WHEREAS it is expedient to amend the Acts relating to the Employment of Females within the Colony of New Zealand: Be it therefore enacted by the General Assembly of New Zealand in Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—

1 Short Title.

The Short Title of this Act shall be “The Employment of Females Acts Amendment Act, 1875.”

2 Interpretation of term “the said Act.”

The term “the said Act” when used in this Act shall mean and include “The Employment of Females Act, 1873,” and “The Employment of Females Act 1873 Amendment Act, 1874.”

3 Interpretation.

In the interpretation of this Act the terms following shall have the meaning hereinafter given to them, that is to say,—

“Factory” shall mean any manufactory workshop or other establishment or business where any female child or young person shall be employed;

“Child” shall mean a boy or girl between the ages of ten and fourteen years;

“Young person” shall mean a boy or girl between the ages of fourteen and eighteen years;

“Female” shall mean any person of the female sex over the age of eighteen years; and

“Parent” shall mean parent, guardian, or person having the custody of or control over any such child or young person.

4 No person under ten years of age shall be employed in any factory.

No person shall be employed in any factory under the age of ten years, and any employer employing or parent allowing to be employed any such person shall be subject to a penalty not exceeding fifty pounds.

5 Regulations.

In every factory the following regulations shall be observed:—

A child, young person, or female shall not be employed continuously for more than four hours and a half without an interval of at least half an hour for a meal.

6 Children may he employed in sets or on alternate days.

In every factory the children may be employed either in morning or afternoon sets or shifts, or for the whole day on alternate days, and the following regulations shall be observed:—

(1.)

Where the children are employed in morning and afternoon sets, a child who on any day except Saturday is employed before noon shall not on the same day be employed after one o’clock in the afternoon, or, if the hour of dinner be before one o’clock, after such hour of dinner; and

(2.)

When the children are employed on alternate days—

(a.)

A child may be employed during the same hours, and with the same hours for meals, as young persons and women, and

(b.)

A child shall not be employed in any manner on two successive days.

7 Persons not to be employed during meal times.

In every factory a child, young person, or female shall not during any part of the time allowed for meals be employed in the factory, or allowed to remain in any room in which any employment within the meaning of the said Act or of this Act is being carried on, and any child, young person, or female so employed, or allowed so to remain, shall be deemed to be employed in contravention of the provisions of this Act.

8 Notices specifying hours of employment to be posted.

Notices shall be posted in conspicuous places in each factory, and shall specify the hours between which the period of employment in such factory is, and whether children (if any be employed in such factory) are to be employed in morning and afternoon sets or shifts or on alternate days; and true copies of such notices shall be signed by the employer, and shall be forwarded to the Resident Magistrate of the city town or district within which such factory shall be situated, and shall be filed in the office of such Resident Magistrate, and a copy of such statement shall be furnished to the Inspector or Chief of Police of such city town or district.

9 Breaches of Acts.

Every person who shall employ any child, young person, or female in contravention of the provisions of the said Act or of this Act, and every parent who shall permit or suffer any child or young person to be employed in contravention of the terms of the said Act or of this Act, shall be deemed to have committed a breach of the said Act or of this Act as the case may be.

It shall be the duty of some person to be appointed by the Resident Magistrate of the district in which such factory is situated to see that the provisions of the said Act and of this Act are properly carried out, and to report to the Resident Magistrate of the district all cases of breach or infraction of the provisions of the said Act and of this Act.

10 Females may be employed for eight hours during the day of twenty-four hours.

Notwithstanding anything contained in the said Act or this Act it shall be lawful to employ any female in any woollen cloth flannel or hose factory in which machinery or appliances of any kind are worked by steam water or other motive power at such time or times in any one day, not exceeding eight hours in the whole, as may be agreed upon between such female and her employer: Provided that no female shall be so employed at any time before six of the clock in the morning or after six of the clock in the evening.

11 Acts not to apply to saleswomen in retail places of business.

Nothing in the said Act or this Act shall be deemed or taken to prevent the employment of saleswomen in retail places of business where goods are exposed for sale, so long as such retail places are open to the public, but saleswomen or others employed or retained for work after the closing of such places of business to the public shall continue to be under the operation of the said Act and this Act.

12 Females may be employed in printing offices on Saturdays up to hour of 4.30 p.m.

Nothing in the said Act or this Act shall be deemed or taken to prevent the employment of females in printing offices on Saturdays up to the hour of half-past four in the afternoon.

13 Penalty for breaches of Acts.

Any person who commits any breach of the said Act or of this Act shall be liable for each offence to a penalty not exceeding fifty pounds. The penalty may be recovered in a summary way before any two Justices of the Peace.

Employment of Females Acts Amendment Act 1875