Hours of Employment (Conventions) Act 1936
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
Hours of Employment (Conventions) Act, 1936.
(26 Geo. 5 & 1 Edw. 8) CHAPTER 22.
An Act to carry out certain draft International Conventions relating to the employment of women during the night and to hours of work in automatic sheet-glass works, to amend the law relating to the hours of employment of women holding responsible positions of management who are not ordinarily engaged in manual work, and for purposes connected with the matters aforesaid.
[14th July 1936]
W HEREAS at its Eighteenth Session held at Geneva in June, nineteen hundred and thirty-four, the General Conference of the International Labour Organisation adopted two draft Conventions entitled ‘the Night Work (Women) Convention (Revised) 1934,’ and ‘the Sheet-Glass Works Convention, 1934,’ and containing (together with other provisions) the provisions set out in Part I and Part II of the Schedule to this Act respectively;
And whereas the first of the said draft Conventions is intended to replace the Convention containing the provisions set out in Part III of the Schedule to the Employment of Women, Young Persons and Children Act, 1920;
And whereas it is expedient that for the purposes of, and in connection with, the ratification of the said draft Conventions, the provisions contained in this Act should have effect:
Be it therefore enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
1 Restriction on the employment of women by night in industrial undertakings.
(1) No woman shall be employed at night in any industrial undertaking except to the extent to which, and in the cases in which, such employment is permitted under the provisions of the Night Work (Women) Convention (Revised) 1934, set out in Part I of the Schedule to this Act.
(2) 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 Regulation Acts, 1872 and 1875, and the Factory and Workshop Acts, 1901 to 1929, respectively.
If in any place other than the places aforesaid a person employs a woman in contravention of this section, he shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding twenty pounds, and an inspector appointed under the Factory and Workshop Acts, 1901 to 1929, shall, in relation to the case, have the same powers and duties as if the place in which the woman is employed were a factory or workshop.
(3) So much of section one of the Employment of Women, Young Persons and Children Act, 1920, as relates to the employment of women is hereby repealed.
2 Exemption of women in managerial positions from enactments limiting times of employment.
2. Sections twenty-three to thirty-five of the Factory and Workshop Act, 1901, and sections ninety-two to ninety-five of the Coal Mines Act, 1911 (which limit the times of employment of women, young persons and children in factories, workshops and coal mines) shall not apply in relation to women holding responsible positions of management who are not ordinarily engaged in manual work.
3 Hours of work in automatic sheet-glass works.
(1) The following provisions shall have effect for the purpose of carrying out the Sheet-Glass Works Convention, 1934:—
(a ) no person to whom the Convention applies shall be employed except in accordance with a system providing for at least four shifts of workers with hours of work not greater and intervals not less than those specified in paragraphs (b ), (c ), and (d ) of this subsection, being a system of which due notice is given in accordance with the provisions of subsection (2) of this section;
(b ) the hours of work of any such person shall not exceed one hundred and sixty-eight in any continuous period of four weeks;
(c ) the length of a spell of work of any such person shall not exceed eight hours;
(d ) the interval between successive spells of work of any such person shall not be less than sixteen hours, except that this interval may where necessary be reduced on the occasion of the periodical change-over of shifts:
Provided that in the following cases, that is to say—
(i) in case of accident, actual or threatened, or in case of urgent work to be done to machinery or plant, or in case of force majeure; or
(ii) in order to make good the unforeseen absence of one or more members of a shift,
the limits of hours and the intervals which would otherwise have to be observed and allowed under this subsection may be departed from, but only so far as may be necessary to avoid serious interference with the ordinary working of the undertaking.
(2) Due notice shall not be deemed to be given of a system of employment unless—
(a ) a notice is kept posted in a conspicuous position in the works giving particulars of the system and in particular specifying the number of shifts and the hours on each day at which the spells of work for each shift begin and end, and a copy of that notice has been delivered to the inspector of factories for the district in which the works are situate; and
(b ) in the case of a change of the system of employment, a notice specifying the change has been kept posted in the works for at least...
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