March i938, Table V, and March i939, Table V.
fiAs of January in each year.
The vast majority of seamen, including the British, have obtained regulation of hours by means of collective agreements, but in some cases the legislatures have intervened. The most interesting, and probably the most successful interventions, are the acts of Finland (1924) , Norway (1919) and Sweden (1919) . These divide the per sonnel of a vessel according to the nature of its work: the engine-room staff is required to do not more than 16 hours work in two consecutive days, whilst the ordinary seaman works not more than 24 hours in the same period. Other arrangements are made for small vessels, for cases where the crew is not divided into watches, for coastal traders and for work whilst in port. These acts seem to have been fairly satisfactory in application, though the seamen concerned demand a reduction of the hours prescribed. A French decree of 1925 extending the application of the 1919 general act to the sea service provides alternative methods: either an 8-hour day may be worked, or a 48 hour week, irregularly divided as regards the daily limit, or an averag ing of hours over a month, the 8-hour average being conserved. These hours are subject to exceptions to meet sea emergencies. In Greece, Portugal, Spain and the Argentine legislation prescribes the 8-hour day with varying details of application.
In Great Britain the matter is dealt with solely by collective agree ments, which are exceedingly complicated and not universally ap plicable. They are not so much intended to limit the hours of labour directly as to secure that overtime rates are paid after a daily "normal" has been reached, and thus to penalize employers who exact the longer day. Emergency cases are not usually affected by these overtime pay arrangements. In general, the agreements provide for overtime rates when the working day in port exceeds eight hours, with special ar rangements for Saturday (five or six hours) and Sunday (ordinary necessary routine work up to four hours), and for days of arrival and sailing. At sea the ordinary system of watches results in a longer day being worked, except for the categories known as day-workers (i.e., those who normally work only during the day) who have similar hours to those detailed above.
This may be taken as fairly typical of the terms arranged by col lective agreement, not only in Great Britain but elsewhere in countries where legislation has not been adopted. The Australian and New Zealand seamen however have secured better terms. By agreement they have a strict 8-hour system which is probably the most favourable to the workers yet obtained anywhere ; the question of its consecration in legislation is stated to be under consideration. (H. A. GR.) Inland Water Transportation.—Hours of work in inland water transportation are only sparsely regulated. In Sweden, the U.S., and the U.S.S.R., inland navigation is covered in the same regulations as maritime navigation. In Argentina, Chile, and Colombia, the general hours of work regulation also covers inland navigation as a whole. In addition, special regulations supplement the general legislation and de fine methods of application. Arbitration awards and industrial agree ments under the Commonwealth or State Arbitration and Conciliation Acts deal with inland water transportation in Australia. In Germany, separate sets of collective rules for different ports or waterways pro vide for hours regulation. In France, a special set of regulations covers services on waterways, while in Switzerland a concession by the Federal Government grants one set of regulations for all lake passenger service. Collective agreements play some part in the hours regulation of inland water transportation in some countries like Great Britain, the U.S., Belgium, and the Netherlands. (S PE.) III. Working Hours in Commerce.—The regulation of workIii. Working Hours in Commerce.—The regulation of work- ing hours in commerce is less complete and general than in industry. Among European States, however, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and Russia have adopted general legislation on hours which covers commercial workers also. In Belgium most classes have been gradually brought under the law. In all the above cases the normal working week is limited to 48 hours, with the exception of the Netherlands, where the limits are Io daily and 55 weekly. But it should be noted that whilst 48 hours is the "normal," in almost all cases a great variety of ex ceptions is permissible and the hours actually worked are certainly longer. In Czechoslovakia complaints have been put forward that the law is not respected. The great difficulty is of course the control of small establishments, including shops. The latter are dealt with in many countries by means of closing regulations—the only method so far employed in Great Britain. The Shops Act of 1912 for example fixes a maximum week of 72 hours for young persons under 18 em ployed in shops. Similar legislation exists in many States of the United States. As in the case of industry, collective agreements have secured terms in many countries much more favourable than those fixed by legislation.
