§ 127
The apprentice shall be placed under the parental discipline of the master. He shall be bound to render obedience to the one who conducts his instruction in the place of the master.
§ 128
Apprentice relations may be dissolved by the withdrawal of one party during the first four weeks after the beginning of the apprenticeship, unless a longer time has been agreed upon.
Any agreement to fix this time of probation at longer than three months shall be void.
After the expiration of the time of probation the apprentice may be dismissed before the ending of the apprenticeship agreed upon, if any one of the cases provided for in § 123 applies to him.
On the part of the apprentice, relations may be dissolved at the expiration of the time of probation:
1. If any one of the cases provided for in § 124 under nos. 1, 3 to 5 occurs;
2. If the master neglects his legal obligations towards the apprentice in a manner endangering the health, morals or education of the apprentice, or if he abuses his right of parental discipline, or becomes incapable of fulfilling the obligations imposed upon him by the contract.
The contract of apprenticeship shall be dissolved by the death of the apprentice. The contract of apprenticeship shall be dissolved by the death of the master if the claim is made within four weeks.
Written contracts of apprenticeship shall be free of stamp duty.
§ 129
At the termination of apprentice relations, the master shall deliver to the apprentice a testimonial stating the trade in which the apprentice has been instructed, the duration of the apprenticeship, the knowledge and skill acquired during that time, and also the conduct of the apprentice. This testimonial shall be certified by the borough magistrate free of costs and stamp duty.
In cases where there are guilds or other industrial representative bodies, letters or certificates from these may supply the place of such testimonials.
§ 130
If the apprentice quits his instruction under circumstances not provided for in this Act, without consent of his master, the latter can only make good his claim for the return of the apprentice, if the contract of apprenticeship has been drawn up in writing. In such case the police magistrate may, on application of the master, oblige the apprentice to remain under instruction so long as apprentice relations are declared by judicial ruling to be still undissolved.
Application is only admissible if made within one week after the departure of the apprentice. In case of refusal, the police magistrate may cause the apprentice to be taken back by force, or he may compel him to return under pain of a fine, to the amount of fifty marks, or detention for five days.
§ 131
If the parent or guardian acting for the apprentice, or if the apprentice himself, being of age, shall deliver a written declaration to the master, that the apprentice wishes to enter into some other industry or some other calling, apprentice relations shall cease after the expiration of four weeks, if the apprentice is not allowed to leave earlier. The grounds of the dissolution must be notified in the work register by the master.
The apprentice shall not be employed in the same trade by another employer, without consent of the former master, within nine months after such dissolution of apprentice relations.
§ 132
If apprentice relations are severed by either party, before the appointed time, the other party can claim compensation only if the contract has been made in writing. In the cases referred to in § 128, 1, 4, the claim will only hold if the kind and degree of compensation has been specified beforehand, in the contract.
The claim is void unless made within four weeks of the dissolution of apprentice relations.
§ 133
If apprentice relations are dissolved by the master, because the apprentice has quitted his work without permission, the compensation claimed by the master shall, unless some other agreement have been made in the contract, be fixed at a sum amounting for every day succeeding the day of breach of contract, up to a limit of six months, to the half of the customary local wage paid to journeymen and assistants in the trade of the master.
The father of the apprentice shall be liable for the payment of compensation, also any employer who has induced the apprentice to quit his apprenticeship, or who has received him into his employ, although knowing him to be still under obligation to continue in apprentice relations to another employer. If the one who is entitled to compensation has not received information till after the dissolution of apprentice relations, as to the employer who has induced the apprentice to quit his work, or who has taken him into his employ, claim for compensation against the latter shall expire if not preferred within four weeks after such information has been received.
IIIA. Relations of Business Managers, Foremen, Skilled Technical Workers
§ 133a
The service relations of such persons, as are employed by directors of industry for certain defined purposes, and are charged, not merely temporarily, with the conduct and supervision of the business, or of a department of the business (business managers, foremen, etc.), or are entrusted with the higher kinds of technical service work (experts in machinery, mechanical engineers, chemists, draughtsmen, and the like), may, if not otherwise agreed, be broken off by either party at the expiration of any quarter of the calendar year, after notice has been given six weeks previously.
