The Theory and Policy of Labour ProtectionSchäffle, A. (Albert)
General
The Theory and Policy of Labour Protection
Schäffle, A. (Albert)
Labor laws and legislation -- Germany
The industrial laws of northern and southern countries differ in the
inferior limit of age which they assign to prohibited infant-labour, as
distinguished from child-labour permitted but restricted. In Italy this
limit has hitherto been fixed at the completion of the ninth year; in
England and France (in textile, paper, and glass industries), in
Denmark, Spain, Russia, and in most of the industrial States of the
North American Union, at the completion of the tenth year; in Germany
hitherto, and in France (in general factory-labour, in workshops,
smelting-houses, and building-yards), in Austria, Sweden, Holland and
Belgium (Act of 1889), at the completion of the twelfth year; in Germany
it is fixed for the future at the completion of the thirteenth year, as
it soon will be in France also, in all probability--and in Switzerland
at the completion of the fourteenth year.
The proposal of Switzerland at the Berlin Conference to fix the general
inferior limit of age at 14 years was not carried. It has hitherto been
prevented in Germany by the fact that in Saxony and elsewhere school
duties are not exacted to the full extent as late as the age of 14.
The Berlin Conference voted for fixing the limit at the completion of
the twelfth year, while agreeing that the limit of 10 years might be
fixed in southern countries in view of the early attainment of maturity
in hot climates. The limit is fixed higher with regard to protection in
certain specified dangerous or injurious occupations: for boys engaged
in coal mines the limit of 14 years was laid down by the resolutions of
the Berlin Conference.[7]
The superior limit of age of juvenile labour in factories is fixed at 14
years in southern countries (in those represented at the Berlin
Conference); at 16 years in Germany, Austria, and France (in connection
with the fixing of the maximum duration of labour); and at 18 in Great
Britain, Switzerland, and Denmark, and probably soon in France. With
respect to night work and dangerous work, the superior limit (especially
for women) is placed still higher (21 years), wherever such work is not
entirely prohibited.
All wage-workers between the inferior and superior limits of age at
which employment is permitted, are called, as already stated, "juvenile
workers." In many countries a further division of juvenile labour is
made, into children and "young persons." In Germany, Austria, Sweden,
and Denmark--and in future probably in all those countries represented
at the Berlin Conference--this division falls at the age of 14, and in
southern countries at the age of 12 years. "Children," in the meaning
attached to the word by labour-protective legislation, are children of
12 to 14 years (in Germany in future 13 to 14, in Great Britain hitherto
10 to 14); "young persons" are juvenile workers from 14 to 16 years, in
England of 14 to 18 years. In Switzerland juvenile workers are "young
persons" of 14 to 18 years, as none under the age of 14 are employed at
all.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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