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
It is true that the hygienic factory day, the factory day for women and
juvenile workers, and the factory day for men, are wholly or mainly
maximum working-days appointed for purposes of State protection, but the
maximum working-day may also serve to other ends apart from or in
addition to this. In the general eight hours day, for instance, the
economic aspect is of equal importance with the protective aspect of the
question. Under the socialistic system of national industry, where there
would no longer be any question of protection in service-relations, the
maximum working-day, together with the possibly more important minimum
working-day, directed against the idle, would serve to other important
ends; it would, for instance, give more leisure for the so-called
general mental cultivation of the people and would prevent new
inequalities.
We will consider in the first place the purely protective aspect of the
maximum working-day of the present, then the mixed protective and
economic aspect of the general maximum working-day.
2. _The maximum working-days of protective legislation: the hygienic
working-day, the working-day of women and children, the extended factory
working-day._
And first the _hygienic working-day_.
This is imposed on certain occupations and businesses on account of the
dangers to health arising out of the work, and on account of the
strength required in the work.
It is no longer opposed by any party. It is fully dealt with in the _von
Berlepsch_ Bill in the above-mentioned provision of the penultimate
paragraph of Sec. 120_a_.
By the insertion of this provision in Section I. of Chapter VII. of the
Imperial Industrial Code, the hygienic maximum working-day may be
extended by order of the Bundesrath (Federal Council) over the whole
sphere of industrial labour, not merely of factory and quasi-factory
labour. The Berlin Conference (resolutions 1, 2) demands the hygienic
maximum working-day for mining industries.
It is hardly necessary to prove that the hygienic maximum working-day
cannot be obtained merely by the efforts of the workers in
self-protection or by the general good-will of the united employers,
without general enforcement by enactment or regulation. Some employers
are unwilling even to maintain the shortening of the normal working-day
necessary to health, others who would be willing are prevented by
competition so long as the hygienic working-day is not enforced
generally and uniformly by enactment or regulation throughout that
particular branch of industry. The extension of the hygienic maximum
working-day to all occupations dangerous to health throughout the whole
sphere of industrial labour, is justified as a necessary measure of
Labour Protection.
No nation will suffer in the long run from the full extension of the
hygienic working-day. It is probable that the governments will advance
side by side in this direction.
_The factory working-day for women and juvenile workers._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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