IV. Working Hours in a few countries only are hours of labour in agriculture directly limited by law, and it would appear that in the majority of cases the experiments made have not been particularly successful, at least in the object primarily aimed at. In Czechoslovakia (act of Dec. 19, 1g18), for instance, the provisions of the law have been overridden by collective agreements, which permit a day of longer than eight hours, provided that overtime rates of wages are paid for the excess. In this sense the act has been beneficial to the workers. In Germany a scientific attempt has been made to meet the difficulty of the seasons by dividing the year into three periods, during which the normal daily hours vary. The Italian system of collective agreements and the decree of Sept. Io, 1923, which limited hours (in the latter case to 8 per day except during 3 months yearly, when the maximum was Io), have come to an end under the Fascist regime, and new agreements are under negotiation. The Agri cultural Wages (Regulation) Act of Aug. 7, 1924, indirectly regulates the hours of agricultural workers in Great Britain, since the district committees set up under the act have the power to fix weekly wage rates, and have usually done so upon a basis of a week of 48 to 52 hours, any hours worked in excess being paid for as overtime, and consequently tending to be reduced to a minimum.
International "labour part" of the treaties of peace which followed the World War gave international sanction to a number of "principles," among which was "the adoption of an 8 hours' day or a 48 hours' week as the standard to be aimed at where it had not already been attained." The most important task of the first conference of the International Labour Organization created by this part of the treaty was the application of this principle. In the preparatory work for the conference, which was held at Washington in 1919, of the 35 Governments consulted the great majority indicated their readiness to adopt a convention on the question, and of the States not consulted it was known that Finland, Germany, Austria and Russia had already legislation enforcing the 8-hour day. The evidence therefore tended to the conclusion that the general adoption of a convention on the question was possible, and the Washington Conference proceeded to elaborate such a convention. Its discussions turned for the most part on the exceptional cases which have been treated above.
The draft convention was adopted on Nov. 28, 1919. Since a large number of the industrial States had already adopted, by legal enact ment, or otherwise, the 8-hour day, it might have been expected that the ratification of the draft convention would be rapid and practically universal. But this was not the case. For some time, difficulties of procedure delayed progress. An international labour convention was a new diplomatic instrument and the conservatism of certain Foreign Offices, notably Downing Street and the Quai d'Orsay, raised diffi culties of procedure which were eventually overcome easily enough, but which delayed ratification of the hours convention until the en thusiasm of post-war public opinion had cooled and the economic slump of 1922 and onwards had set in. Up to that time, the countries which had ratified were not those of the highest industrial importance. The movement however continued under the pressure of trade union action and of the more liberal sections of public opinion, and by May 1928 Belgium, Bulgaria, Chile, Czechoslovakia, Rumania and India had ratified unconditionally, whilst Austria, France, Italy and Latvia had ratified conditionally upon the ratification of other countries.
This system of conditional ratification, begun by Italy, had re sulted in making the attitude of Great Britain the key to the situation. Recognizing this and evidently somewhat uneasy in mind, the Govern ment of J. R. MacDonald in 1925 and that of Stanley Baldwin in 1926 convoked meetings of the ministers of labour of Great Britain, Belgium, France and Germany at Berne and again (with the addition of Italy) in London with a view to the examination of matters in the convention alleged to be susceptible of diverse interpretation and, if possible, to the conclusion of an agreement upon them. At Berne no insuperable difficulty appears to have been raised, and the more important meeting in London settled a number of matters considered to be decisive. (See Times, March 20, 1926.) This meeting was pre pared for by the circulation by the British Government of the points considered to be under doubt, and it appears, from the Times report, that the same Government raised further points during the course of the meeting. On all these points but one agreement was unanimous, but on the question as to what was to be understood by the article of the convention which permitted its suspension "in the event of war or other emergency endangering the national safety," the British minister reserved approval pending consultation with his Government. No final decision on this matter has been made public.
The proceedings of the meeting of ministers were private, but it is possible to deduce from the official communication to the press that every minister of labour present had conceded some point in his national legislation or practice to meet the British difficulties, and it might have been considered therefore that the "London agreement" gave the British Government all it wanted in the way of guarantees and that its ratification would follow, and thus bring about the general effective ratification by the European industrial States which the network of conditional ratifications had made to depend upon Great Britain.
Of the States represented at London, Italy had already ratified con ditionally. Belgium proceeded at once to unconditional ratification (her existing legislation permitted that course) ; France ratified in 1927 contingent upon the ratification of Germany and Great Britain. Germany, in course of codifying and amending her labour legislation in general, was adapting her hours legislation to the requirements of the convention, and making reductions in existing working hours where they were not in accord with it. In Great Britain, an amended Factory Act was in preparation, and it was understood that a general bill for the enactment of the 8-hour day was to . be introduced. At that stage, however, the employers' organizations undertook a cam paign in the public press and elsewhere, the cabinet appears to have been impressed, and neither bill saw the light. Questioned in the House of Commons, the minister of labour and the under-secretary cited as reasons for the inaction of the Government the same objections which had been raised at London in 1926 and which, it was thought, had been overcome, and stated that the question of the revision of the convention would be raised at Geneva.
