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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 May 2024
Accidents Austria
It was quite common for people to catch their finger in the paper machine. When you looked carefully you could find that many people were one finger short, Hermann had lost one, Norbert, Franzi and Edi the whole hand. If you were not able to perform your duties you would be placed somewhere else … Usually you would not get fired and it would go to the factory board. That is what we had the unions for, to protect people.
(Kopl, Regina and Leopold Redl, Das Totale Ensemble, Ein Führer duch die Industriekultur In südlicher Wiener Becken (Wien, 1989), p. 72)
Factory regulations in selected countries
Britain
• 1844: The Factory Act applied to textile factories. Women and young persons (13–18 years old) were allowed to work a maximum of 12 hrs/day, children under 13 a maximum of 6.5 hrs/ day, no children under 8 could be employed.
• 1847: Women and children (13–18 years old) were allowed to work a maximum of 10 hrs/day or 58 hrs/week (the shift system remained).
• 1850: Women and children (13–18) were only allowed to work between 6 am and 6 pm or 7 am and 7 am in textile factories, working time was increased to 10.5 hrs/day.
• 1866: Municipal authorities were required to appoint sanitary inspectors.
• 1871: The Civil Service reforms stipulated that positions were to be open to those who passed public examinations, from this point, a person was not to acquire a post through privilege and connections.
• 1874: Factory Act stipulated a minimum age of 10 years for employment in textile factories.
• 1878: Factory and Workshops Act specified the following:
All factories and workshops employing more than 50 people to be inspected regularly by government inspectors, not local authorities.
The working day was fixed, including provisions for pauses and holidays.
Children up to 10 years were to attend compulsory education.
Children 10–14 years old could only be employed for half days in all trades.
Certificates of fitness for children and young persons had to be provided.
Women were not to work more than 56 hrs per week.
Some domestic workshops were brought under the regulations.
Women and children were not allowed to work with lead.
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