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DEPARTMENT OF EMPLOYMENT AND PRODUCTIVITY
POSSIBILITY OF NEW LEGISLATION ABOUT HOURS OF WORK OF
WOMEN AND YOUNG PERSONS
INTRODUCTION
1.
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On 3rd March 1969, the DEP published the report of a working party appointed by the Secretary of State's National Joint Advisory Council to consider whether the long-standing restrictions on the hours of work of women and young persons in factories were still needed in modern social and industrial conditions. In her foreword the Secretary of State mentioned that the report had drawn attention to a curious anomaly, namely that there were plenty of jobs outside factories for example, in offices, hospitals, and agriculture where the working hours of women and young persons were quite free of legal restrictions. The Secretary of State expressed the hope that publication of the report would lead to a public debate.
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2. In the interval between the presentation of the report and its publication the DEP has been able to give further consideration to some of the matters dealt with; and is now circulating this paper to the Confederation of British Industry, the Trades Union Congress, Local Authority Associations, and certain other interested bodies, as a basis for further discussion. paper avoids so far as possible reiterating material contained in the report. The paper represents the views of officials; the suggestions made are necessarily tentative and provisional, and subject to re-examination, in the light of the comments received, before submission to the Secretary of State.
RESTRICTIONS ON WOMEN'S HOURS OF WORK IN FACTORIES ACT, 1961
3. Restrictions on hours of employment were first applied to children in textile mills in 1833 and extended to women in 1844. This linking of women with children arose from the circumstances of the time, but both economic conditions and social attitudes have changed greatly since then. It is not established that women are any less fitted than men, from the viewpoint of health, to work on shift systems or at night, or that they are less responsible in their attitudes than men or less qualified to decide for themselves what does or does not fit in with their family commitments. In the DEP's view it is no longer possible to sustain the traditional argument that women are more in need of special protection in the matter of hours of work than men,
and the restrictions on their hours ought to be abolished. The abolition of these legal restrictions would remove one of the grounds for sex discrimination in selection for employment and for inequalities in
It would also help to remove one obstacle to increased productivity.
pay.
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Hours of Employment of Women and Young Persons employed in Factories. HMSO 6s. Od. net.
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