Employment of Women, Young Persons, and Children Act, 1920

Restrictions on the employment of women, young persons, and children in industrial undertakings.

57 & 58 Vict. c. 60.

1 & 2 Geo. 5. c. 50.

3 Edw. 7. c. 45.

1.(1) No child shall be employed in any industrial undertaking.

(2) No child shall be employed in any ship except to the extent to which and in the circumstances in which such employment is permitted under the Convention set out in Part IV. of the Schedule to this Act.

(3) No young person or woman shall be employed at night in any industrial undertaking, except to the extent to which and in the circumstances in which such employment is permitted under the Conventions set out in Part II. and Part III. respectively of the Schedule to this Act.

(4) Where young persons are employed in any industrial undertaking, a register of the young persons so employed, and of the dates of their birth, and of the dates on which they enter and leave the service of their employer, shall be kept and shall at all times be open to inspection.

(5) There shall be included in every agreement with the crew entered into under the Merchant Shipping Act, 1894, a list of the young persons under the age of sixteen years who are members of the crew, together with particulars of the dates of their birth, and, in the case of a ship in which there is no such agreement, the master of the ship shall, if young persons under the age of sixteen years are employed therein, keep a register of those persons with particulars of the dates of their birth and of the dates on which they become or cease to be members of the crew, and the register so kept shall at all times be open to inspection.

(6) 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 Workshops Acts, 1901 to 1911, respectively; and the provisions of those Acts relating to registers to be kept thereunder shall apply to the registers required to be kept under this Act.

This section, so far as it relates to employment in a ship, shall have effect as if it formed part of the Merchant Shipping Acts, 1894 to 1920.

In the case of employment in any place other than the places aforesaid or in any ship—

(a) If any person employs a child or a young person in any industrial undertaking in contravention of this Act, he shall be deemed to have employed a child or young person in contravention of the Employment of Children Act, 1903, and subsections (1) and (2) of section five and section six and section eight of that Act shall apply accordingly as if they were herein re-enacted and in terms made applicable to children and young persons within the meaning of this Act; and

(b) If any child is employed in any ship in contravention of this Act, the master of the ship shall be liable for each offence to a fine not exceeding forty shillings, or, in the case of a second or subsequent offence, not exceeding five pounds, and where a child is taken into employment in any ship in contravention of this Act on the production, by or with the privity of the parent, of a false or forged certificate or on the false representation of his parent that the child is of an age at which such employment is not in contra vention of this Act, that parent shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding forty shillings; and

(c) If any person being the employer of a young person fails to keep such a register so required to be kept by him as aforesaid, or refuses or neglects when required to produce it for inspection by an officer of a local authority under the said Act, he shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding twenty pounds; and

(d) If the master of a ship fails to keep such a register so required to be kept by him as aforesaid, or refuses or neglects when required to produce it for inspection by an officer of the Board of Trade or any other person having power to enforce compliance with the provisions of the Merchant Shipping Acts, 1894 to 1920, he shall be liable to a fine not exceeding twenty pounds; and

(e) If a person employs a woman in contravention of this Act, 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 1911, 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.