WOMEN WORKERS OF THE EAST

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 166, 9 April 1921, Page 11

WOMEN WORKERS OF THE EAST

JAPANESE LABOUR REFORMS. The International Dabour Office learned recently that the Japanese Department of Commerce and Agriculture has drawn up a Bill to amend the existing factory law in accordance with the draft conventions of the International Labour Conference at Washington. Tho main features of the Bill are:— The widening of the scope of tihe law to include all factories, engineering works, building and transport concerns employ .or more workers. The raising of tho age limit of children employed to 11 years. The limitation of the period of work to 9J hours per day for all adults, and a maximum of eight hours per day for juvenile workers. The prohibition of night work, for employees under 16 years of age. The Japanese Government has also been collecting statistics of women employed in the several kinds of commercial undertakings. Tho latest available figures,, obtained from tho six prefectures of Tokio, Kyoto, Osaka, Hyogo, Kanagawa, and Aichi, including the six principal commercial centres, show that the total number, of women workers employed in commercial undertakings 1» 136,000, of whom 37,000, or approximately 27 per cent.; are married. The new Bill will probably affect 21,000'facfories, representing l,5(»0,0(X> workers. ■’ The draft conventions adopted at Washington dealt with the eight-hour day, and the 48-hour week, unemployment, employment of women at" night and before and after childbirth, the minimum ago of child workers, and the employmteit of young persons at night.