4 ells,* and in other workrooms to 4 ells. The floor shall not be below the level proper to secure the draining off of all waste water, and the windows shall extend to a height of at least 2 ells above the level of the street or court or the adjacent ground. If lofts are used for workrooms, they shall be lined with lath and plaster or with stout wainscot. Rooms used for processes in which injurious dust or injurious vapours arise shall contain at least 400 cubic feet (12 cubic metres) of air space for each of the workmen employed therein at any one time. Every workroom shall contain at least 256 cubic feet (8 cubic metres) of air space for each workman employed therein at any one time.

(3) Where artificial light other than electric light is used care shall be taken to provide adequate means of preventing the vitiation of the air by combustion, consideration being given to the size of the room in proportion to the number of persons employed therein.

(4) In all works concerned where, in the opinion of the factory inspectors, the conditions so require, mess rooms, capable of being heated in the cold seasons, shall be provided, where the workmen can have their meals, and where the food they bring with them can be kept. Similarly, where circumstances permit opportunity shall be given to the workmen to warm their midday meals, whether the food is brought in by them, or brought to them on the premises.

(5) Cloak-rooms, which shall not be used as workrooms, shall be provided as far as possible for garments not worn during work. Where: such cloak-rooms cannot be arranged, receptacles for holding the garments. shall be fitted up in the workrooms, in which the garments belonging to the various workmen shall be kept separated as far as possible.

(6) In all works a sufficient supply of well-arranged sanitary conveniences shall be provided. It shall be possible to close the closets in a suitable manner, and each convenience shall be completely separated from the other. Where both men and women workers are employed, separate accommodation for the use of each sex shall be provided as far as possible. All works shall conform to the requirements set forth in the present. paragraph within 10 years at latest after these rules are issued.

In the case of works erected before the present rules were issued the Director of the Labour and Factory Department (or the Minister of the Interior, according to circumstances) shall be authorised to allow, regardless. of the provisions given under No. (2) of paragraph 1 above, workrooms with gearing and shafting below the ceiling to be used after the conclusion of the than 10 years' time limit, even when the height from the floor to the ceiling is less. 4 ells. Such permission shall lapse as soon as the premises concerned are re-built. In the case of factories erected before the present rules were issued, provision shall be made by detailed regulations of the Labour and Factory Department to prevent the workrooms from being overcrowded (cf. §5, paragraph 1, of the Factory Act).

3. In workrooms having less than 2,000 cubic feet of air for each workman normally employed therein, the walls shall be whitewashed at least once a year, unless they are coated with a smooth washing substance or painted with oil paint. The inspectors may require the walls in rooms larger than the above, and also the ceilings to be whitewashed, if they consider it necessary, but in any case not oftener than once a year. Oil painting shall be renewed at least every 10 years. The floors shall be kept in good condition.

*I ell=ca. 63 cm.

4. All rooms forming part of the establishment shall be kept properly Mess rooms shall be cleaned daily.

cleaned.

In the case of rooms where there are more than 2,000 cubic feet of air for each workman normally employed therein, the Inspectors may, if they do not appear to be kept sufficiently clean, give detailed instructions in this respect. As regards the cleanliness of other closed rooms the following rules shall apply :

(1) The floors shall be sprinkled with water and swept at least twice a week, and they shall also be thoroughly cleaned once in every 14 days. (2) Windows shall be cleaned.

(3) At least twice in the year a general cleaning shall take place, when all walls adapted thereto shall be washed, and all ceilings shall be cleaned. Such cleaning shall not take place during hours of work.

(4) Dry sweeping of floors is not permissible.

The provisions indicated in numbers (1)—(4) of the above shall not apply to rooms in which casting or moulding is carried on.

5. All sanitary conveniences belonging to the establishment shall be well ut, and always clean and well ventilated. If the conveniences are not so constructed as to be free from smell, they shall be sufficiently separated from the workrooms.

6. In workrooms used for stationary work and fitted with wooden floors, as well as in all corridors, covered staircases, mess rooms, and sanitary conveniences forming part of the works, a sufficient number of spittoons shall be provided. These shall be emptied and cleaned daily. Spitting in the workrooms, etc., concerned, elsewhere than in the spittoons provided for the purpose, is prohibited.

7. In the works concerned care shall be taken to provide fresh drinking water. In or about the workrooms sufficient washing accommodation, kept properly clean, shall be easily available. Unless lavatories with water laid on are available, at least one basin shall be provided for every five workmen.

Care shall be taken that a sufficient supply of clean water is always in readiness in the lavatories, and that the waste water is poured away on the -spot.

