or workers than the wages committee is to comprise, the president of the civil court shall likewise complete the list and fill up the vacancies caused by the absence of agreement. The Act does not fix exactly the term of office of the members of the committee. But, since revisions of the minimum wage must take place, under §33e, at least every three years, a normal arrangement would be to re-appoint them every three years. This term is, moreover, that fixed by the Act for the office of the Councillor of the Court of Cassation having the auty of presiding over the Central Commission which acts as final court of appeal (§33f). It goes without saying that there is nothing contrary to the reappointment of the members of the departmental committees at the expiration of every triennial period. The presidency of the departmental wages committee is allotted by the Act to the justice of the peace or the senior justice of the peace acting at the chief town of the department. He has consequently the duty of seeing that the committee works smoothly. You are requested to inform him of the appointment of the committee, of its composition, of the names of the members nominated, and in general of everything that affects his duties. It seems that a prefectorial decree will be necessary to announce to the persons concerned the appointment of a departmental wages committee and to determine its composition. This decree should fix the term of office and the date from which it is reckoned, and indicate, if any, the measures taken to facilitate the work of the committee. A subsequent decree should be issued to announce the result of the nomination of members carried out in order, and to make the names publicly known. Committees of Industrial Experts. In the absence or labour councils, that is to say as a general rule, the prefects will have to appoint in each department one or more socalled "committees of industrial experts ($33g). It is the function of the prefects to decide in what centres and for what trades such committees ought to be created and to determine the district over which their jurisdiction shall extend. They should consult persons qualified to represent the trades, the trade organisations concerned; they should also take the advice of the wages committee and of the inspector of labour. In view of the technical nature of the work incumbent upon them, the committees of experts might be as numerous as the clearly defined branches of the clothing trades carried on in the locality. Care should, however, be taken not to multiply them unnecessarily. For the nomination of the members of the industrial committees, the prefects should follow the procedure indicated above for the departmental wages committees. One difference should, however, be noted. Where there are no committees of counsel in the department, or if the employers' and workers' presidents cannot agree, the prefect will nominate the members of the committee of experts. For the purposes of this nomination the departmental wages committee should be consulted. The qualifications laid down for the departmental wages committees, as regards knowledge of the special branch of industry and residence, are even more expedient in this case, and as regards residence will be more easy to observe. What is said above in respect of notification to the president, the justice of the peace, and of the decrees appointing the committees applies here equally. The points to be decided by decree are, moreover, more numerous in this case (place of meeting, trade, district, etc.). Central Commission. A Central Commission sitting at the Ministry of Labour is established to decide finally on protests made against decisions of labour councils, wages committees and committees of experts. The Commission is to include, for each case, two members (an employer and a workman) from the labour council or departmental wages committee which has fixed the minimum wage. The public administrative regulations contemplated in §33h will contain the necessary details in this respect, and, if necessary, supplementary instructions will be sent with the regulations. 2. Work of the Committees. The meetings of the departmental wages committees and the committees of industrial experts are to be called by the president, the justice of the peace, who shall fix their orders of the day. The administration has not to take part in their work, but should, nevertheless, facilitate their working as much as possible, by providing them with premises, documents and the few necessary office supplies. The administration shall, as far as possible, if requested, place an employee at their disposal to take charge of their office. Amongst the documents to be presented to the committees are, in the first place, the schedules appended, in virtue of the Decrees of 10th August, 1899, to the purchase agreements made by the State, the departments, the communes and public charitable instiA very large number of those schedules have actually been drawn up in the past tutions. months in connection with supplies of clothes and underclothing for the army. The inspectors of labour know them and are in touch with the commissariat officials on the matter. The committees will find there abundant and effective material which will largely facilitate their work. Fixing of the basic wage. The labour councils or wages committees contemplated in §33 have first to determine the daily rate of wages usually paid, on the basis of which rate the minimum rate will then be fixed. Section 33c lays down the rules to be followed in this matter: (1) Where home-work exists in the district concurrently with similar work carried on in workshops: the daily rate of wages ascertained will be that which is usually paid in workshops to women workers of the same trade and average skill carrying out the various branches of work in the trade. As regards