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Combination Acts
"Combination Acts, British acts of 1799 and 1800 that made trade unionism illegal. The laws, as finally amended, sentenced to three months in jail or to two months’ hard labour any workingman who combined with another to gain an increase in wages or a decrease in hours or who solicited anyone else to leave work..."("Combination Acts).
The Combination acts put a restriction on industrial workers' rights to petition for better working hours and conditions. -
Factory Act: 1802
"The first Factory Act ever passed by the British Parliament was called "The Factory Health and Morals Act, 1802" and applied principally, though not exclusively, to apprentices in cotton and woollen mills"("Spartacus Educational."). The Factory Act of 1802 enhanced health and safety in the factories and gave the male and female workers a right to be seperated and to education. -
Cotton Factories Regulation Act
"In 1815, Peel...continued to campaign inside and outside Parliament, and a parliamentary inquiry into child labour in factories, led to the passing of the Cotton Mills Act of 1819. The Act required that no child under the age of nine was to be employed in cotton mills, with a maximum day of 16 hours for all those under 16"("Early factory legislation.") The Cotton Factories Regulation act focused on children, giving them the right to work shorter hours and to have a childhood. -
1833 Factory Act
"The act was as follows:
No child workers under nine years of age. Employers must have an age certificate for their child workers. Children of 9-13 years to work no more than nine hours a day. Children of 13-18 years to work no more than 12 hours a day. Children are not to work at night. Two hours schooling each day for children."( "Children of the Revolution") The 1833 Factory act further enhanced the rights children had obtained from the previous Cotton mills act. -
Charles Dickens: Oliver Twist
"Oliver Twist, Dickens' second novel, is the first in the English language to centre upon a child protagonist throughout. The book calls attention to various contemporary social evils, including the Poor Law, which required that poor people work in workhouses, child labour and the recruitment of children as criminals"(Davis, Matthew). -
Mines Act of 1842
"•No female was to be employed underground
•No boy under 10 years old was to be employed underground.
•Parish apprentices between the ages of 10 and 18 could continue to work in the mines"("The Peel Web.").
The Mines Act gave rights to women and children, allowing them to work other than in the mines. -
1844 Factory Act
"The Factory Act of 1844 is an extremely important one in the history of family legislation. The Act reduced the hours of work for children between eight and thirteen to six and a half a day, either in the morning or afternoon, no child being allowed to work in both on the same day"("Spartacus Educational."). The Factory Act of 1844 allowed children to gain the rights of shortened work hours. -
1847 Factory Act
"It limited the hours of labour to sixty-three per week from the 1st of July 1847, and to fifty-eight per week, from the 1st of May 1848, which with the stoppage on Saturday afternoon was the equivalent of ten hours work per daya"("Spartacus Educational."). The 1847 Act gave the right of 10 hour workdays rather than 12. -
English Parliament Enhances Workers' Safety
"A law requiring machinery guards enacted in England"("An Interactive Timeline."). English parliament took responsibility for the industrial workers' safety during this time period. This action by parliament allowed machinery guards to stand by and oversee the workers to ensure that injuries did not occur. -
1867 Factory Act
"The Factory Extension Act, 1867 provision was made to restrict the hours during which children, young persons and women are permitted to labour in any manufacturing process conducted in an establishment where fifty or more persons are employed"("Spartacus Educational."). The Factory Extension Act gave rights to both women and children concerning labor hours and the amount of people working in one factory. -
Workplace Safety Laws
"The first recorded call by a labor organization for occupational safety and health law is heard"(Safe work in the 21st century). The Safety Laws greatly enhanced the right for better working conditions that the industrial workers had petitioned for. It allowed for cleaner and safer working conditions in the factory. -
Factory Act of 1891
"The Factory Act, 1891 made the requirements for fencing machinery more stringent. Under the heading Conditions of Employment two considerable additions to previous legislation. The first is the prohibition on employers to employ women within four weeks after confinement; the second the raising the minimum age at which a child can be set to work from ten to eleven"("Spartacus Educational"). Once again, the rights of women and children are being represented in the Factory Act of 1891. -
Workers Compensation
"The first workers’ compensation system was created in Germany in 1884. England followed Germany’s lead and created its own workers’ compensation system in 1897. It was not until the 1900s that these types of worker protection laws first went into effect in the United States"("Workers Compensation History."). Workers Compensation shows the change in the responsibility parliament was taking for the injuries of factory workers.