8. All closed workrooms in which stationary work is carried on shall be sufficiently heated in the cold season from the beginning to the close of the hours of work, so that except in extraordinary circumstances-a temperature of from 7°-8° Réaumur is maintained in every room from one hour at most after work begins until work ceases; in smithies special heating apparatus need not be supplied. If work is carried on by artificial light, this shall be bright and sufficient. If the heat given off by earthenware stoves or artificial light causes discomfort to the workmen, they shall be protected by the erection of suitable screens. Open braziers in which coke is burnt shall not be used for warming the workrooms; an exception to this rule shall be allowed in the case of foundries which are provided with plentiful outlets for the air, and which are more than 6 ells in height.

9. Care shall be taken to see that the workrooms are ventilated. In works where the necessary mechanical power is available the Labour and Factory Department may prescribe separately for each undertaking that dust arising from the work, especially from grinding, polishing and cleaning cast goods, as well as smoke, vapour and heat or injurious gases, shall be drawn off by special mechanical arrangements, when necessary, from the actual spot where they are engendered.

Galvanising and casting shall, as a rule, be carried on in special workrooms; but it shall be permissible to carry on metal-casting in a general foundry.

10. For use in cleaning machinery, and also in processes involving the use of red lead, white lead, or other injurious substances, clean cotton waste, clean tow, or rags washed clean, shall be supplied to the workmen concerned.

II. The Labour and Factory Department may give instructions that in any particular establishment masks or spectacles shall be worn during certain processes as a protection from excessive heat, smoke, vapour, or injurious dust. The necessary expenses shall be borne by the employer.

12. The manager or occupier of the works, as well as the workmen affected, shall be bound to conform to the rules here laid down, and each shall be solely responsible for any contravention; thereof which may be proved against him.

13. A notice containing the terms of these rules, and, where it is considered necessary, a statement by the inspector as to how many workmen may be employed simultaneously, as well as the size and cubic content of the rooms, shall be affixed in a place where it can be easily seen.

Such a notice shall be drawn up and supplied on demand free of charge by the factory inspector concerned.

1. Décrets du II aout 1904 sur les conditions du travail dans les marchés de travaux publics ou de fournitures pris en Algérie.

1. Decrees of August 11, 1904, relating to the conditions of work under contracts for public works or supplies accepted in Algeria.

1. The first Section of the Decree of March 21, 1902, relating to the conditions of work under contracts for public works or supplies accepted in Algeria, on behalf of the State, or of Algeria, shall conclude as follows:

Sect. I. The agreement, etc.,

(I)

(2)

(3)

(4) The agreements may, in addition, contain clauses by which the contractor shall pledge himself to pay the workmen a normal wage, which shall be equal for every trade, and for each class of workmen in each trade, at the current rate of pay in the town or district where the work is carried on. In case of absolute necessity, etc.

2. The President of the Council, the Minister of the Interior, the Minister of Public Worship, the Minister of Commerce, Industry, and Posts and Telegraphs, and other Ministers of State, are charged with the execution, as far as concerns their particular departments, of this decree, which shall be published in the Journal Officiel, and be inserted also in the Bulletin Officiel of the General Administration of Algeria.

I. Article 1 of the Decree of March 21, 1902, dealing with the conditions of work under contracts for public works or supplies accepted on behalf of State Departments of Algeria shall conclude as follows:

(4) The workmen to be paid a normal wage for every trade, and for each class of workmen in each trade, at the current rate of pay in the town or district where the work is carried on.

2. The President of the Council, the Minister of the Interior, the Minister of Public Worship, the Minister of Commerce, Industry, Posts and Telegraphs' and other Ministers of State, are charged with the execution, as far as concerns their particular departments, of this Decree, which shall be published in the Journal Officiel, and be inserted also in the Bulletin des Lois, and in the Bulletin Officiel of the General Administration of Algeria.

THIRD DECREE.

The third Decree relating to contracts for public works and supplies, accepted on behalf of communes or charitable organisations of Algeria, is drawn up in the same terms as the preceding.

2.

Décret du 12 juin, 1906, rendant exécutoire la convention franco-belge du 21 février, 1906, concernant la réparation des dommages résultant des accidents du travail.

2. Decree of June 12, 1906, giving effect to the Franco-Belgian Convention* of February 21, 1906, concerning compensation for injuries resulting from industrial accidents.

3.

Circulaire du ministre du commerce, de l'industrie et du travail, du 20 juillet, 1906, sur l'instruction des demandes d'exception à la loi du 13 juillet, 1906, sur le repos hebdomadaire.

