CONTENTS. INTRODUCTORY, I. TEXT OF THE ACTS AFFECTING LABOR PASSED DURING THE LEGISLATIVE SES- A. Administrative Provisions, 1. Civil Service Commission, 2. State Board of Labor and Industries, 3. Industrial Accident Board, 4. District Police, 5. Board of Boiler Rules, 6. Board of Elevator Regulations, . PAGE 5 10 10 10 12 15 17 7. State Board of Conciliation and Arbitration, 8. Minimum Wage Commission, 9. Bureau of Statistics, 10. Homestead Commission, 11. Other Boards, Commissions, etc., B. General Provisions, . 1. Employment and Unemployment, 2. Industrial Safety, 3. Industrial Sanitation, 4. Women and Children, 5. Wages (See also "Women and Children” and “Public Employment”), 23 24 24 29 II. INDEX TO BILLS AFFECTING LABOR INTRODUCED DURING THE LEGISLATIVE LABOR LEGISLATION IN MASSACHUSETTS, 1915-1919, INCLUSIVE. INTRODUCTORY. 1 This bulletin contains the text of the laws relative to labor, broadly defined, enacted by the Legislature of Massachusetts during the five-year period, 1915 to 1919, inclusive, and is intended to serve as a supplement 1 to Labor Bulletin No. 104, entitled "Handbook of Labor Laws in Massachusetts", which consisted of a compilation of the labor laws in effect in the Commonwealth at the close of the legislative session of 1914. Certain other matter, described below, having a direct bearing upon the labor legislation of 1919 is also included in this bulletin. SURVEY OF LABOR LEGISLATION DURING THE PERIOD. A survey of the labor legislation enacted in Massachusetts during the five-year period under review shows that, aside from certain important war emergency measures, the laws passed were, for the most part, amendatory in character, effecting, merely, changes and corrections in the substantive existing laws, and establishing no distinctively new principle in the matter of labor legislation. Whether or not the labor legislation since 1914 would have been greater in volume and different in character had the war not occurred is a matter of conjecture; nevertheless, the fact remains that, during the past five years, the Legislature has evidently sought, primarily, to maintain the status quo in the regulation of industry, and, wherever the passage of far-reaching legislation would involve large expenditures of public funds (as would have been the case had the proposed system of social insurance been established), it has apparently not been disposed to embark upon such projects at a time when participation by this country in the war was either imminent or actual. LABOR LEGISLATION IN 1919. Women and Children. Of the measures affecting labor passed by the General Court during the session of 1919, the Act (Gen. Acts, c. 113) reducing the maximum number of hours during which children under 18 years of age and women may be employed in laboring in "any factory or workshop, or in any manufacturing, mer 1 The present bulletin virtually supersedes Labor Bulletins Nos. 110, 116, 122 and 125, which contained, respectively, the text of the labor laws passed by the Massachusetts Legislature during the several years 1915, 1916, 1917, and 1918. The edition of two of these bulletins has become so nearly exhausted that it has been found advisable to reprint in the present bulletin the text of the labor laws passed during the five-year period, 1915 to 1919, inclusive. Furthermore, the publication of the labor legislation of the several years in a single supplement to the "Handbook" enables the reader to locate the provisions of law relative to labor now in effect more readily than would be possible were it necessary to consult five separate supplements in conjunction with the "Handbook." cantile, mechanical establishment, telegraph office or telephone exchange or by any express or transportation company" from fifty-four to forty-eight hours a week appears to be the most important. Two Acts, one establishing continuation schools by certain cities and towns for certain employed minors (Gen. Acts, c. 311) and the other regulating further the issuance of employment certificates (Gen. Acts, c. 62) are significant in that they make possible a longer period of training and education for those young people who are forced too early into the factories and workshops. Consolidation of Departments. The Act reorganizing in departments the executive and administrative functions of the Commonwealth (Gen. Acts, c. 350) provides not only for important changes in the duties and powers of several departments and for the transfer of large numbers of State employees to new and larger departments, but also for the centralization in one department of the administration and enforcement of nearly all of the labor laws. The principal changes in this respect are the creation of a Department of Labor and Industries (§§ 69-78) to which are transferred the powers and duties of the Board of Labor and Industries, the Board of Conciliation and Arbitration, the Minimum Wage Commission, and the Commissioner of Standards, and of such of the powers and duties of the Bureau of Statistics as pertain to the compilation of statistics of labor and manufactures as well as the operation and maintenance of the public employment offices. A Commissioner of Labor and Industries, an Assistant Commissioner and three Associate Commissioners are to constitute the executive officers of the new department. The powers and duties of the Board of Conciliation and Arbitration and of the Minimum Wage Commission are vested directly in the Associate Commissioners who constitute a separate board therein for such purposes. Several divisions (but not more than five) with their respective directors, inspectors, experts, and clerical assistants are to be organized, thus effecting not only a greater co-ordination of the administrative offices, which formerly were not closely associated, but also making possible a more comprehensive compilation of statistical material than has been possible heretofore. The Act creates also a Department of Civil Service and Registration (§§ 63-67) to which are transferred all of the powers and duties of the Civil Service Commission and of the various State boards of registration, the department being organized into two divisions, namely, a Division of Civil Service and a Division of Registration. By this Act provision is also made for the transfer of the powers and duties of the State Board of Retirement and of the Commissioners on Firemen's Relief to the Department of the Treasurer and Receiver-General (§§ 28 and 30); of the powers and duties of the Homestead Commission to the Department of Public Welfare (§ 90); and of those of the District Police, the Board of Boiler Rules, the Board of Elevator Regulations and the office of the Fire Prevention Commissioner to the Department of Public Safety (§ 99). The further regulation of wage boards under the Minimum Wage Commission, with greater authority to fill vacancies therein (Gen. Acts, c. 72), the requiring of certain employers to keep records of the hours of labor of their employees (Sp. Acts, c. 76), and further regulations as to posting of notices in places of employment of labor (Gen. Acts, c. 77) should also receive mention in this connection. Workmen's Compensation. The minimum compensation to be paid for total incapacity was increased to seven dollars a week and the maximum to sixteen dollars a week (Gen. Acts, c. 197). A special fund to provide for payments of additional compensation in certain instances was created (Gen. Acts, c. 272), and further regulations governing payments by insurance companies were made effective (Gen. Acts, c. 226). |