PART VIII

Conditions of Employment

Women and Young Persons

107. —(1) No female shall be employed below ground at a mine.

(2) Regulations may prohibit or restrict the employment of young persons, or young persons under a prescribed age, below ground at a mine.

108. —No child shall be employed at a mine.

109. —A young person shall not be employed at a mine unless and until a birth certificate or other satisfactory evidence of his age has been produced to the manager of the mine.

110. —(1) A woman or young person shall not be employed at a mine except in accordance with this section.

(2) There shall be an interval of not less than twelve hours between periods of employment.

(3) A period of employment of a young person whose age is less than sixteen years shall not begin earlier than 6 o'clock in the morning nor end later than 10 o'clock in the evening.

(4) The interval between periods of employment for a woman and, subject to subsection (5), for a young person whose age is not less than sixteen years shall include a continuous period of seven hours falling between 10 o'clock in the evening and 7 o'clock in the morning.

(5) (a) The Minister may, by regulations, authorise the employment, during prescribed hours falling within the interval specified in subsection (4), of male young persons whose age is not less than sixteen years for the purpose of receiving instruction of such description as may be prescribed.

(b) In any such case the interval between periods of employment shall be such period, not being less than thirteen hours, as may be prescribed or, if no period is prescribed, fifteen hours.

(6) Subject to the provisions of this Act the Minister may by regulations make provision for the hours of employment and intervals for meals and rest of women and young persons employed above ground at a mine or at any class of mine.

111. —(1) It shall be the duty of the responsible person to keep at the office of a mine or quarry, or at some other place approved by an inspector, a register in such form as may be specified by the Minister and to enter in that register in such form and manner as may be so specified the name, date of birth, residence and date of first employment at the mine or quarry of all women and young persons employed thereat, indicating, in the case of male young persons employed at a mine, which of them are employed below ground.

(2) It shall, in the case of every mine or quarry, be the duty of the responsible person to produce on request any register kept by him in pursuance of this section to an inspector.

(3) Before a male young person is first employed below ground in a mine his employer (if not the owner of the mine) shall inform the manager or some other person appointed in that behalf by the manager, that the young person is to be so employed.

Employed Persons Generally

112. —Regulations may require persons employed or seeking employment at mines or quarries to submit themselves for medical examination and may prohibit the employment at a mine or quarry, either absolutely or in a particular capacity or in particular work, of a person who fails to submit himself for such medical examination or is found to be physically or mentally unfit for such employment as a result thereof.

Limit of Hours Below Ground

113. —(1) For the purposes of the subsequent provisions of this Part, “workman” means any person employed in a mine below ground, who is not an official of the mine (other than a deputy), or a mechanic or electrician, or a person engaged solely in surveying or measuring; and any number of workmen whose hours for beginning and terminating work in the mine are approximately the same shall be deemed to be a shift of workmen.

(2) Subject to the provisions of this Part a workman shall not be below ground in a mine of coal, stratified ironstone, shale or fireclay for the purpose of his work, and of going to and from his work, for more than eight hours during any consecutive twenty-four hours.

(3) The manager of the mine shall fix for each shift of workmen in the mine the time at which the lowering of the men to the mine is to commence and to be completed, and the time at which the raising of the men from the mine is to commence and to be completed, in such a manner that every workman shall have the opportunity of returning to the surface without contravention of this section, and shall post and keep posted at the pit head a conspicuous notice of the time so fixed, and shall make all arrangements necessary for the observance of those times.

(4) The interval between the times fixed for the commencement and for the completion of the lowering and raising of each shift of workmen to and from the mine shall be such time as may for the time being be approved by an inspector as the time reasonably required for the purpose.

(5) In the event of any accident to the winding machinery, or other accident interfering with the lowering or raising of workmen, the interval may temporarily be extended to such extent as may be necessary; but in any such case the manager of the mine shall on the same day send notice of the extension and the cause thereof to an inspector, and the extension shall not continue beyond such date as may be allowed by the inspector.

(6) In the event of the manager feeling aggrieved by a decision of an inspector under subsection (4) the matter shall, in accordance with regulations as to procedure and costs made by the Minister, be referred to the decision of a person appointed by the judge of the Circuit Court for the circuit in which the mine is situate, whose decision shall be final; but until such decision is given the times approved by the inspector shall be in force as respects the mine.

(7) A repairing shift of workmen may, notwithstanding the provisions of this section, for the purpose of avoiding work on Sunday, commence their period of work on Saturday before twenty-four hours have elapsed since the commencement of their last period of work, so long as at least eight hours have elapsed since the termination thereof.

(8) (a) In the case of a deputy, onsetter or pump-minder, the maximum period for which he may be below ground under this Part shall be nine hours and a half.