the workers of average skill from whom the rate is ascertained, the reporter on the Bill to the Chamber of Deputies*, quoted by the reporter to the Senate†, expressed himself as follows: "It is of course understood that the wage contemplated ought to be that of a worker who has no special talent giving her the right to a higher remuneration, but that of the ordinary worker carrying out, generally, the various branches of work in the trade"; (2) Where home-work alone exists in the district, but where workshops in which women workers perform analogous work are found in this district or in similar districts : the daily rate of wages of these workers should be ascertained; (3) Finally, where there are no workshops either in the district in question or in similar districts, where branches of work connected with the clothing trade or analogous branches of work are carried on: in this case, which, in view of the very broad and comprehensive meaning of the expressions" analogous branches of work and "similar districts" will doubtless arise very rarely, it is the usual rate of wages paid to women employed by the day in the district which will have to be ascertained. In the words of M. Jean Morel's report "the woman employed by the day, who is here taken as a type, is the unskilled worker going out by the day to other people for various objects-household work, needlework, mending, washing, etc. Fixing of the minimum wage. It is in accordance with the rate of wages thus ascertained that the labour councils or wages committees have to fix the minimum contemplated in §33d, that is to say, that which the prices paid ought to enable a woman home-worker of average skill to earn in ten hours. The minimum wage thus fixed is consequently a time wage; it must be fixed by the hour or by the day of ten hours. It will be the function of the prefects to see that the labour councils or wages committees proceed every three years to revise the hourly minimum wage, as required by the last paragraph of $330. Fixing of prices for articles made in quantities. The committees of experts established by $33g have the function of drawing up, as precisely as possible, a table of the times necessary to carry out work done in quantities, for the different articles and the different classes of woman worker, in the trades or districts to which their jurisdiction extends. Within the spirit of the Act, these determinations ought to be made by observing the work of a woman of average skill in a workshop. It should be noted that the action of the committee as regards the choice of the articles to be entered on the table is not limited to the initiative of the Government. The committees of counsel and trade associations interested have the same right to refer matters to them. The committees may, moreover, enter on their own initiative articles the standardising of which seems to them especially useful. Once the table of times is drawn up, it is the function of the committee of experts, in order to establish the minimum wages and scales contemplated especially in §33h, to determine the product of the hourly basic salary and the number of hours and fractions of an hour indicated in the table. The scales must include three elements for each articlehourly wage, time necessary, net price resulting from the first two. Publication of the wages. Section 833h entrusts the prefects with the duty of seeing to the publicity of the minimum wages and all piece-work wages or scales ascertained or fixed by the labour councils and the special committees in virtue of §33e, §33f, and §33g. The Act only mentions publication in the collection of administrative acts of the department. But the public administrative regulations contemplated in the last paragraph of §33h will determine exactly the methods of securing publicity. The rates should be made known as widely and as promptly as possible, so that all the persons interested are reached in due time. Report of M. Berthod, Ch. de Députés; Session 1913, N. 2472, p. 53. † Report of M. Morel, Senate, 1914; ordinary Session, No. 207, p. 49. Appeal from the decisions of the committees. Section 33h provides for appeal against the decisions of the labour councils, wages committees, or committees of experts ascertaining or fixing wages or scales; this appeal lies to the Central Commission, sitting at the Ministry of Labour, whose decision is final. The It is the function of the Minister of Labour to receive protests and to transmit to the Commission those that satisfy the conditions fixed in §33h, paragraph 2. prefects should transmit all those that are addressed to them. The Government having itself the right to raise objections, they should, in addition, inform me of all cases which it seems to them ought to be submitted to the Central Commission determinations manifestly incorrect made by the committees, divergencies between their determinations such as might interfere with the conditions of competition between districts, etc. The wages and scales resulting from the decisions of the Central Commission are to receive the same publicity as those ascertained or fixed by wages committees or committees of experts. This is a question of civil actions on which it is not the function of the Minister of Labour to give instructions. I confine myself to noting that the fact of an employer failing to observe the minima fixed by the committees does not give ground for criminal proceedings; it merely opens the way for two distinct civil actions which may be brought independently of each other by the workers injured or by certain associations. Amongst the bodies having the right to take civil action, the legislature has included associations authorised for this purpose by Decree issued on the proposal of the Minister of Labour. III.