§ 133b
Either party may, before the expiration of the contract time, demand dissolution of service relations without observing the due period of notice, provided sufficiently important reasons exist to justify the dissolution under the circumstances.
§ 133c
Dissolution of service relations may be demanded, in particular, of the persons specified in § 133a.
1. If at the time of concluding the contract, they have deceived the employer by presenting false or falsified testimonials, or if they have deceived him as to the existence of another service relation, to which they were simultaneously bound;
2. If they are unfaithful in service or if they abuse confidence;
3. If they quit service without permission, or persistently refuse to fulfil the obligations imposed upon them by the service contract;
4. If they are hindered in the performance of service by protracted illness, or by long detention or absence;
5. If they are guilty of violence or insult towards the employer or his representatives;
6. If they pursue an immoral course of life.
In the case of No. 4, the worker’s claim for the fulfilment of contract, by the employer, shall remain in force for six weeks, if the performance of service has been hindered by some unavoidable misfortune; but in such cases the claim shall be limited to the amount that is legally due to the claimant as insurance against sickness or accident.
§ 133d
The persons specified in § 133a may demand dissolution of service relations, in particular:
1. If the employer or his representatives are guilty of violence or insult towards them;
2. If the employer does not provide the work agreed upon in the contract;
3. If, by the continuance of service relations, their life or health would be exposed to demonstrable danger, which was not apparent at the time of entering into service-relations.
§ 133e
The provisions of §§ 124b and 125 shall apply to the persons specified in § 133a, but not the provisions of § 119a.
IV. Relations of Factory Workers
§ 134
The provisions of §§ 121 to 125 shall apply to factory workers; if the factory workers are apprentices, the provisions of §§ 126 to 133 shall apply to them.
Owners of factories in which, as a rule, at least twenty workers are employed, shall be prohibited, in the case of illegal dissolution of working relations by the worker, from exacting forfeiture or withholding wage beyond the amount of the average weekly wage. The provisions of § 124b shall not apply to employers and workers in such factories.
§ 134a
In every factory in which, as a rule, at least twenty workers are employed, working rules shall be issued within four weeks after this Act comes into force, or after the opening of the business. Special working rules may be issued for separate departments of the business, or separate groups of workers. The rules must be posted up (§ 134e [2]).
In the working rules must be set forth the time at which they are to come into operation and the date of issue. They must bear the signature of the person by whom they are issued.
Alterations in the contents can only be made by the issue of supplements, or by the issue of new working rules in the place of the existing rules.
Working rules, and supplement to the same, shall come into operation at the earliest, two weeks after issue.
§ 134b
Working rules shall contain directions:
1. As to the beginning and end of the time of daily work, also as to the intervals provided for adult workers;
2. As to the time and manner of computing and paying wage;
3. Where legal provisions are insufficient, as to the period of notice due, also as to the grounds on which dismissal from work and quitting work is permissible without notice;
4. Where fines are enforced, as to the kind and amount thereof, the method of determining them, and, if they consist in money, as to the manner of collecting them, and the purpose to which they shall be appropriated.
5. Where forfeiture of wage is exacted in accordance with the provisions of § 134 (2), by the working rules or by the working contract, as to the appropriation of the proceeds.
Punishments destructive of self-respect, or dangerous to morals, shall not be admitted in the working rules. Money fines shall not exceed the half of the average daily wage, except in cases of violence towards fellow-workers, grave offences against morality, and contempt of directions issued for the maintenance of order in the business, for security against dangers incidental to it, or for carrying out the provisions of the Industrial Code, where money fines to the full amount of the average daily wage may be imposed. All fines shall be devoted to the benefit of the workers in the factory. The right of the employer to claim compensation for damage is not affected by this provision.
