INDUSTRIAL EMPLOYMENT OF CHILDREN ORDINANCE, 1922

INDUSTRIAL EMPLOYMENT OF CHILDREN ORDINANCE, 1922

No. 22 of 1922.
An ordinance to regulate the employment of children in
certain industries.

[1st January, 1923.]

1. This Ordinance may bc cited as the Inditstrial Employ-
ment of Children Ordinance, 1922.





2. In this Ordinance,
(a) Child means a person under the age of fifteen
years.
(b) Dangerous trade means any trade or occupation
whatsoever which is declared by regulation made under this
Ordinance to be a dangerous trade.

(e) Factory means any premises wherein or within the
close or curtilage or precincts of which any manual labour
is exercised by way of trade or for purposes of gain in or
incidental to making any article, or part of any article, or
altering, repairing, ornamenting, finishing, or adapting for
sale any article, provided that at least ten persons are
employed in manual labour in the said premises and the
close, curtilage and precincts thereof.

(d) Industrial undertaking includes-

(i) mines, quarries and other works for the extraction of
minerals from the earth;

(ii) industries in which articles are manufactured, altered,
cleaned, repaired, ornamented, finished, adapted for sale,
broken up or demolished, or in which materials are
transformed, including shipbuilding, and the generation,
transformation, and transmission of electricity and motive
power of any kind;

(iii) construction, reconstruction, maintenance, repair, al-
teration, or demolition of any building, railway, tramway,
harbour, dock, pier, canal, inland waterway, road, tunnel,
bridge, viaduct, sewer, drain, well, telegraphic or telephonic
installation, electrical, undertaking, gaswork, waterwork, or
other work of construction, as well as the preparation for
or laying the foundations of any such work or structure

(iv) transport of passengers or goods by road or rail or
inland waterway, including the handling of goods at docks,
quays, wharves, and warehouses, and the carriage of coal
and building material and debris;

but does not include any agricultural operation.

(e) Inspector means any pers on appointed by the
Governor to be an inspector of juvenile labour for the
purposes of this Ordinance.





(f) Protector means any person appointed by the
Governor to be the Protector of Juvenile Labour for the
purposes of this Ordinance.

3.-(1) It shall be lawful for the Governor in Council to
make regulations for any of the following purposes:-

(a) declaring what trades and occupations are to be deemed
to be dangerous trades for the purposes of this Ordinance


(b) prescribing the ages under which children shall not be
employed in particular trades or occupations;

(c) prescribing the conditions -under which children may
be employed in industrial undertakings;

(d) imposing obligations upon persons who employ
children in industrial undertakings, and on the servants of
such persons;

(e) defining the duties and powers of the Protector and
the inspectors;

(f) exempting any industrial undertakings or factories*
from the operation of this Ordinance or of any part thereof;
and

(g) generally for the purpose of carrying. into effect the
provisions of this Ordinance.

(2) All regulations made tinder this Ordinance shall be laid
on the table of the Legislative Council at the first meeting
thereof held after the publication in the Gazette of the
making of such regulations, and if a resolution is passed at
the first meeting of the Legislative Council held after such
regulations have been laid on the table of the said Council
resolving that any such regulation shall be rescnided or
amended in any manner whatsoever, the said regulation
shall, without prejudice to anything done thereunder, be
deemed to be rescinded or amended, as the case may be, as
from the date of publication in the Gazette of the passing of
Such resolution.

As amended by Law Rev. Ord., 1924.





(3) The regulations in the Schedule shall be deemed to
have been made under this Ordinance, and shall be in force
until rescinded or amended by regulations niade under this
Ordinance.

4.-(1) It shall be lawful for the Protector, and for any
person authorised thereto in writing by the Protector, and for
any inspector, to enter and search any place in which he
may have reason to believe that any child is being employed
in an industrial undertaking, and to seize any thing which
may appear to be evidence of any offence against this Ordi-
nance.

(2) Every person who employs or has employed any child
in an industrial undertaking, and every servant of any such
employer, shall on dernand give to the Protector, or to any
inspector, all information in his possession with reference to
such child, and all information in his possession with refer-
ence to the labour conditions and treatment of any children
einployed by such employer.

5. In any prosecution under this Ordinance-
(1) if it appears to the magistrate that any person who is
alleged in the charge to have been a child at the date of the
alleged offence was a child at such date, it shall, until the
contrary is proved, be presumed that such person was a child
at such date;
(2) if it appears to the magistrate that any child, who is
alleged in the charge to have been under any particular age,
at the date of the alleged offence, was under that particular
age at the said date, it shall, until the contrary is proved,
be presumed that the said child was under the said age at
the said date.

6. Every person who contravenes or attempts to contravene
or fails to comply with any of the provisions of'this Ordinance
or of any of the regulations made thereunder shall upon
summary conviction be liable to a fine not exceeding. two
hundred and fifty dollars and imprisonment for any term not
exceeding six months.

7. -No prosecution under this Ordinance shall be com-
menced without the consent of the Protector.
[s. 8, rep. Law Revision Ordinance, 1924.]





SCHEDULE. [s. 3.]

RFGULATIONS.
1. The following are declared to be dangerous trades:-
Boiler chipping.
Fireworks, the manufacture of.
Glass making.

2. No person shall employ any child in any dangerous trade.

3. No person shall employ any child under the age of ten years in any
factory.

4. No person shall employ any child under the age of twelve years in
carrying coal or building material or debris.

5-(1) The owner and the manager of every factory in which children
are employed shall cause to be kept, in English or Chinese, a running record
of all the children at any time employed in such factory.
(2) Such record shall contain the following particulars
(a) name of factory
(b) address of factory
(c) name of employer or employers
(d) name of manager of factory
(e) name of child
(f) sex of child
(g) date of birth of child, or, if date cannot be ascertained, estimated age
on some given date;
(h) address of child
(i) name of parent or guardian
(i) nature of employment ;
(k) actual hours of work for every day on which the child is employed.
(3) Every such record shall be entered jAp promptly and accurately.

6. No child shall be allowed to work in any industrial undertaking, for
more than nine hours in any period of twenty-four hours.

7. No child shall be allowed to work in any industrial undertaking for
more than five hours continuously.

8. In any industrial undertaking the interval of relaxation between any
spell of five hours continuous work and the next spell of work shall he not
less than one hour, and the interval of relaxation after any spell of work of
less than five hours duration shall be of reasonable duration having regard
to all the circumstances.
As amended by Law Rev. Ord., 1924.
9. Every child employed in any industrial undertaking shall be allowed
one day's rest in every seven days.

10. No child shall be employed in any industrial undertaking between
7 p.m. and 7 a.m.

11. No child shall be allowed to carry any weight which is unreasonably
heavy having regard to the child's age and physical development, and no
child whatever shall be allowed to carry any load exceeding forty catties in
weight.
[Originally No. 22 of 1922. Law Rev. Ord., 1924.] Short title. Interpretation. 1 Edw. 7, c. 22, s. 149. 10 & 11 Geo. 5, c. 65. Schedule. Regulations. Schedule. Search and inquiries. Presumptions. Penalties. Consent.

[Originally No. 22 of 1922. Law Rev. Ord., 1924.] Short title. Interpretation. 1 Edw. 7, c. 22, s. 149. 10 & 11 Geo. 5, c. 65. Schedule. Regulations. Schedule. Search and inquiries. Presumptions. Penalties. Consent.

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