X. HOURS OF LABOR AND LEGAL HOLIDAYS Section 1729. Eight hours a day's work in absence of contract. In all engagements to labor in any manufacturing or mechanic business, where there is no express contract to the contrary, a day's work shall consist of eight hours and all engagements or contracts for labor in such cases shall be construed; but this shall not apply to any contract for labor by the week, month or year. Public buildings or works; hours of labor. Section 1729m. 1. Each and every contract hereafter made for the erection, construction, remodeling or repairing of any public building or works, except contracts for the construction or maintenance of public highways and bridges, to which the state or any officer or agent thereof, or to which any county having a population of two hundred fifty thousand or more is a party which may involve the employment of laborers, workmen or mechanics, shall contain, or if not actually incorporated therein shall be construed as containing, a stipulation that no laborer, workman or mechanic in the employ of the contractor, subcontractor, agent or other person doing or contracting to do all or a part of the work contemplated by the contract, shall be permitted to work more than eight hours in any one calendar day, except in cases of extraordinary emergencies. 2. The phrase "extraordinary emergencies," as is used in this section, shall mean and include only such as grow out of the necessity of protecting property or human life when endangered by reason of attacks by the public enemy or endangered from fire, flood or storm. 3. This section shall apply only to such work as is actually performed on the premises on which such buildings or works are being erected, constructed, remodeled or repaired. Section 1729n. 1. Any officer, or any member of any board or commission or any agent of the state of Wisconsin or any person acting under or for such officer, agent, board commission or member thereof, or any contractor, subcontractor, corporation, copartnership, firm or person, or any agent thereof, who violates any of the provisions of sections 1729m and 1729n of the statutes shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding two hundred dollars, or by imprisonment for not more than six months, or by both such fine and imprisonment. 2. Any person, who as an officer or a member of a board or commission, or as an agent of such officer, board or commission, who executes a contract violating any of the provisions of sections 1729m and 1729n of the statutes, shall be deemed to be the party who has violated the provisions of sections 1729m and 1729n of the statutes. and shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall be subject to the punishment herein provided for. 3. Any contractor, subcontractor, corporation, copartnership, firm or person, or any agent thereof, who after executing a contract under the provisions of sections 1729m and 1729n of the statutes shall allow or permit any laborer, workman or mechanic in his, its or their employ, or in the employment of any contractor, subcontractor, agent or other person under his, its or their control or direction, to work more than eight hours in any one calendar day, except in cases of extraordinary emergencies, shall be deemed to have violated the provisions of sections 1729m and 1729n of the statutes and shall be subject to the punishment herein provided for. 4. Whenever it shall be ascertained that any laborer, workman, mechanic or other person worked more than eight hours in any calendar day in violation of subsections 1 and 2, of section 1729m, the proof of such fact shall be prima facie proof that such laborer, workman, mechanic or other person was so required or permitted to work. Firemen: Hours of Labor. Section 1729a-10. Each fireman in fire departments in all cities of the second and third class in this state having a population of thirty thousand or more shall be off duty at least one continuous twenty-four hour period in each seven days. Proper arrangements shall be made by the chiefs of such departments to carry out the provisions of this section. No fireman shall leave the city without written permission from the chief. State employes: office hours and vacations. Section 14.59. The offices of the departments of state government shall be kept open on all days, except Sundays and holidays, and office hours shall begin at eight-thirty o'clock A. M. and close at five o'clock P. M. with intermissions from twelve o'clock A. M. to one-thirty o'clock P. M., except Saturday afternoon when such hours may be observed as the heads of the departments may think proper. Heads of departments may, in their discretion, grant to each clerk or other person who has been in the employ of the state continuously for twelve months, eighteen working days leave of absence in each year without loss of pay. Legal Holidays. Section 2577. The first day of January, the twenty-second day of February, the thirtieth day of May, the fourth day of July, the twenty-fifth day of December, the day appointed by the governor as Labor day or by the governor or the president of the United States as a day of public thanksgiving in each year, the day of holding the September primary election, and the day of holding the general election in November, are legal holidays; and in every city of the first class the afternoon of each day upon which a primary election is held for the nomination of candidates for city offices, is a half holiday. Whenever any of said days shall fall on Sunday the succeeding Monday shall be the legal holiday. Appropriate special exercises may be held in all schools for one-half day on February twelfth, and on February twenty-second. Railroad Employes' Hours On and Off Duty. Section 18097. It shall be unlawful for any common carrier, its officers or agents, to require or permit: (1) Any employe to be or remain on duty for a longer period than sixteen consecutive hours, and whenever any such employe of such common carrier shall have been continuously on duty for sixteen hours he shall be relieved and not required or permitted again to go on duty until he has had at least ten consecutive hours off duty; and no such employe who has been on duty sixteen hours in the aggregate in any twenty-four hours period shall be required or permitted to continue or again go on duty without having had at least eight consecutive hours off duty. Section 1809m. The provisions of sections 18097 to 18090, inclusive, shall not apply in any case of casualty or unavoidable accident or the act of God, nor where the delay was the result of a cause not known to the carrier or its officers or agents in charge of such employe at the time said employe left the terminal and which could not have been foreseen nor to the crews of wrecking or relief trains. Section 1809n. The railroad commission shall fully investigate all cases of violation of sections 18091 to 18090, inclusive, and shall lodge with the proper district attorneys information of such violations as may come to its knowledge. The commission shall have the power to employ such inspectors or other persons as may be necessary to enforce the provis.ons of sections 18097 to 18090, inclusive. To enforce the provisions of sections 18097 to 18090, inclusive, the railroad commission and its agents or employes shall have the power to administer oaths, interrogate witnesses, take testimony, and require the production of books and papers. Section 18090. Any common carrier or any of its officers or agents violating any of the provisions of section 18091 is