It shall be left to the owner of the factory to insert in the working rules, together with the provisions of sub-section (1) from 1 to 5, further provisions for the regulation of the business and the conduct of the workers employed in it. With the consent of the standing committee of workers, directions may be inserted in the working rules, as to the conduct of the workers in the use of arrangements, provided for their benefit in the factory, also directions as to the conduct of workers under age, outside the factory.
§ 134c
The contents of the working rules shall be, unless contrary to law, legally binding on employers and workers.
No grounds shall be agreed upon in the contract of work, for dismissal from work, other than those laid down in the working rules or in §§ 123 or 124.
No fines shall be imposed on the workers other than those laid down in the working rules. Fines must be fixed without delay, and information thereof must be given to the worker.
The money fines imposed shall be entered in a register which shall set forth the name of the offender, the day of imposition, the grounds, and the amount of the fine, and this register shall be produced for inspection at any time, at the request of the officer specified in § 139b.
§ 134d
Before the issue of working rules, or of supplements to the same, opportunity shall be given to the workers of full age, employed in the factory or in the departments of the business, to which the rules in question apply, to express their opinion on the contents of the same.
In factories in which there is a standing committee of workers the requirements of this provision shall be satisfied by granting a hearing to the committee, on the contents of the working rules.
§ 134e
The working rules and any supplement to the same shall, on communication of opinions expressed by the workers, provided such expression be given in writing or in the form of protocols, be laid before the lower court of administration in duplicate, within three days after the issue, accompanied by a declaration showing that, and in what manner the requirements of the enactment of § 134d have been satisfied.
The working rules shall be posted up in a specially appointed place, accessible to all the workers to whom they apply. The placard must always be kept in a legible condition. A copy of the working rules shall be handed to every worker upon his entrance into employment.
§ 134f
Working rules or supplements to the same, which are not issued in accordance with these enactments, or the contents of which are contrary to legal provisions, shall be replaced by legal working rules, or shall be altered in accordance with legal enactment, by order of the lower court of administration.
Appeal against this order may be lodged within two weeks, with the higher court of administration.
§ 134g
Working rules issued before this Act comes into force, shall be subject to the provisions of §§ 134a to 134c, 134e (2), 134f, and shall be laid before the lower court of administration in duplicate, within four weeks.
Sections 134d and 134e (1) shall not apply to later alterations of such working rules, or to working rules issued for the first time, since January 1st, 1891.
§ 134h
The expression “standing committees of workers,” as understood by §§ 134b (3), and 134d, includes only:
1. The managing committee of the sick-clubs of the business (factory), or of other clubs existing in the factory, for the benefit of the workers, the majority of the members of which are elected by the workers out of their midst – where such exist as standing committees of workers;
2. The eldest journeymen of such journeymen’s unions as include the business of any employers not subject to the provisions of the Mining Acts – where such exist as standing committees of workers;
3. Standing committees of workers, formed before Jan. 1st, 1891, the majority of the members of which are elected by the workers out of their midst;
4. Representative bodies, the majority of the members of which are elected out of their midst by direct ballot voting of the workers of full age in the factory, or in the departments of the business concerned. The choice of representatives may be made according to classes of workers or special departments of the business.
§ 135
Children under 13 years of age cannot be employed in factories. Children above 13 years of age can only be employed in factories if they are no longer required to attend the elementary schools.
The employment of children under 14 years of age must not exceed 6 hours a day.
Young persons between 14 and 16 years of age must not be employed in factories for more than 10 hours a day.
§ 136
Young workers (§ 135) shall not begin work before 5.30 in the morning, or end it later than 8.30 in the evening.
On every working day regular intervals must be granted, between the hours of work. For children who are only employed for six hours daily, the interval must amount to half an hour at least. An interval of at least half an hour at mid-day, and half an hour in the forenoon and afternoon must be given to other young workers.
