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EMPLOYMENT OF WOMEN, YOUNG PERSONS, AND CHILDREN ACT 1920

EMPLOYMENT OF WOMEN, YOUNG PERSONS, AND CHILDREN ACT 1920 - LONG
TITLE

An Act to carry out certain Conventions relating to the employment
of Women, Young Persons, and Children, and to amend the law with
respect to the employment of Women and Young Persons in Factories
and Workshops{1}.
[23rd December 1920]
WHEREAS at Washington, on the twenty-eighth day of November, nineteen
hundred and nineteen, a general conference of the International
Labour Organisation of the League of Nations adopted three
conventions containing (together with other provisions) the provisions
set out in Part I, Part II... of the Schedule to this Act:

And Whereas at Genoa on the ninth day of July, nineteen hundred
and twenty, a general conference of the International Labour
Organisation of the League of Nations adopted a convention containing
(together with other provisions) the provisions set out in Part IV
of the Schedule to this Act:

And Whereas it is expedient that for the purpose of carrying out
the said conventions the provisions hereinafter contained should have
effect:

And Whereas it is expedient to make further provision as to the
conditions under which... young persons may be employed in factories
and workshops:

EMPLOYMENT OF WOMEN, YOUNG PERSONS, AND CHILDREN ACT 1920 - SECT 1
Restrictions on the employment of young persons and children in
industrial undertakings.

1.(1) No child shall be employed in any industrial undertaking.

[(2) No child shall be employed in any ship except to the extent
to which and in the circumstances in which such employment is
permitted under the Convention set out in Part IV of the Schedule
to this Act.]

(3) No young person... shall be employed at night in any industrial
undertaking, except to the extent to which and in the circumstances
in which such employment is permitted under the Conventions set out
in Part II... of the Schedule to this Act.

(4) Where young persons are employed in any industrial undertaking,
a register of the young persons so employed, and of the dates of
their birth, and of the dates on which they enter and leave the
service of their employer, shall be kept and shall at all times be
open to inspection.

[(5) There shall be included in every agreement with the crew
entered into under the Merchant Shipping Act, 1894, a list of the
young persons under the age of sixteen years who are members of
the crew, together with particulars of the dates of their birth,
and, in the case of a ship in which there is no such agreement,
the master of the ship shall, if young persons under the age of
sixteen years are employed therein, keep a register of those persons
with particulars of the dates of their birth and of the dates on
which they become or cease to be members of the crew, and the
register so kept shall at all times be open to inspection.]

(6) This section, so far as it relates to employment in coal
mines, metalliferous mines and quarries, and factories and workshops,
shall have effect as if it formed part of the Coal Mines Act,
1911, and the Acts amending that Act, the Metalliferous Mines
Regulations Acts, 1872 and 1875, and the Factory and Workshops Acts,
1901 to 1911 respectively; and the provisions of those Acts relating
to registers to be kept thereunder shall apply to the registers
required to be kept under this Act.

[This section, so far as it relates to employment in a ship, shall
have effect as if it formed part of the Merchant Shipping Acts,
1894 to 1920.]

In the case of employment in any place other than the places
aforesaid [or in any ship]

(a)If any person employs a child or a young person in any
industrial undertaking in contravention of this Act, he shall be
deemed to have employed a child or young person in contravention of
the Employment of Children Act, 1903, and subsections (1) and (2)
of section five and section six and section eight of that Act
shall apply accordingly as if they were herein re-enacted and in
terms made applicable to children and young persons within the
meaning of this Act; and

[(b)If any child is employed in any ship in contravention of this
Act, the master of the ship shall be liable for each offence to a
fine not exceeding [#2], or, in the case of a second or subsequent
offence, not exceeding five pounds, and where a child is taken into
employment in any ship in contravention of this Act, on the
production, by or with the privity of the parent, of a false or
forged certificate or on the false representation of his parent that
the child is of an age at which such employment is not in
contravention of this Act, that parent shall be liable on summary
conviction to a fine not exceeding [#2]; and]

(c)If any person being the employer of a young person fails to
keep such a register so required to be kept by him as aforesaid,
or refuses or neglects when required to produce it for inspection
by an officer of a local authority under the said Act, he shall
be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding twenty
pounds; and

[(d)If the master of a ship fails to keep such a register so
required to be kept by him as aforesaid, or refuses or neglects,
when required to produce it for inspection by an officer of the
Board of Trade or any other person having power to enforce
compliance with the provisions of the Merchant Shipping Acts, 1894
to 1920, he shall be liable to a fine not exceeding twenty pounds;
and]

Para.(e) rep. by SL(R) 1978

S.2 rep. by SLR 1927; 1936 c.28 (NI) s.5(4)

EMPLOYMENT OF WOMEN, YOUNG PERSONS, AND CHILDREN ACT 1920 - SECT 3
Savings.

3.(1) The provisions of this Act shall be in addition to and not
in derogation of any of the provisions of any other Act restricting
the employment of..., young persons, or children.

(2) Nothing in this Act shall apply to an industrial undertaking or
ship in which only members of the same family are employed.

Subs.(3) rep. by SLR 1927

EMPLOYMENT OF WOMEN, YOUNG PERSONS, AND CHILDREN ACT 1920 - SECT 4
Interpretation.

