Abstract
A SERIOUS gap in our social legislation is exposed by the report of the Committee on the Hours of Employment of Young Persons. Since the Factory and Workshop Act of 1901 and the Shops Act of 1934, limits have been set to the number of hours during which a young person may work, as well as to the amount of overtime and night work. A large class, estimated by the Committee at 125,000, still remains which is not covered by this legislation and is liable to be grossly overworked. This class consists mainly of van boys, hotel pages, messengers, cinema ushers, and the like. The chief objections to these forms of employment are that they are often spread out over long hours, that in busy periods there is no limit to the possible overtime that may be demanded and that often the jobs lead nowhere. That such a position should arise in so new an industry as the cinema industry indicates how sadly overdue is a real attempt to deal with recruitment on quantitative as well as qualitative lines, and the whole report strengthens the case for a scientific approach to the question of recruitment. The recommendations of the Committee include fixed hours, intervals for rest, weekly holidays, strictly limited overtime for young persons more than sixteen years of age and its prohibition for those less than sixteen, as well as prohibition of night work for a period of 11 hours, and it is considered essential that immediate steps be taken to give statutory protection to the unregulated young persons covered by the Report. It is recommended that the regulation of the hours of work of those employed in connexion with factories, docks and warehouses should be entrusted to the Factory Department of the Home Office and, for the remainder, to the local authorities responsible for administering the Shops Acts.
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Hours of Employment of Young Persons. Nature 139, 662–663 (1937). https://doi.org/10.1038/139662c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/139662c0