FACTORIES AND WORKSHOPS ORDINANCE

FACTORIES AND WORKSHOPS ORDINANCE

CHAPTER 59..

FACTORIES AND WORKSHOPS.

To amend the law relating to factories and workshops and

to the employment of women, young persons and children in
certain industries.

[1st January, 1938.]

1. This Ordinance may be cited as the Factories and

Workshops Ordinance.

2. In this Ordinance-

'child' means a person under the age of fourteen years

'Commissioner' means the Commissioner of Labour

appointed under section 3, and includes a deputy commissioner
and any person appointed as a labour officer for ihe purposes of
this Ordinance;

'dangerous trade' means any trade, process or occupation

whatsoever declared by regulation made under this Ordinance to
be a dangerous trade;

'factory' means any premises or place wherein or within

the close or curtilage or precincts of which any machinery other
than machinery worked entirely by hand is used in and of any
industrial undertaking carried on in such premises or place;

'health officer' means a health officer under the Public

Health (Sanitation) Ordinance, 1935;

'industrial undertaking' includes-

(a) factories and workshops;

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

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

(d)construction, reconstruction, maintenance, repair, alteration,
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;

(e)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;

'inspector' means any person appointed by the Governor to be Chief
Inspector or an inspector or assistant inspector of labour,
factories and workshops for the purposes of this Ordinance;

'proprietor' in relation to any factory, workshop or industrial
undertaking includes the person for the time being having the
management or control or receiving the profits of the business
carried on in such factory, workshop or industrial undertaking and
includes a body corporate and a firm and also the occupier of any
factory, workshop or industrial undertaking and the agent of such
occupier;

'workshop' means any premises or place other than a factory 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 or finishing or adapting for sale any article:
Provided either-

(a)that at least twenty persons are employed in manual labour
in the said premises or in the close, curtilage and precincts
thereof; or

(b)that, notwithstanding that the number of persons employed
in manual labour in the said premises (including the
precincts thereof) is less than twenty, the process, trade or
occupation carried on therein involves

(i) the use of petrol or of any inflammable liquid declared
to be dangerous goods in any regulations made under the
Dangerous Goods Ordinance, 1873, or of any mixture
containing such liquid, or

(5) the use of coal gas;





'young person' means any person of or over the age of

fourteen years and under the age of eighteen years.

3. (1) It shall be lawful for the Governor to appoint a Commissioner
of Labour, a deputy commissioner of labour, labour officers and a Chief
Inspector, inspectors and assistant inspectors of labour, factories and
workshops.

(2) The Commissioner and every inspector shall have the following
powers

(a)to enter, inspect and examine at all reasonable times, by day
and night, any place or premises in which he knows or has
reasonable cause to believe that an industrial undertaking is
carried on;

(b) to take with him in any such case any person whom
he may reasonably need to assist him in carrying
out his duties under this Ordinance;

(c)to require the production of any register or other document
required to be kept under this Ordinance or any regulation
made thereunder and to inspect, examine and copy the same;

(d)to make such examination and inquiry as may be necessary to
ascertain whether the requirements of this Ordinance or any
regulation made thereunder are complied with, and to seize
any thing which may appear to be evidence of an offence
against this Ordinance;

(e)to examine, either alone or in the presence of any other
person, as he thinks fit, with respect to matters under this
Ordinance, every person whom he finds in any industrial
undertaking to which the regulations made under this
Ordinance for the time being apply, or whom he has
reasonable cause to believe has been within the preceding
two months employed in any such industrial undertaking, and
to require every such person to be so examined and to sign a
declaration of the truth of the matters respecting which he
has been so examined;

(f) any other powers which may be conferred by any regulation
made under this Ordinance or which may be necessary for
carrying this Ordinance into effect.





(3) No person shall obstruct or delay the Commissioner or any
inspector in the exercise of any of his powers under this Ordinance.

(4) Every person who employs or has employed any woman,
young person or child in an industrial undertaking and every agent and
servant of any such employer shall on demand give to the
Commissioner or to any inspector all information in his possession
with reference to such woman, young person or child and all
information in his possession with reference to the labour conditions
and treatment of every woman, young person or child employed by
such employer.

(5) The Commissioner or any inspector may remove and detain
for inquiries in a place of refuge appointed under any Ordinance for the
time being in force relating to women, young persons or children any
young person or child whom he finds in any place in or in respect of
which he has reasonable cause to suspect that an offence against this
Ordinance hag been committed.

(6) The powers conferred by this Ordinance on the Commissioner
and inspectors shall be in addition to and not in substitution for any
other powers which they may possess.