4. In this Act

The expression "child" means a person under the age of fourteen
years;

The expression "young person" means a person who has ceased to be
a child and who is under the age of eighteen years;

Definition rep. by SL(R) 1978

The expression "industrial undertaking" has with respect to the
employment of children, young persons,... the meanings respectively
assigned thereto in the Conventions set out in Parts I, II,... of
the Schedule to this Act;

The expression "ship" means any sea-going ship or boat of any
description which is registered in the United Kingdom as a British
ship and includes any British fishing boat entered in the fishing
boat register.

EMPLOYMENT OF WOMEN, YOUNG PERSONS, AND CHILDREN ACT 1920 - SECT 5
Short title.

5.(1) This Act may be cited as the Employment of Women, Young
Persons, and Children Act, 1920.

Subs.(2) rep. by SLR 1927For the purpose of this Convention, the
term "industrial undertaking" includes particularly:

(a)Mines, quarries and other works for the extraction of minerals
from the earth.

(b)Industries in which articles are manufactured, altered, cleaned,
repaired, ornamented, finished, adapted for sale, broken up or
demolished, or in which materials are transformed; including
ship-building, and the generation, transformation, and transmission of
electricity and motive power of any kind.

(c)Construction, reconstruction, maintenance, repair, alteration, or
demolition of any building, railway, tramway, harbour, dock, pier,
canal, inland waterway, road, tunnel, bridge, viaduct, sewer, drain,
well, telegraphic or telephonic installation, electrical undertaking,
gaswork, waterwork, or other work of construction, as well as the
preparation for or laying the foundations of any such work or
structure.

(d)Transport of passengers or goods by road or rail or inland
waterway, including the handling of goods at docks, quays, wharves,
and warehouses, but excluding transport by hand.

The competent authority in each country shall define the line of
division which separates industry from commerce and agriculture.

Children under the age of fourteen years shall not be employed or
work in any public or private industrial undertaking, or in any
branch thereof, other than an undertaking in which only members of
the same family are employed.

The provisions of Article 2 shall not apply to work done by
children in technical schools, provided that such work is approved
and supervised by public authority.

In order to facilitate the enforcement of the provisions of this
Convention, every employer in an industrial undertaking shall be
required to keep a register of all persons under the age of
sixteen years employed by him, and of the dates of their births.

For the purpose of this Convention, the term "industrial undertaking"
includes particularly:

(a)Mines, quarries, and other works for the extraction of minerals
from the earth:

(b)Industries in which articles are manufactured, altered, cleaned,
repaired, ornamented, finished, adapted for sale, broken up, or
demolished, or in which materials are transformed; including
ship-building, and the generation, transformation, and transmission of
electricity or motive power of any kind:

(c)Construction, reconstruction, maintenance, repair, alteration, or
demolition of any building, railway, tramway, harbour, dock, pier,
canal, inland waterway, road, tunnel, bridge, viaduct, sewer, drain,
well, telegraphic or telephonic installation, electrical undertaking,
gaswork, waterwork, or other work of construction as well as the
preparation for or laying the foundations of any such work or
structure:

(d)Transport of passengers or goods by road or rail, including the
handling of goods at docks, quays, wharves, and warehouses, but
excluding transport by hand.

The competent authority in each country shall define the line of
division which separates industry from commerce and agriculture.

Young persons under eighteen years of age shall not be employed
during the night in any public or private industrial undertaking, or
in any branch thereof, other than an undertaking in which only
members of the same family are employed, except as hereinafter
provided for.

Young persons over the age of sixteen may be employed during the
night in the following industrial undertakings on work which by
reason of the nature of the process, is required to be carried on
continuously day and night:

(a)Manufacture of iron and steel; process in which reverberatory or
regenerative furnaces are used, and galvanizing of sheet metal or
wire (except the pickling process).

(b)Glass works.

(c)Manufacture of paper.

(d)Manufacture of raw sugar.

(e)Gold mining reduction work.

For the purpose of this Convention, the term "night" signifies a
period of at least eleven consecutive hours, including the interval
between ten o'clock in the evening and five o'clock in the morning.

In coal and lignite mines work may be carried on in the interval
between ten o'clock in the evening and five o'clock in the morning,
if an interval of ordinarily fifteen hours, and in no case of less
than thirteen hours, separates two periods of work.

Where night work in the baking industry is prohibited for all
workers, the interval between nine o'clock in the evening and four
o'clock in the morning may be substituted in the baking industry
for the interval between ten o'clock in the evening and five
o'clock in the morning.

The provisions of Articles 2 and 3 shall not apply to the night
work of young persons between the ages of sixteen and eighteen
years in cases of emergencies which could not have been controlled
or foreseen, which are not of a periodical character, and which
interfere with the normal working of the industrial undertaking.

The prohibition of night work may be suspended by the Government,
for young persons between the ages of sixteen and eighteen years,
when in case of serious emergency the public interest demands it.

Part III rep. by SL(R) 1978

For the purpose of this Convention, the term "vessel" includes all
ships and boats, of any nature whatsoever, engaged in maritime
navigation, whether publicly or privately owned: it excludes ships of
war.

Children under the age of fourteen years shall not be employed or
work on vessels other than vessels upon which only members of the
same family are employed.

The provisions of Article 2 shall not apply to work done by
children on school ships or training ships, provided that such work
is approved and supervised by public authority.

In order to facilitate the enforcement of the provisions of this
Convention, every shipmaster shall be required to keep a register of
all persons under the age of sixteen years employed on board his
vessel, or a list of them in the articles of agreement, and of
the dates of their births.]