declared to be guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction thereof shall be punished by a fine of not less than one hundred dollars nor more than one thousand dollars. One Day Rest in Seven1. Section 4595f. Every employer of labor whether a person, partnership or corporation, who owns or operates any factory or mercantile establishment in this state, shall allow every person, except those specified in subsection 2, employed in such factory or mercantile establishment, at least twenty-four consecutive hours of rest in every seven consecutive days. This section shall not authorize any work on Sunday not now authorized by law. (3) Persons employed in the manufacture of butter, cheese, or other dairy products or in the distribution of milk or cream, or in canneries. (4) Persons employed in bakeries, flour and feed mills, hotels, and restaurants. (5) Employes whose duties include no work on Sunday other than (a) Caring for live animals. (b) Maintaining fires. (6) Any labor called for by an emergency that could not reasonably have been anticipated 3. Every employer shall keep a time book showing the names and addresses of all employes and the hours worked by each of them in each day, and such time book shall be open to inspection by the Industrial Commission. 4. Every employer who violates any of the provisions of this section shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction thereof shall be punished by a fine of fifty dollars for each offense. 1 Closely related to this statute is the general Sunday law (Sections 4595 to 4596, inclusive), which prohibits work on Sundays except work of necessity or charity, with some exceptions. XI. HOUSING AND BUILDING LAWS Building regulations; powers and duties of Industrial Commission. (Summary). Section 2394-48, provides that "every employer and every owner of a place of employment or a public building now or hereafter constructed shall so construct, repair or maintain such place of employment or public building, and every_architect shall so prepare the plans for the construction of such place of employment or public building, as to render the same safe." Section 2394-52 makes it the duty of the Industrial Commission and gives it power, jurisdiction and authority "to ascertain, fix and order such reasonable standards, rules or regulations for the construction, repair and maintenace of places of employment and public buildings, as shall render them safe", and also "to make reasonable orders for the repair or removal of any building or other structure which for want of repair or by reason of age or dilapidated condition or for any other cause is especially liable to fire, aud which is so situated as to endanger other buildings or property and for the repair or removal of any combust.ble or explosive material or inflammable conditions, dangerous to the safety of any building or premises or the occupants thereof or endangering or hindering firemen in case of fire". Authorty is conferred also to require the submission of plans and specifications for all places of employment and public buildings and also for elevators and other permanent equipment of such buildings. Pursuant to these dut.es, the Industrial Commission has adopted and enforces the state building code, the general orders on existing buildings, and the general orders on fire prevention, which are published on pages 207-211. City building ordinances and building inspectors. Section 92573. (Summary). City councils may des gnate general and special fire limits and prescribe additional regulations for the construction, alteration, enlargement and repair of build.ngs within special firelimits. For the enforcement of such ordinances and other ordinances relating to buildings cities may appoint building inspectors. Chapter 570, Laws of 1919. (Summary). Provides for an inspector of buildings and a deputy inspector of buildings in cities of the first class. Section 959-59. (Summary). Give the inspector of buildings in cities of the first class authority to order the removal of old and dilapidated build.ngs. Section 2394-58. (Summary). Cities and villages have authority to make building regulations not in conflict with those adopted by the Industrial Commission. Persons affected by local orders in conflict with an order of the Industrial Commission may petition the commission for a hearing and it is given authority to set aside any local order found to be unreasonable and in conflict with state requirements. Section 1416a. (Summary). Local boards of health in any city of the third class are authorized to establish housing codes for such cities. City plan commissions; organization. Section 959-17a to 95917e.1, inclusive. (Summary). The common council of any city may provide for the appointment of a city plan commission to consist of the mayor, as presiding officer, the president of the park boara, the city engineer, a member of the council elected by a two-thirds vote of the council, and three (or four, if there is no park board) citizens appointed by the mayor. The members of the commission serve without compensation but can recover their necessary expenses. Such commission can employ such clerical help as the common council may authorize and adopt rules of procedure. City plan commiss ons; duties. Sub-section 2 of section 959-17e. (In part). * In addition to its other duties it shall be the duty of such commission to make a careful study of the possibilities and needs of the c'ty, relative to congestion, housing conditions and planning, and to advise the council of such city in the making of plans for the development of better housing and planning. Section 959—17ƒ. 1. The common council of any such city shall refer the following questions to such commission for its consideration and report before final action is taken thereon by the council: (a) The location and architectural design of any public building, the location of any statue or other memorial, the location, extension, widening, enlargement, ornamentation, and parking of any street, parkway, boulevard, park, playground, or other memorial or public grounds within any such city; (b) The location and character of all lands and buildings for relieving congested sections, for garden suburbs, and for vacation camps for school children within or without the corporate limits of such city. 2. All plats or replats of any lands within the limits of such city or any lands of outside and within one and one-half miles of the limits of such city shall be submitted to the commission of such city for its recommendation to the council before the same are approved by such council. Section 959-17g. (Summary). Common councils may refer to city plan commissions the carrying out of any public work not expressly within the province of other boards or commissions. Section 959-17h. (Summary). City plan commissions may cause to be made maps of the city showing the present or proposed location of public buildings, parks, streets, etc. Cities may acquire lands for housing and other purposes. Section 959-17i. 1. Any such city, acting through its commission, or otherwise, may acquire by gift, lease, purchase, or condemnation any lands (a) within its corporate limits for establishing, laying out, widening, enlarging, extending and maintaining memorial grounds, streets, squares, parkways, boulevards, parks, playgrounds, sites for public buildings, and reservations in and about and along and leading to any or all of the same; (b) Any lands adjoining or near to such city for use, sublease or sale for any of the following purposes: |