4. Any health officer, any Fire Brigade officer with the written
authority of the Chief Officer of the Fire Brigade and any officer
specially authorized by the Commissioner and subject to such
directions as he may impose, may at any time enter and inspect any
factory or workshop for the purpose of ascertaining whether the
requirements of this Ordinance or of any regulation made thereunder
are complied with, and the proprietor of every factory and workshop
shall furnish the means required for such entry and inspection.

5. (1) The Commissioner may by regulations in respect of
industrial undertakings prescribe or provide for-

(a)declaring trades, processes and occupations to be
dangerous trades for the purposes of this Ordinance;

(b)prohibiting the employment of or modifying or limiting the
employment of all persons or any class of persons in
dangerous trades;





(c) prohibiting the employment of or modifying or
limiting the employment of women, young persons
and children in industrial undertakings, and
requiring registers to be kept of women, young
persons and children employed in industrial under-
takings;

(d)imposing obligations for securing compliance with the
provisions of this Ordinance or of any regulation made
thereunder upon persons who employ women, young
persons or children in industrial undertakings and upon the
agents and servants of such persons;

(e)defining the duties and powers of the inspectors;
(f) exempting
any industrial undertaking from the operation of this
Ordinance or any part thereof;

(g) forms both in respect of registration and otherwise;

(h)means of securing hygienic conditions in factories and
workshops;

(i)means of preventing accidents in factories and workshops,
and of relieving persons suffering frorn the effects of such
accidents;

(j) requiring notifications to be made in relation to accidents
occurring in factories and workshops;

(k)precautions to be taken against fire and providing for means
of escape from fire in factories and workshops;

(l)generally carrying into effect the provisions of this
Ordinance.

(2)(a) Where the Commissioner is satisfied that any
manufacture, machinery, plant, process or description of
manual labour, used in industrial undertakings is of such a
nature as to cause risk of bodily injury to persons employed
in connexion therewith, or any class of those persons, he
may, without prejudice to the generality of the power to
make regulations under subsection (i), make such
regulations as appear to him to be reasonably practicable
and to meet the necessity of the case, and in particular such
regulations may

(i) prohibit the employment of, or modify or limit the hours
of employment of, all persons or any class of persons in
connexion with any manu-





facture, machinery, plant, process, or description of manual
labour; or

(ii) prohibit, limit, or control the use of any material or
process;

and may impose duties on owners, employed persons and
other persons, as well as on occupiers.

(b)Regulations so made may apply to all industrial
undertakings in which the manufacture, machinery, plant,
process, or description of manual labour is used or to any
specified class or description of such undertaking, and may
provide for the exemption of any specified class or
description of undertaking either absolutely or subject to
conditions.

(3) All regulations made by the Commissioner shall be
submitted to the Governor, and shall be subject to the approval of the
Legislative Council.

(4) It shall be lawful for the Commissioner in such cases as he
shall think fit to exempt any industrial undertaking from any regulation
under this Ordinance or to order the adoption of special precautions in
addition to any precautions required by any regulation under this
Ordinance. Provided that an appeal from any such order shall lie by
way of petition to the Governor in Council whose decision shall he
final.

6. (1) Every factory or workshop shall be registered annually at the
office of the Commissioner.

(2) It shall be the duty of the Commissioner-

(a)to receive applications for the registration of factories and
workshops;

(b)to issue certificates of registration of factories and
workshops;

(e)to keep a register in the prescribed form of the factories and
workshops in respect of which certificates of registration
have been issued.

(3) The Commissioner shall have power to refuse any such
application for registration, and to cancel any such certificate of
registration: Provided that an appeal from any such refusal or
cancellation shall lie by way of petition to the Governor in Council
whose decision shall be final.





7. No factory or workshop shall be opened or used as such until
it has been duly registered under this Ordinance.

8. (1) Any person who contravenes or attempts to contravene or
fails to comply with any provision of this Ordinance shall be guilty of
an offence and shall be liable, on summary conviction, to a fine of one
thousand dollars: Provided that in the case of a continuing offence the
magistrate, if satisfied that the offence has been knowingly and wilfully
committed during a period exceeding ten days, may, in addition to the
said fine, impose a further fine of one hundred dollars a day in respect
of each day of such excess.

(2) Regulations made under this Ordinance may provide that any
person who contravenes or attempts to contravene or fails to comply
with any such regulation shall be guilty of an offence, which shall be
deemed to be an offence against this Ordinance, and may prescribe
penalties therefor not exceeding the penalties provided for in subsection (I).

(3) The proprietor of every factory, workshop or industrial
undertaking in respect of which any offence against this Ordinance has
been committed shall be guilty of a like offence.

