INDUSTRIAL ESTABLISHMENTS.

SAFETY OF EMPLOYEES.

See also Minors and Females-Regulation of Employment, page 788.

LAWS 1905, P. 352.

MAY 2, 1905. AN ACT to regulate the employment, in all kinds of industrial establishments, of women and children employed at wages or salary, by regulating the age at which minors can be employed and the mode of certifying the same, and by fixing the hours of labor for women and minors; to provide for the safety of all employees in all industrial establishments, and of men, women, and children in schoolhouses, academies, seminaries, colleges, hotels, hospitals, storehouses, office buildings, public halls, and places of amusements, in which proper fire escapes, exits, and extinguishers are required; to provide for the health of all employees, and of men, women and children in all such establishments, storehouses, and buildings, by proper sanitary appliances; and to provide for the appointment of inspectors, office clerks and others,, who, with the chief factory inspector, shall constitute the department of factory inspection; to enforce the same, and providing penalties for violations of the provisions thereof; fixing the term and salaries of the chief factory inspector and his appointees. SEC. 1. Be in enacted, etc. :

That the term "establishment," where used for the purpose of this act, shall mean any place within this Commonwealth other than where domestic, coal mining, or farm labor is employed; where men, women or children are engaged and paid a salary or wages, by any person, firm or corporation, and where such men, women, or children are employees, in the general acceptance of the term.

SEC. 2. No child under fourteen years of age shall be employed in any establishment.

SEC. 3. No minor under sixteen, and no female, shall be employed in any establishment for a longer period than sixty hours in any one week, nor for a longer period than twelve hours in any one day. No minor under sixteen shall be employed in any establishment between the hours of nine post meridian and six ante meridian: Provided, That where the material in process of manufac ture requires the application of manual labor for an extended period after nine o'clock post meridian, to prevent waste or destruction of said material, male minors over fourteen years of age and who have not been employed in or about such establishment between the hours of six ante meridian and nine post meridian, may be employed for not more than nine consecutive hours in any one day, after nine post meridian: And provided further, That in establishments where night work is hereby permitted to prevent waste or destruction. and where the nature of the employment requires two or more working shifts in the twenty-four hours, males over fourteen years of age may be employed, partly by day and partly by night: Provided, Said employment does not exceed nine consecutive hours: And provided further, That retail mercantile establishments shall be exempt from the provisions of this section on Saturday of each week, and during a period of twenty days beginning with the fifth day of December and ending with the twenty-fourth day of the same month: Provided, That during the said twenty days preceding the twenty-fourth day of December, the working hours shall not exceed ten hours per day, or sixty hours per week.

SEC. 4. No minor under sixteen years of age shall be permitted to clean or oil machinery while in motion, or to operate, or otherwise have the care or custody of, any elevator or lift.

SEC. 5. It shall be unlawful for the owner, superintendent, lessee, or other person in charge of any establishment where persons are employed for wages or salary, to employ any child between the ages of fourteen and sixteen years unless there is first provided, and placed on file in the office of the establishment where said child is employed, a certificate in the form provided by the chief factory inspector, which certificate shall be uniform throughout the State. It shall be the duty of the factory inspector or any of his office force, the deputy factory inspectors, or of the city or borough common-school superintendents within their various jurisdictions, or of the principal teacher of the cominon schools in localities not under the jurisdiction of any city or borough superintendent, or of their respective duly authorized deputies, to issue the employment certificate hereinafter prescribed. No principal teacher shall be authorized to issue said employment certificate within any district over which a superintendent has jurisdiction. The district of such city or borough superintendent or principal teacher shall be the same as that in which the child seeking an employment certificate resides.

SEC. 6. The employment certificate shall state the name, age, date, place of birth, and description (including color of eyes, hair and complexion), of said child, its residence, and the residence of its parent, guardian, or custodian, and the ability of said child to read and write simple sentences in the English language, that it has complied with the educational laws of the Commonwealth, and is physically able to perform the work to be required of it.

Provided, That before any such certificate of employment is issued, the person authorized to issue the same shall first demand and obtain of the parent, guardian, or custodian of said child an affidavit, sworn to before any officer authorized to administer oaths, made by him or her, stating the age, date, and place of birth of said child; and shall further demand and obtain a certificate of said child's birth, as kept by any public authority, or, transcript of the record of its birth, baptism or circumcision, as kept by any religious denomination, or, in the case of a foreign-born child (if such evidence of age be lacking), a true copy of the passenger manifest, passport or official record filed at the office of the Commissioner of Immigration at the port of arrival, as corroborative evidence of the truth of the facts set forth in the affidavit; and shall note in his statement, as aforesaid, the character of such record and by what public or religious authority the same is issued: Provided, however, That where no such transcript of public or religious record, or passenger manifest, passport or official record, as aforesaid, of said child's age is obtainable, the same may be substituted by a statement signed by the principal teacher of the last school which said child attended, certifying that said child has received instruction in reading, spelling, writing, English grammar, and geography, and is familiar with the fundamental operations of arithmetic, and has completed the course of study in the common schools prescribed for the first five years, or a course of study in other schools equivalent thereto. At the time of the issue of the employment certificate, the person so issuing the same shall make one copy thereof, which copy shall be filed, within ten days from the date of its issue, in the office of the common-school superintendent in the district in which the child holding the certificate resides; and in districts not having such a superintendent, the said copy shall be filed in the office of the chief factory inspector, and shall be subject to the inspection of the public. The certificate of the registration of birth, baptism or circumcision, or, in the case of a foreign-born child, the copy of pas