In effect, one clause of the convention provides that the Governing Body "at least once in ten years . shall consider the desirability of placing on the agenda of the conference the question of its revision or modification," and in Feb. 1928 the under-secretary of State, repre senting Great Britain on the Governing Body, demanded that the latter should take the question of revision into consideration. Accusa tions of bad faith, under these circumstances, may be mistaken, but are easy to understand. The Governing Body refused to decide at that session ; in the May following it rejected the British proposal and decided that the procedure for the revision of conventions should follow its normal course. (H. A. GR.) In general, the action taken by the International Labour Organiza tion on limitation of hours of work falls into two main periods. Be tween 1919 and 193o, the efforts were directed towards the establish ment of the 48-hour week. After 1931 numerous attempts have been made to reduce the working week to 4o hours by international regula tions. Up through 1937, the International Labour Organization had acc^_pted a convention of principle on the 4o-hour week in 1935, and had adopted conventions making it applicable to the textile industry, public works, and glass-bottle manufacture. In the convention a resolution was adopted which proposed placing in the agenda of the 1938 session of the Organization the question of the generalization of the reduction of hours of work in all economic activities not covered already by previous adopted conventions. The resolution further sub mitted that the 1938 session be followed by a consultation with the Governments and that the results be submitted to the 1939 session with the view to preparation of a draft convention. (S. PE.) Working Hours at Sea.—The Washington draft convention was applicable to "industrial undertakings," and the question of the appli cation of the 8 and 48 rule to maritime and inland navigation was deferred for the consideration of a special meeting of the conference. The principal maritime countries, consulted beforehand, replied unanimously in favour of international regulation of the hours of labour on board ship, but in most cases with considerable caution with regard to the 8 and 48 rule, which is clearly more difficult of applica tion under sea conditions. On the whole, however, the evidence was again in favour of the possibility of the conclusion of a convention upon the subject.
The special meeting of the conference took place at Genoa, June 15– July Io, 192o. The draft prepared by the International Labour Office was referred as at Washington to a special commission, and after being amended was submitted to the full conference, which approved it by a vote of 48 to 25 ; the two-thirds majority necessary for formal adoption thus was not attained, though lost by a very narrow margin. A joint maritime commission, formed in 192o, was aimed at pro viding an opportunity for ship-owners and seamen to form a joint conference on the whole problem of limitation of hours of work on board ship. The joint commission has held a number of sessions. In 1936, at a special maritime session of the International Labour Con ference, the conference adopted a draft convention, the general terms of which are an 8-hour day and a 48-hour week, or an 8-hour day and a 56-hour week, according to the class of vessel.
Working Hours in question of international regula tion of the hours of salaried workers in industry and commerce has been raised and was examined by the Governing Body of the Inter national Labour Office in 1928. It has not yet been discussed by the International Labour Conference.
At its 193o session the conference adopted a draft convention con cerning regulation of hours in commerce and offices. This convention has been unconditionally ratified by Bulgaria, Chile, Cuba, Finland, Mexico, Nicaragua, Uruguay, and Spain.
Working Hours in Agriculture.—The subject rested for a long time until it was placed on the agenda of the first session of the Permanent Agricultural Committee at Geneva in Feb. 1938. The committee re quested that further study be made by the International Labour Office and that the subject be placed again on the agenda of the Permanent Agricultural Committee session in 1939, which could then make pro posals to the governing body.
Working Hours in Coal Mines.—The problem was referred to the governing body of the International Labour Office in 1929. After a preparatory technical conference in 193o, the question was submitted to the 193o session of the conference. The proposed draft convention was rejected then but was finally adopted in 1931. The standard adopted was a 73/4-hour work day in underground coal mines. The convention was revised in 1935 on certain technicalities, but has been ratified by no major coal producing country.
Working Hours in Automatic Sheet Glass Works.—The draft con vention, adopted in 5934 after discussion in 1924 and 1925, introduced hours of work lower than that of previous conventions. The con vention recommends a 4-shift system with a 42-hour work-week.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.—The texts in English, French and German of most of Bibliography.—The texts in English, French and German of most of the acts cited above, and in general of acts relating to hours of labour, are published by the International Labour Office in its Legislative Series. Monographs on the hours situation in a number of important countries have been issued from the same source. For the general situa tion in regard to the Convention of Washington, see the directors' Reports to the successive sessions of the International Labour Con ference since 1919. (H. A. GR. ; S. PE.)