During the intervals, employment of young workers in the business of the factory shall be entirely prohibited, and their retention in the work rooms shall only be permitted, if the part of the business in which the young workers are employed is completely suspended in the work rooms during the time of the interval, or if their stay in the open air is not practicable, and if other special rooms cannot be procured without disproportionate difficulties.
Young workers shall not be employed on Sundays and festivals, nor during the hours appointed for regular spiritual duties, instruction in the catechism, preparation for confession and communion, by the authorized priest or pastor of the community.
§ 137
Girls and women cannot be employed in factories during the night, between the hours of 8.30 p.m. and 5.30 a.m., and must be free on Saturdays and on the eves of festivals by 5.30 p.m. The employment of women workers over 16 years of age must not exceed 11 hours a day, and on Saturdays and the eve of festivals must not exceed 10 hours.
An interval between the hours of work of at least one hour at mid-day must be allowed to women workers.
Women workers over 16 years of age, who manage a household, shall at their request be set free half an hour before the mid-day interval, except in cases where this amounts to at least one and a half hours.
Women after childbirth can in no case be admitted to work until fully four weeks after delivery, and in the following two weeks only if they are declared to be fit for work by a duly authorized physician.
§ 138
The owners of factories, in which it is intended to employ women or young persons, must make a written announcement of the fact to the local police authorities before such employment commences.
The notice shall set forth the name of the factory, the days of the week on which employment is to take place, the beginning and end of the time of work, and the intervals granted, also the kind of employment.
No alteration can be made except such delays as are temporarily necessitated by the replacement of absent workers in separate shifts of work, before notice thereof has been given to the magistrate. In every factory the employer shall, in the workrooms in which young workers are employed, provide a register of young workers to be posted up in some conspicuous place; the same shall contain information as to days of work, beginning and end of time of work, and intervals allowed.
He shall likewise provide in such workrooms a notice board, on which shall be posted up, in plain writing, an extract, to be determined by the Central Court, from the provisions for the employment of women and young workers.
§ 138a
In case of unusual pressure of work, the lower court of administration shall be empowered, on application of the employer, to permit for a fortnight at a time, the employment of women workers over 16 years of age up to 10 o’clock in the evening (except on Saturdays), provided that their daily working time does not exceed 13 hours.
Such extension cannot be allowed to the employer during more than 40 days in any one year.
Further extension beyond the two weeks, or for more than forty days in the year, can only be granted by the higher court of administration, and by it, only on condition that in the business or in the department of business in question, the total average number of hours per day, calculated over the whole year does not exceed the legal limit.
Application shall be made in writing, and must set forth the grounds on which such extension is requested, the number of women workers affected, the amount of employment, and the length of time required.
The decision of the lower court of administration on the application shall be given in writing within three days. Appeal against refusal of permission may be lodged with the superior court.
In cases where the extension is granted the lower court of administration shall draw up a schedule, in which shall be entered the name of the employer, and a copy of the statements contained in the written application.
The lower court of administration may permit the employment of such women workers being over 16 years of age, as have not the care of a household, and do not attend an educational school, in the kinds of work specified in § 105 (1), 2 and 3, on Saturdays and the eve of festivals, after 5.30 p.m., but not after 8.30 p.m.
The permit shall be in writing, and shall be kept by the employer.
§ 139
If natural causes or accidents shall have interrupted the business of a factory, exceptions to the restrictions laid down in §§ 135 (2), (3), 136, 137 (1) to (3), may be granted by the higher court of administration, for a period of four weeks, and for a longer time by the Imperial Chancellor. In urgent cases of such a kind, and also where necessary, in order to guard against accidents, exceptions may be granted by the lower court of administration, but only for a period of fourteen days.
If the nature of the business, or special considerations attaching to workers in particular factories, seem to render it desirable that the working time of women and young workers should be regulated otherwise than as laid down by §§ 136 and 137 (1), (3), special regulations may be permitted on application, by the higher court of administration, in the matter of intervals, in other matters by the Imperial Chancellor. But in such cases young workers shall not be employed for longer than six hours, unless intervals are granted between the hours of work, of an aggregate duration of at least one hour.
