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years of age to attend school for whatever period the school of the district may be in operation. Children over thirteen may be granted employment certificates relieving them from attendance for not more than 30 teaching days in the year. The Truancy Act of Alberta of 1910 established compulsory attendance for children of seven years and under fourteen for the whole period the school of the district might be open. In Alberta the school-leaving age was advanced to fifteen years in 1915 but children could be granted employment certificates for six weeks in the school term. Manitoba requires children over seven and under fourteen years to attend school for the full term and children from fourteen to sixteen when not employed in industry, agriculture or household duties. Children over twelve years may be granted employment certificates for six weeks in each school term. While Quebec does not compel attendance at school, it forbids the employment of illiterate children under sixteen in industrial and commercial pursuits. The Yukon Territory requires children between seven and twelve years inclusive to attend school for at least sixteen weeks in each year, eight of which must be consecutive.

As to the degree of conformity with the decisions of the International Labor Organization, set forth at the beginning of this chapter, the general rule is that children must attend school until the age of fourteen at least. Exceptions are found in Quebec, which has no compulsory law; Prince Edward Island, which requires attendance only to the age of thirteen; New Brunswick, which makes compulsory attendance optional with the local authorities in country districts and in all but four of the cities and towns; Nova Scotia, where compulsory attendance is optional with the local authorities in the country districts; and the Yukon Territory, which requires attendance up to thirteen years. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, in districts where compulsory

attendance applies, and Alberta, Ontario and Saskatchewan allow children to be employed for stated periods during the school term if necessity requires. British Columbia, Prince Edward Island and the Yukon make no provision for the issuance of employment certificates for work during school hours. As to agriculture, the school attendance laws of Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario and Saskatchewan permit some exemption for urgent work therein.

With regard to the convention which proposes to forbid employment of children under fourteen in industrial undertakings during school hours, as noted above, certain provinces permit children to be employed if necessity requires. Quebec does not compel school attendance but employment of illiterate children under sixteen in industrial and commercial pursuits is prohibited. Dominion legislation of 1924 embodies all the international requirements with regard to the employment of children and young persons on ships.

As to agricultural night work for children, Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan permit apprehension of children under sixteen years employed anywhere during the night. No other province has legislation limiting night work of children in agriculture.

With regard to the abolition of night employment for young persons under eighteen in industrial undertakings, as required by the convention, the general prohibition of night work by persons under eighteen years in Manitoba covers this point. All the mining provinces except Nova Scotia provide against employment of female persons underground day or night and Ontario forbids boys under eighteen to be employed below ground at any time. British Columbia has legislated against employment of young persons at night in bakeshops and laundries. Quebec prohibits employment of boys and of all females in factories at night; and Alberta, Ontario and Saskatchewan the night employment of all

females in factories, shops and office buildings. The factory acts of British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia provide against night work for females during the periods of exemption from regular hours authorized by the inspector (except for 20 days during the canning season in Nova Scotia). None of the laws make special provision for night employment of children in continuous processes.

In their factory acts all of the provinces except Alberta and Prince Edward Island have prohibited employment of boys under sixteen (fourteen in New Brunswick) and girls under eighteen in dangerous or unwholesome work. Quebec specifically includes white lead in the list of dangerous establishments. There is no legal regulation of the employment of women and young persons in painting work.

On the whole child workers have better legal protection in Canada than in the United States. Children are kept at school and out of the factory to the age of fourteen in most of the states. About forty also prohibit night work for children under sixteen and the majority of important industrial states limit their daily hours to eight. About half of the remaining states restrict hours for children to nine in the day and the rest allow ten hours or more. In some of the Southern states children in cotton mills may work eleven hours in the day.1

1 Commons and Andrews, Principles of Labor Legislation, pp. 228, 229, 276, 335.

CHAPTER X

EQUAL PAY FOR EQUAL WORK

"The principle that men and women should receive equal remuneration for work of equal value." (Treaty of Peace: Article 427, 7.)

No laws have been passed under the seventh clause, the payment of equal wages to men and women workers for service of equal value, but the principle has received some attention. At the fifth Trades and Labor Congress, held in Montreal in 1889, it was resolved:

Whereas at the present time female labor is manipulated and used as a means of reducing the price of labor in general; and in trades where the female is so used to the detriment of the male labor, as exemplified particularly in the printing business, she is scarcely ever properly taught said trade, or given an opportunity of earning a fair rate of wages, being merely used for the time being as a lever to reduce the price of labor; and whereas, if woman is to be recognized as a competitor in the labor market such competition should be on a fair basis, brought about by her going through the same routine of learning a trade as the male, and consequently getting the same rate of wages; therefore, resolved:-That the Dominion Trades and Labor Congress strongly discountenances this evil, and requests that employers of labor be urged to pay the woman the same wages as the man for the same class of work properly done.1

The Congress is also on record that: "It is one of the principles for which organized labor has contended that there should be equal pay for equal work, regardless of the 1 Trades and Labor Congress, 1889, p. 23.

sex of those by whom it is performed." 1 Indeed, "equal pay for equal work for men and women " has been one of the objectives of the Congress 2 for some years and, still earlier, of the Knights of Labor.3

The Congress has protested against the practice of paying lower salaries to women factory inspectors than to men on the staff. The Platform of Principles of the Congress contained the following clause "Abolition of child labor by children under fourteen years of age and of female labor in all branches of industrial life such as mines, workshops, factories, etc." In 1915 it was declared that the purpose for which this clause was included has not been accomplished and was a mistaken means of preventing the employment of women as a cheap form of labor." The Congress then resolved that the clause should be amended to read: "Abolition of child labor for children under sixteen years and the establishing of equal pay for equal work for men and women.” 5

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The first official expression of view on the subject by the Dominion Government appeared in the order-in-council approved July 11, 1918, in which the government announced its war labor policy. One of the principles and policies declared and urged upon employers and workmen for the period of the war was: "That women on work ordinarily performed by men should be allowed equal pay for equal work and should not be allotted tasks disproportionate to their strength."

1 Ibid., 1901, p. 79.

2 Cf. supra.

3 Cf. supra.

4 Ibid., 1901, p. 79; 1905, p. 40.

5 Ibid., 1915, p. 98.

6 P. C. 1743. Certified Copy of a Report of the Committee of the Privy Council, approved by His Excellency the Governor General on the 11th July, 1918.

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