senger manifest, passport or official record, as hereinbefore prescribed, or, in the absence of such transcripts, the statement of the principal teacher, certify. ing that such child has received instruction as prescribed, as well as the affidavit of the parent, guardian or custodian, shall be filed with a copy of said employment certificate. The certificate when issued shall be the property of the said child, who shall be entitled to a surrender of the certificate to him or her by the employer whenever said child shall leave the service of any employer holding the certificate.

SEC. 7. Every person, firm or corporation employing girls or adult women, in any establishment, shall provide suitable seats for their use, and shall permit such use when the employees are not necessarily engaged in active duties.

SEC. 8. Every person, firm or corporation employing males and females in the same establishment shall provide for such employees suitable and proper wash and dressing rooms, and water closets for males and females; and the water closets, wash and dressing rooms used by females shall not adjoin those used by males, but shall be built entirely away from them, and shall be properly screened and ventilated; and all water closets shall at all times be kept in a clean and sanitary condition.

SEC. 9. Not less than one hour shall be allowed for the noonday meal in any establishment. But the chief factory inspector may, for good cause, reduce the time for the noonday meal in establishments where all the other provisions of this act are observed, which entail duties upon the part of employers.

SEC. 10. Every person, firm or corporation employing men, women or children, in any establishment, shall post and keep posted in a conspicuous place, in every room where such help is employed, a printed copy of the factory laws, a printed notice stating the number of hours per day for each day of the week required of such persons; and in every room where children under sixteen years of age are employed, a list of their names, with their ages.

SEC. 11. The owner or person in charge of an establishment where machinery is used shall provide belt-shifters or other mechanical contrivances for the purpose of throwing on or off belts or pulleys. Whenever practicable, all machinery shall be provided with loose pulleys. All vats, pans, saws, planers, cogs, gearing, belting, shafting, set screws, grindstones, emery wheels, flywheels, and machinery of every description shall be properly guarded. The floor space of no working room in any establishment shall be so crowded with machinery as thereby to cause risk to the life or limb of an employee; nor shall there be in any establishment machinery in excess of the sustaining power of the floors and walls thereof. No persons shall remove or make ineffective any safeguard around or attached to machinery, vats or pans, while the same are in use. except for the purpose of immediately making repairs thereto, and all such safeguards so removed shall be properly replaced. Exhaust fans of sufficient power, or other sufficient devices, shall be provided for the purpose of carrying off poisonous fumes and gases, and dust from emery wheels, grindstones, and other machinery creating dust. If a machine or any part thereof is in a dangerous condition, or is not properly guarded, the use thereof may be prohibited by the chief factory inspector or by his deputy, and a notice to that effect shall be attached thereto. Such notice shall not be removed until the machinery is made safe and the required safeguards are provided, and in the meantime such unsafe or dangerous machinery shall not be used.

SEC. 12. The owner, agent, lessee, superintendent, or other person having charge or managerial control of any establishment, hotel, hospital, apartment house, or other building where elevators, hoisting shafts, lifts, or well holes are used, shall cause the same to be properly and substantially enclosed, secured or

guarded; and shall provide such proper traps or automatic doors, so fastened in or at all elevator-ways, except elevators enclosed on all sides, as to form a substantial surface when closed, and so constructed as to open and close by action of the elevator in its passage, either ascending or descending. The cable, gearing or other apparatus of elevators, hoisters, or lifts, shall be kept in a safe condition: Provided, That the provisions of this section shall not apply to cities of the first and second classes.

SEC. 13. The owner, agent, lessee, or other person having charge or managerial control of any establishment shall provide or cause to be provided not less than two hundred and fifty cubic feet of air space for each and every person in every workroom in said establishment where persons are employed, and shall provide that all workrooms, halls, and stairways in said establishment be kept in a clean and sanitary condition and properly lighted.