(b) Where the work of sinking a pit or driving a cross-measure drift is being carried on continuously, no contravention of the provisions of this Part shall be deemed to take place as respects any workman engaged on that work if the number of hours spent by him at his working place does not exceed six at any one time, and the interval between the time of leaving the working place and returning thereto is in no case less than twelve hours.

(9) If any question under this section arises (otherwise than in legal proceedings) whether any person is a workman or is a workman of any particular class, that question shall be referred to the Minister, and his decision shall be final.

(10) The Minister may by regulations substitute a shorter period of time for the period provided by subsection (2) or by paragraph (a) of subsection (8) and, during the continuance of the regulations, this section shall stand modified accordingly.

(11) Regulations may provide that this section shall, with such exceptions, modifications and adaptations as may be prescribed, apply to any other class of mine.

(12) There shall not be a contravention of any provision of this section providing for a period of time in relation to a workman employed on a shift if the period from the time when the last workman on that shift leaves the surface to the time when the first workman on that shift returns to the surface does not exceed the period of time so provided.

114. —(1) The manager of the mine shall appoint one or more persons to direct at the pit head the lowering and raising of men to and from the mine, and shall cause a register to be kept in the prescribed form and containing the prescribed particulars with respect to the times at which men are lowered into and raised from the mine, and the cases in which any man is below ground for more than the time fixed by this Act, and the cause thereof, and the register shall be open to inspection by an inspector.

(2) The workmen in a mine may, at their own cost, appoint and station one or more persons, whether holding the office of checkweigher or not, to be at the pit head, at all times when workmen are to be lowered or raised, for the purpose of observing the times of lowering and raising, and the provisions of this Act and of the Checkweighing in Various Industries Act, 1919, relating to the checkweigher, and to the relations between the owner, agent, or manager of the mine and the checkweigher shall, so far as applicable, apply to any person so appointed as they apply to the checkweigher, with the substitution, as respects appointment, of the workmen in the mine for the persons who under that Act are entitled to appoint a checkweigher.

(3) If any person knowingly makes a false entry in the register which is to be kept under this section, or knowingly causes or permits any such false entry to be made, he shall be guilty of an offence.

115. —(1) The time fixed by this Part as the time during which the workmen in a mine may be below ground for the purpose of their work and of going to and from their work may be extended as respects any mine by the manager of the mine, on not more than sixty days in any year by not more than one hour a day, and on any day on which an extension of time is made in accordance with this section as respects any mine the time as so extended shall be substituted for the purposes of this Act as respects that mine for the time as fixed by this Part.

(2) The manager of every mine shall cause a register to be kept in such manner as the Minister may direct of the cases in which any extension of time has been given under this section, and the register shall be open to inspection by an inspector.

116. —In the application of this Part to mines which are entered otherwise than by a shaft, and to workmen who are not lowered to or raised from the mine by means of machinery, the admission of men to the mine shall be substituted for the lowering of men to the mine, and the return of men from the mine shall be substituted for the raising of men from the mine, and such times as may be determined by the owner, agent, or manager of the mine, with the approval of an inspector, as the times properly corresponding to the times fixed for the commencement and completion of the lowering and raising of workmen to and from the mine, shall be substituted for the times so fixed.

117. —For securing compliance with the provisions of this Part, it shall be the duty of the manager of every mine—

(a) to make rules for that purpose and publish such rules by posting them and keeping them posted at the pit head, and by supplying a copy thereof free to every workman employed underground in the mine who, not having been previously supplied with a copy, applies therefor at the office at which he is paid; and

(b) to provide necessary means for raising the men from the mine within the time limited by this Part.

118. —If a workman is below ground for a longer period during any consecutive twenty-four hours than the time fixed by this Part, he shall be deemed to have been below ground in contravention of this Part unless the contrary is proved.

Miscellaneous

119. —Where on any occasion a person remains, after the time at which his period of employment ends, below ground in a mine for the purpose of rendering assistance in the event of accident, meeting any danger (whether actual or apprehended) or dealing with any emergency or with work uncompleted through unusual and unforeseen circumstances which requires to be dealt with without interruption in order to avoid serious interference with ordinary work in the mine, there shall be deemed not to be a contravention of the foregoing provisions of this Part in relation to him.

120. —Before making any regulations for the purposes of section 110, 112 or 113 the Minister shall consult with the owner of every mine to which the regulations will apply and with any association appearing to him to be representative of persons employed to whom the regulations will apply.

121. —For the purposes of this Part a person employed below ground in a mine shall be deemed to be so employed during the period between the time at which he is required to attend for the purpose of going below ground and the time at which he returns to the surface.