—FORMALITIES IMPOSED UPON EMPLOYERS. In order to enable the amount of wages actually paid to women workers by employers to be easily ascertained, the Act places upon the latter certain duties enumerated in §§33a, 336 and 33c, and which are subject to the penalties provided for in §99a. Under $33a, every manufacturer, agent or middleman, causing the branches of work contemplated in §33a to be carried on in the workers' homes, must inform the inspector of labour of the fact. The inspector of labour who should be informed is the inspector in whose district the business of the manufacturer, agent, or middleman is situated. The inspector should send to the persons designated above an acknowledgement of the receipt of the notice. The form of the registers of the names and addresses of the women home-workers employed by any manufacturer, agent or middleman, as contemplated in the same Section, is not prescribed; but they must be registers; that is to say, bound sheets and not loose sheets. This is an essential point for the purposes of supervision. The prices paid for articles made in quantities, which the employer (manufacturer agent or middleman) is bound to post up in certain places (§336), are, as stated above, the net prices after deducting the value of any requisites charged to the workers. It is, moreover, necessary that this should apply likewise in respect of §33d, and for the purposes of comparison with the net minimum prices fixed by the committees. But it is understood that, for business convenience, the employers will post up the gross prices which determine the amounts to be paid by them and will enter at the side, indicating the requisites to be charged to the worker, the net prices which are partly estimated, namely as regards the value of the requisites. In the case of the counterfoil ticket books given to the workers the text of $330 requires the gross price, the value of requisites supplied, and the net price to be inserted. Notwithstanding the Act is satisfied if the first two of these items are clearly given. All these formalities, these measures to facilitate enforcement, are necessary to enable the worker to calculate her net wages, to compare it with the compulsory minimum, and, if necessary, to uphold her rights by a civil action, and to enable interested associations also to take the civil action contemplated in §33k; this is why the Act guarantees their observance by imposing penalties. The Legislature attached great importance to measures to ensure organised publicity for the wages. We have already referred to the publicity contemplated in the first and last paragraphs of $33h for the wages and scales determined or fixed by the committees. It is equally important that the scales of employers and middlemen should be made public, that is to say, be affixed in certain places named in §336. Not only does this facilitate comparison with the minimum, but even when the scales fixed by the committees do not include the same articles, the employers will be averse to posting up rates obviously inadequate; the prices affixed will usually be normal prices. An exception has been made to the obligation to affix prices by the employer, when the goods are delivered at and collected from the private residence of the worker. It was not possible to require the employer to affix them in the worker's home. In this case the protection afforded by the Act is clearly reduced. It will be the duty of the inspectors to take all the more care to see that the other measures to facilitate enforcement are observed.* Functions of the Inspectors of Labour. It is the duty of the inspectors of labour to see that §§33a, 336 and 33c are observed They will exercise for this purpose the methods of supervision and the powers which they possess both under the new Act and under §§105 to 107 of Book II. of the Code of Labour regulating their powers in general. They have the right of entry into the premises of persons giving out home-work, where the workers wait and where the raw materials are given out and the finished goods received back; they may require the production of the counterfoils of the tickets and the account books, where the items inserted on the tickets or in the books given to the workers ought to be exactly reproduced; finally, the official reports which they draw up to establish contraventions of §§33a, 336 and 33c are accepted until the contrary is proved. They ought not to wait to receive complaints before exercising their powers of supervision. Since they will be informed by the notices contemplated in §33a, of the names and addresses of persons giving out home-work, they should visit the latter in order to satisfy themselves that the rules are strictly observed as regards the registration of women workers, the posting up of prices, and the items to be entered on the counterfoil tickets, books and account books mentioned in §33c. They should see that the net prices resulting from the said entries are not lower than the prices posted up by the manufacturers, agents or middlemen. They should ascertain, in the case of a certain number of women, whether the entries on the tickets and in the books given to the workers tally with those made on the counterfoils and account books kept by the employer. When this is ascertained their supervision does not end; they should endeavour to satisfy themselves that the entries are correct. If they find that, on a ticket or in a book, there are incorrect entries as regards, especially, the quantity of work, the prices, the nature and value of the requisites charged to the worker, etc., an official report should be drawn up in virtue of the last paragraph of $33c. It goes without saying that, in enforcing the present Act, as in the case of previous laws regulating work, the inspectors must explain their obligations to the persons concerned before drawing up an official report, and that, in the first few months, legal proceedings should be reserved for