SEC. 14. No person, firm or corporation engaged in the manufacture or sale of clothing or other wearing apparel, cigars, or cigarettes, shall bargain or contract with any person, firm or corporation for the manufacture or partial manufacture, of any of said articles or goods where the same are to be made in any kitchen, living room or bedroom in any tenement house or dwelling house, except where the persons bargaining or contracting to make or partially make any of the aforesaid articles or goods are resident members of the family, residing in such tenement house or dwelling house where the said articles or goods are to be made or partially made, and who have furnished the person, firm or corporation engaged in the manufacture or sale of said articles or goods, and with whom tthe bargain or contract is to be made, a certificate from the board of health of the city or town in which such tenement house or dwelling house is situated, that the same is free from any infectious or contagious disease; which certificate may be revoked by the board of health whenever the exigencies of the case shall require: Provided, That the term "family" in this section shall include only the parents and their children, or the children of either.

SEC. 15. No person, firm or corporation engaged in the manufacture or sale of any of the articles or goods enumerated in section fourteen of this act shall bargain or contract with any person, firm or corporation for the manufacture or partial manufacture of any of the said articles or goods in any workshop, not part of a tenement or dwelling house, unless the said workshop shall have been inspected by the chief factory inspector or by one of his deputies, and who shall have issued a printed permit to the person in charge of such workshop, stating that the same is in a clean and safe and sanitary condition, and fixing the maximum limit to the number of persons who may be employed therein; the permit to be posted and kept posted in a conspicuous place in such workshop: Provided, That this section shall not apply to any workshop wherein the aforesaid articles or goods are manufactured for the general trade, and are to be sold and delivered in or upon the premises, and are not manufactured, or partly manufactured under a bargain or contract with any person, firm or corporation employed in the manufacture and sale of the article aforesaid.

SEC. 16. Whenever the sanitary conditions of any workshop, as defined in section 15, is dangerous to the health and safety of the employes therein or to the public, the chief factory inspector or his deputy shall cancel the permit aforesaid, and shall order that the workshop be vacated until the provisions of this act shall have been complied with and the workshop restored to proper sanitary condition.

SEC. 17. All persons, firms, and corporations engaged in the manufacture or baking of bread, cakes, crackers, pastry, pretzels, or macaroni, for public sale,

shall keep their room or rooms for baking, mixing, storing, or sale of flour or other grain products separate and apart from any sleeping room, water-closet, urinal, defective drain or sewer pipe, and shall not permit the harboring of any domestic animal therein. The floors of all baking, mixing, storing and salesrooms shall be kept clean and tightly joined and free from crevices, and the walls and ceilings shall be painted, kalsomined, or whitewashed as often as twice in each year, and oftener, if, in the opinion of the chief factory inspector or his deputy, the safety of the employees or the public shall require.

SEC. 18. When the foregoing provisions of section 17 are complied with, the chief factory inspector or his deputy shall issue to the owner or person in charge of such bakeshop a permit, stating that the same is in a clean and sanitary condition; which permit shall be posted and kept posted in the office or salesroom of the bakeshop, aforesaid; but when any of the foregoing provisions of section 17 are not being complied with in any bakeshop, the chief factory inspector or his deputy shall issue to the person in charge, or his representative, a written order to comply with the law aforesaid, within ten days; or he may order the closing of any such bakeshop until the order shall have been complied with, should the safety of the employees or the public, in his opinion, so require. SEC. 19. All boilers used for generating steam or heat in any establishment shall be kept in good order, and the owner, agent or lessee of such establishment shall have said boilers inspected, by a casualty company in which said boilers are insured, or by any other competent person approved by the chief factory inspector, once in twelve months, and shall file a certificate showing the result thereof, in the office of such establishment, and shall send a duplicate thereof to the department of factory inspection. Each boiler or nest of boilers used for generating steam or heat in any establishment shall be provided with a proper safety valve and with steam and water gauges, to show, respectively, the pressure of steam and the height of water in the boilers. Every boiler house, in which a boiler or nest of boilers is placed, shall be provided with a steam gauge properly connected with the boilers, and another steam gauge shall be attached to the steam pipe in the engine-house, and so placed that the engineer or fireman can readily ascertain the pressure carried. Nothing in this section shall apply to boilers which are regularly inspected by competent inspectors, acting under local laws and ordinances.

SEC. 20. It shall be the duty of the owner or superintendent of any establishment to report, in writing, to the chief factory inspector every serious accident or serious injury done to any person in his or her employ, where such accident or serious injury occurred in or about the premises where employed, within twenty-four hours after the accident or injury occurs, stating as fully as possible the cause of such accident or injury; and in all fatal and serious accidents the chief factory inspector or his deputy may subpoena witnesses, administer oaths, and do whatever may be necessary in order to make a thorough and complete investigation of the same: Provided, however, That the provisions of this section shall not be construed as interfering with the duties of coroners, under existing laws.

SEC. 21. It shall be the duty of the owner, superintendent, assistant, or person in charge of any establishment to furnish, from time to time, to the chief factory inspector or his deputy any information required by the provisions of this act, and the chief factory inspector and his deputies shall have authority to inspect any such establishment, at any time, for the purpose of enforcing the provisions of this act.

SEC. 22. That wherever the law makes it the duty of the owner, lessee, or other person in charge of any building, or room or rooms in any building, to