3. Circular Note of the Minister of Commerce, Industry, and Labour, dated July 20, 1906, on the examination of applications for exceptions under the Act of July 13, 1906, relating to the weekly day of rest.†

Section 8 of the Act of July 13, 1906, relating to the weekly day of rest for employees and workmen, placed in the hands of the Prefect the duty of examining the applications for exceptions presented in accordance with §2, paragraph 2, by the employers included under the Act, and to pronounce upon these applications, by an order containing the reason for the decision. Some of your colleagues who have already received applications of this kind have asked for instructions as to the course to be followed with respect to them. I am of opinion that you should not await further elaboration of the regulations for public administration of the new Act, before assisting in its execution, and that you should from this time forward receive the applications submitted to you, and deal with them in the manner indicated in §8.

But should applications for permits of rotation be presented for establishments included within the first nine categories of §3, a special order is not necessary, since rotation is ipso jure for these establishments. If rotation be requested for establishments which seem to you to come within categories 10 and 11 of the section aforementioned, the application should be forwarded to me to be considered in the formulation of the public administrative regulations defining these categories. Lastly, if the applications concern

*See E.B. I., p. 153.

Addressed to the Prefects of Police and of the Departments. See E.B. I., p. 185.

the special exceptions indicated in §§4, 5, and 6, it should not be forgotten that it is not within your province to decide upon the questions thus raised. The parties concerned should be informed of the method of procedure in respect of applications. Applications should show the reasons advanced by the petitioners in support of the special exception they request, and in the first place the serious difficulties which would attend the application of the ordinary rule with regard to Sunday rest in their establishments. They must prove that the opening of their place of business on Sunday is a public necessity, and that for the normal conduct of business of the class to which they belong it is impossible to allot this day of rest to their staff.

You will understand that there is here no question of mere preference or convenience tending to frustrate the express intentions of the legislature, but of serious inconveniences which it rests with you to estimate at their true significance, reserving to the parties concerned the right of appeal.

You will notice that the four exceptions designated in paragraph 2 of §2 are enumerated roughly in order of importance, the first, general holiday on a day other than Sunday, being considered as entailing, in general, social consequences less serious than the last, holiday by rotation.

It is therefore specially desirable as regards this last exception, that the persons concerned should give the reasons which have led them to discard those holiday systems, the enumeration of which precedes that for which they have specially applied.

All these considerations are necessary for the enlightenment of the various consultative bodies, to which, under the law, these applications should, in the first place, be submitted. They must be taken into account by you when you are called upon to grant or refuse an order authorising an exception.

Whatever method be adopted, it is necessary that your orders should not be so formulated as to pledge the administration definitely. It must, on the contrary, be possible to withdraw them at any time, or at least after a specific period of notice. These orders may very probably give rise, on the part of the different parties concerned, to legitimate protests, which you must be free to consider at a later date. Moreover, by acting in this manner, you will be the better able to carry out the intentions of the Legislature, which, while it was willing that these exceptions should be liberally granted on the first enforcement of the law, desired to see the use of them increasingly restricted, to the end that the rule of Sunday rest for all might become of more and more general application. Your judgments should be notified to the competent judicial police, as well as to the Divisional Inspector of Labour in whose district the region concerned is situated. This notification is necessary for the enforcement of the decision given by you.

The co-operation of the local authorities has been reckoned upon in the framing of this Act to a greater extent than in any of the labour laws that preceded it. This essential characteristic should be maintained by arousing the interest of the municipal authorities and the local police in its successful working. In particular, Parliament has clearly indicated in §11 that, without the co-operation of the judicial police, the Act cannot be properly applied. The inspectors of labour are not, unassisted, capable of exercising supervision over a large number of scattered businesses. You will, therefore, promote or encourage any co-operation which seems to you calculated to facilitate the application of an Act so anxiously awaited by the working classes.

You will find opposite the text of the Act of July 13, 1906, and I shall issue to you supplementary instructions simultaneously with the various public administrative regulations for which the Act provides.

I shall be obliged by your acknowledgment of the receipt of this circular note. 4. Circulaire du ministre du commerce, de l'industrie et du travail du 9 août, 1906, au préfet de police à Paris et aux préfets des départements, concernant l'application de la loi du 13 juillet 1906 sur le repos hebdomadaire.

4. Circular Note of the Minister of Commerce, Industry and Labour, dated August 9, 1906, to the Prefect of Police in Paris and to the Prefects of Departments on the application of the Act of July 13, 1906, relating to the weekly day of rest.

In continuation of my circular note dated July 20, 1906, I beg to forward herewith some supplementary directions requested by a certain number of your colleagues with reference to the examination of applications for exceptions from the weekly day of rest, to the drawing up of your orders, and to the preliminary measures for putting the Act in force.

(1) You may have already received applications from employers who desire to obtain exceptions not mentioned in the Act. I am informed that numerous Bulletin of the International Labour Office, 1997.

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