(4) It shall be no defence to a prosecution of the proprietor of a
factory, workshop or industrial undertaking for an offence under this
section that the offence was committed without his knowledge or
consent or that the actual offender has not been convicted of the
offence.

9. (1) Where the person convicted of an offence against this
Ordinance is a company, the chairman and every director and every
officer concerned in the management of the company shall be guilty of
the like offence unless he proves that the act or omission constituting
the offence occurred without his knowledge or consent, and shall upon
summary conviction be liable to a fine of one thousand dollars.

(2) Where the person convicted of an offence against this
Ordinance is a firm, every partner in the firm and





every person concerned in the management of the firm shall be guilty
of the like offence unless he proves that the act or omission
constituting the offence occurred without his knowledge or consent,
and shall upon summary conviction be liable to a fine of one thousand
dollars.

10. (1) Any summons relating to an offence against this Ordinance
may be served by leaving a copy of the summons with some adult
person at the factory, workshop or industrial undertaking mentioned in
the summons.

(2) Any such summons may be addressed to the proprietor of a
factory, workshop or industrial undertaking without specifying the
name of the proprietor.

(3) If on the hearing of any such summons the offence is proved
to the satisfaction of the magistrate, he may, in addition to any other
power which he may possess, order that any fine imposed, if not duly
paid, shall be recovered by distress and sale of the machinery, goods
and chattels found in the factory, workshop or industrial undertaking
in question, and the provisions of the Magistrates Ordinance, shall
apply in the case of such distress and sale as they apply to any
distress and sale under that Ordinance.

11. In any prosecution under this Ordinance-

(a)if it appears to the magistrate that any person who is alleged
in the charge to have been a young person or child at the
date of the alleged offence was a young person or child at
the said date, it shall, until the contrary is proved, be
presumed that such person was a young person or child at
the said date;

(b)if it appears to the magistrate that any young person or 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 young person or child
was under the said age at the said date.

12. No prosecution under this Ordinance shall be commenced
without the consent of the Commissioner.
18 of 1937. 31 of 1940. 24 of 1946. 44 of 1947. Short title. Interpretation. 44 of 1947, s. 2. 24 of 1946, s. 2. (15 of 1935.) 10 & 11 Geo. 5, c. 65. Schedule. 44 of 1947, s. 2. (1 of 1873.) [s. 2 cont.] Appointment and powers of Commissioner and other officers. 44 of 1947, s. 3. 1 Edw. 7, c. 22, s. 119. 44 of 1947, s. 3. 24 of 1946, s. 2. 24 of 1946, s. 2. 24 of 1946, s. 2. 24 of 1946, s. 2. 44 of 1947, s. 3. 44 of 1947, s. 3. 44 of 1947, s. 3. 44 of 1947, s. 3. Special authority to inspect. 24 1946, s. 4. 44 of 1947, s. 4. 24 of 1946, s. 2. Regulations. 44 of 1947, s. 5. [s. 5 cont.] Power to make special regulations for safety and health. Schedule. Registration of factories and workshops 44 of 1947, s. 6. 44 of 1947, s. 6. Unregistered factory, etc., forbidden. Offences and penalties. 44 of 1947, s. 7. Liability of partners etc. 44 of 1947, s. 8. 44 of 1947, s. 8. Procedure. (Cap. 227.) Presumptions. Commissioner's consent to prosecution. 44 of 1947, s. 9.

18 of 1937. 31 of 1940. 24 of 1946. 44 of 1947. Short title. Interpretation. 44 of 1947, s. 2. 24 of 1946, s. 2. (15 of 1935.) 10 & 11 Geo. 5, c. 65. Schedule. 44 of 1947, s. 2. (1 of 1873.) [s. 2 cont.] Appointment and powers of Commissioner and other officers. 44 of 1947, s. 3. 1 Edw. 7, c. 22, s. 119. 44 of 1947, s. 3. 24 of 1946, s. 2. 24 of 1946, s. 2. 24 of 1946, s. 2. 24 of 1946, s. 2. 44 of 1947, s. 3. 44 of 1947, s. 3. 44 of 1947, s. 3. 44 of 1947, s. 3. Special authority to inspect. 24 1946, s. 4. 44 of 1947, s. 4. 24 of 1946, s. 2. Regulations. 44 of 1947, s. 5. [s. 5 cont.] Power to make special regulations for safety and health. Schedule. Registration of factories and workshops 44 of 1947, s. 6. 44 of 1947, s. 6. Unregistered factory, etc., forbidden. Offences and penalties. 44 of 1947, s. 7. Liability of partners etc. 44 of 1947, s. 8. 44 of 1947, s. 8. Procedure. (Cap. 227.) Presumptions. Commissioner's consent to prosecution. 44 of 1947, s. 9.

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