particularly serious abuses and for deliberate offenders. Strictly speaking, the duties of the inspectors of labour are ended when they have seen that §§33a to 33c are observed by persons giving out home-work. The text of the Act does not require them to ascertain whether these persons observe the minima fixed in virtue of §§33d and 33g. While the non-agreement of the posted prices, promised by the employers, and the counterfoil ticket books given to the women, is regarded as a kind of fraud subject to penal prosecution, the Legislature wished that the observance of the minimum scale should be the subject of civil action taken by the injured party. It would, however, be interpreting the Act too narrowly to limit the functions of the inspectors of labour to the part of making official reports of contraventions. By the various formalities the enforcement of which is entrusted to them, the Legislature has given them the practical means of comparing the prices really paid with the minima. They will be led from the nature of the case to make this comparison, and in case of abuse to remind the employers officially that their action is irregular and lays them open to civil actions. The inquiries which they have undertaken since the outbreak of war on the matter of the wages paid to women home-workers by contractors working for the army have also prepared them for this duty. The important results obtained by their action are an earnest of what may be expected in this respect by their energy, tact and zeal. There is, moreover, one case in which the facts ascertained by the inspectors may have results which are certainly administrative, namely, when the employers are executing orders for the State, the departments, the communes and public institutions to which the Decrees of 10th August, 1899, apply. In this case, the inspectors will have the duty of notifying the administration concerned of contraventions ascertained, in order that the latter may impose upon such employers the penalties contemplated by the said Decrees. Finally, the inspectors of labour should, if required, give their assistance to the prefects, and to the wages committees and committees of experts, in connection with the application of the other provisions of the Act and especially the fixing of the minima. Their general experience of labour matters, the mass of information which they have collected in the past months, affecting the usual wages paid to women home-workers in their districts, will enable them to give authoritative guidance to the prefects and the committees who apply for their collaboration. * See Report of M. Duratour; Chamber Session 1915, No. 1037, pp. 9 and 10. I rely on the diligence of the prefects in order that the Act may be brought into operation as soon as possible. As soon as the present circular is received, they should instigate the necessary measures for the establishment of a wages committee in their department; an urgent task must be undertaken immediately by the committee, that of fixing the wages of home-workers making articles of clothing or under-clothing for the army, and they will have, moreover, to concern themselves with the other branches of home-work habitually carried on in the district. The prefects should give the greatest possible publicity to the provisions of the Act, especially in localities or districts where there are large groups of women homeworkers. For this purpose, I intend to send them at an early date a number of notices reproducing the text of the Act; I hold also at their disposal copies or the present circular. On their part, the inspectors should draw the attention of manufacturers, agents or middlemen, who to their knowledge give out clothing and underclothing to be made in the workers' homes, to the obligations laid upon them by the new Act; they ought not to await the appointment of the wages committee and committees of experts before setting to work to enforce §§33a to 33c, since this has no connection with the appointment of those bodies. I shall esteem it a favour to be kept in touch with the measures taken both by the prefects and by the inspectors for enforcing the Act. III. Germany Bekanntmachung betreffend die Ratifikation des am 30. Mai 1914 vereinbarten Zusatzvertrages zwischen dem Deutschen Reiche und den Niederlanden zu dem am 27. August 1907 unterzeichneten Vertrag über Unfallversicherung. (Nr. 4758.) Vom 22. Mai 1915. (Reichs-Gesetzblatt 1915, Nr. 69, S. 323.) Notification respecting the ratification of the Treaty signed on 30th May, 1914,* between the German Empire and the Netherlands, supplementary to the Treaty of 27th August, 1907†, respecting accident insurance. Dated 22nd May, 1915. The Treaty signed on 30th May, 1914, printed above, between the German Empire and the Netherlands supplementary to the Treaty of 27th August, 1907, respecting accident insurance (R.G.Bl. 1907, p. 763), has been ratified. The exchange of ratifications took place on 12th May, 1915, at the Hague. This Notification should be read with the Notification of 1st December, 1907‡ (R.G.Bl., p. 769). IV. Spain Real decreto fijando la jornada maxima ordinaria de trabajo efectivo de los obreros de ambos sexos en la industria textil, disponiendo que la remuneración del trabajo á destajo se aumente en el tanto por ciento correspondiente á la disminucion de la jornada que este Real decreto establece, y dictando reglas para la aplicación del mismo. 24 de agosto 1913. (Boletin del Instituto de Reformas Sociales X., I., 241.) Royal Decree fixing the maximum normal day of actual work for workers of both sexes in the textile industry, providing that the remuneration for piecework shall be increased by percentage corresponding to the diminution of hours brought about by this Royal Decree, and laying down rules for the application of the same. Dated 24th August, 1913. *Text E.B. X., p. 197. |