Orders issued in accordance with the foregoing provisions shall be in writing.
§ 139a
The Bundesrath (Federal Council) shall be empowered:
1. To entirely prohibit or to attach certain conditions to the employment of women and of young workers in certain branches of manufacture which involve special dangers to health or morality;
2. To grant exceptions to the provisions of §§ 135 (2) and (3), 136, 137 (1) to (3), in the case of factories requiring uninterrupted use of fire, or in which for other reasons, the nature of the business necessitates regular day and night work, also in the case of factories, a part of the business of which does not admit of regular shifts of equal duration, or is from its nature restricted to certain seasons;
3. To prevent the shortening or the omission of the intervals prescribed for young workers, in certain branches of manufacture, where the nature of the business, or consideration for the workers may seem to render it desirable;
4. To grant exceptions to the provisions of § 134 (1) and (2), in certain branches of manufacture in which pressure of business occurs regularly at certain times of the year, on condition that the daily working time does not exceed 13 hours, and on Saturday 10 hours.
In the cases under No. 2, the duration of weekly working time shall not exceed 36 hours for children, 60 hours for young persons, 65 hours for women workers, and 70 hours for young persons and women in brick and tile kilns.
Night work shall not exceed in duration 10 hours in 24, and in every shift one or more intervals, of an aggregate duration of at least one hour, shall be granted.
In the cases under No. 4, permission for overtime work for more than 40 days in the year may only be granted, on condition that the working time is so regulated that the average daily duration of working days does not exceed the regular legal working time.
The provisions laid down by decision of the Bundesrath (Federal Council) shall be limited as to time, and shall also be issued for certain specified districts. They shall be published in the Imperial Law Gazette, and shall be laid before the Reichstag at its next session.
V. Supervision
§ 139b
The supervision and enforcement of the provisions of §§ 105b (1), 105c to 105h, 120a to 120e, 134 to 139a, shall be entrusted exclusively to the ordinary police magistrates, or, together with them, to officials specially appointed thereto by the provincial governments. In the exercise of such supervision the local police magistrates shall be empowered with all official authority, especially with the right of inspection of establishments at any time. They shall be bound to observe secrecy (except in exposing illegalities) as to their official knowledge of the business affairs of the establishments submitted to their inspection.
The settlement of relations of competence between these officials and the ordinary police magistrates, shall be subject to the constitutional regulation of the separate States of the Bund.
The officials mentioned shall publish annual reports of their official acts. These annual reports or extracts from the same, shall be laid before the Bundesrath and the Reichstag.
Employers must at any time during the hours of business, especially at night, permit official inspection to be carried out in accordance with the provisions of §§ 105a to 105h, 120a to 120e, 134 to 139a.
Employers shall further be bound to impart to the officials appointed or to the police magistrate, such statistical information as to the relations of their workers, as may be prescribed by the Bundesrath or the Central Provincial Court, with due observance of the terms and forms prescribed.
Article IV
Chapter IX. of the Industrial Code shall contain the following clauses:
CHAPTER IX
Statutory Provisions
§ 142
Statutory provisions of a borough or wider communal union shall be binding in regard to all those industrial matters with which the law empowers them to deal. After they have been considered by the directors of industry and the workers concerned, the statutory provisions must receive the assent of the higher court of administration, and shall then be published in some form prescribed by the parish or wider communal union, or in the usual form.
The Central Court shall be empowered to annul statutory provisions which are contrary to law or to the statutory provisions of a wider communal union.
Article V
Sub-section 2 of § 93a (2b) shall contain the following clause:
b. The supervision by the union of the observation of the provisions laid down in §§ 41a, 105a to 105g, 120 to 120e, 126, 127.
Article VI
The penal provisions of Chapter X. of the Industrial Code shall be altered as follows:
1. Section 146, (1) 1, 2, and 3, shall contain the following clauses:
1. Directors of industry, acting in contravention of § 115;
2. Directors of industry, acting in contravention of §§ 135, 136, 137, or of orders issued on the grounds of §§ 139 to 139a;
3. Directors of industry, acting in contravention of §§ 111 (3) and 113 (3);
2. The following sub-section shall be added to § 146:
Section 75 of the Constitution of Justice Act shall apply here.
