Child -Labour The report of the Ministry of Labour's Departmental
Com- mittee on the Working Hours of Young Persons published this week shows how much there is still to be done to prevent the exploitation of child-labour in this country. Some of the evidence it contains is highly disturbing. Thus, in the area controlled by the London Regional Advisory Council, 5,364 boys under 16 work over 72 hours a week ; out of 22,673 cases investigated only 3,811 work less than 48 hours. No arguments could justify such conditions, espe- cially at a time when in every civilised State demands are being made for a 4o-hour working week. These long and late hours, in which no provision is made for rest or for meals, are found especially in a few trades, among page-boys, lift- boys and hotel attendants, and errand boys, van boys and warehouse boys. The committee's own proposal is that as a preliminary step to reduce hours well below 48 hours a statutory limitation should be established of a 48-hour week, exclusive of meal times, and that young persons employed in factories, docks and warehouses should be brought within the scope of the new Factory Act. In that Act the Home Secretary has promised to fix a still lower figure.
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