3. After § 146 shall be inserted:
§ 146a
Any person who gives employment to workers on Sundays and festivals, in contravention of §§ 105b to 105g, or of the orders issued on the grounds thereof, or any person who acts in contravention of §§ 41a and 55a, or of the statutory provisions laid down on the grounds of § 105 (2) shall be punished with a money fine to the amount of 600 marks, or in default of the same, with imprisonment.
4. Section 147 (1) 4 shall contain the following clause:
4. Any person who acts in contravention of the final orders issued on the grounds of § 120d, or of enactments issued on the grounds of § 120e;
5. After § 147 (1) 4, shall be inserted:
5. Any person who conducts a factory, in which there are no working rules, or who neglects to obey the final order of the court as to the substitution or alteration of the working rules.
6. Section 147 shall contain at the close the following new sub-section.
In the case of No. 4, the police magistrate may, pending the settlement of affairs by order or enactment, order suspension of the business, in case the continuance of the same would be likely to entail serious disadvantages or dangers.
7. Section 148 shall contain the following extensions:
11. Any person who, contrary to the provision of § 134c (2), imposes such fines on the workers as are not prescribed in the working rules, or such as exceed the legally permissible amount, or any person who appropriates the proceeds of fines or the sums specified in § 134b 5, in a manner not prescribed in the working rules;
12. Any person who neglects to fulfil the obligations imposed upon him by §§ 134e (1), and 134g;
13. Any person who acts in contravention of § 115a, or of the statutory provisions laid down on the grounds of § 119a.
8. Section 149 (1) 7 shall contain the following clause:
7. Any person who neglects to fulfil the obligations imposed upon him by §§ 105c (2), 134e (2), 138, 138a (5), 139b;
9. Section 150(2) shall contain the following clause:
2. Any person who, except in the case prescribed in § 146 (3), acts in contravention of the provisions of this Act with respect to the work register;
10. Section 150 shall contain the following extensions:
4. Any person who acts in contravention of the provisions of § 120 (1), or of the statutory provisions laid down in accordance with § 120 (3);
5. Any person who neglects to fulfil the obligations imposed upon him by § 134c (3).
Common law enactments against neglect of school duties, on which a higher fine is imposed, shall not be affected by the provision of No. 4.
11. Section 151 (1) shall contain the following clause:
If in the exercise of a trade, police orders are infringed by persons appointed by the director of the industrial enterprise, to conduct the business or a department of the same, or to superintend the same, the fine shall be imposed upon the latter. The director of the industrial enterprise shall likewise be liable to a fine if the infringement has taken place with his knowledge, or if he has neglected to take the necessary care in providing for suitable inspection of the business, or in choosing and supervising the manager or overseers.
Article VII
The following provisions shall be substituted for § 154 of the Industrial Code:
§ 154
The provisions of §§ 105 to 133c shall not apply to assistants and apprentices in the business of apothecaries; the provisions of §§ 105, 106 to 119b, 120a to 133e, shall not apply to assistants and apprentices in trading business.
– The provisions of §§ 105 to 133e shall apply to employers and workers in smelting-houses, timber-yards, and other building yards, in dockyards, and in such brick and tile kilns, and such mines and quarries worked above ground, as are not merely temporary, or on a small scale. The final decision as to whether the establishment is to be accounted as temporary, or on a small scale, shall rest with the higher court of administration.
– The provisions of §§ 135 to 139b shall apply to employers and workers in workshops, in which power machinery (worked by steam, wind, water, gas, air, electricity, etc.), is employed, not merely temporarily, with the provision that in certain kinds of businesses the Bundesrath may remit exceptions to the provisions laid down in §§ 135 (2), (3), 136, 137 (1) to (3), and 138.