CHAP. 10.—PROTECTION OF HOME WORKERS 79

as to the new international convention to be concluded}? expressly
favors supervision by the factory inspectors as to the actual payments
made and favors proceedings for penal and civil penalties in case of
infringement of the rules.
The only method of material redress offered by the first Government
 proposal consisted in the right of home workers to sue their
employers who had not paid them the minimum wage fixed by law,
and to obtain by civil suit payment of the back wages* Common
sense, however, seemed to indicate that these women working at home,
afraid of being dismissed in case of dispute, and being by nature
Hiher timid and inexperienced, would not dare to sue their employers,

An inquiry of the French Ministry of Labor in the beginning of
1925 brought to light some practical instances confirming these
suppositions. Several workers who were not paid the minimum wage
preferred to suffer rather than to take the risk of losing their jobs.
Not one of them was prepared to bring suit for recovery of the difference
 in wages.
The law finally voted by Parliament, modifying the original
proposal of the Government, authorizes the trade-unions and certain
associations concerned with the welfare of home workers to bring
suit in their own right to prevent underpayment of the workers.

Application of the Law

THE June-July, 1917, and the August-September, 1918, issues of
the Bulletin of the Ministry of Labor, while mentioning no suit
brought by the women, report several litigations undertaken by
trade-unions and by the French Office for Home Work. Several
employers were compelled to pay supplementary salaries to the
women, and to pay damages to the associations which had sued them.
For instance, a firm was found guilty on November 23, 1917, the
Litigation being brought by the Office for Home Work, pleading in
the name of 15 woman workers. The women had lost courage while
the litigation progressed and abandoned it. Nevertheless the tribunal,
 giving its reasons for the judgment, stated that associations
like the Office for Home Work are authorized by the law to plead
in their own name and in their own right, to act independently
of the demand of the working women, for payment of back wages.
In 1916, 5,576 employers were affected by the law; in 1917, 6,455.
The number of woman workers affected by the law was, in 1916.
208,000; in 1917, 215,000.
The law of 1915 applies to female home workers in the clothing
trades, but paragraph 33m of the law provides that male home
workers receiving wages below the minima established for the women
may bring suit for payment of the same minima.
A ministerial order of August 10, 1922, based on another provision
 of the above-mentioned section 83m of the law, extended the
protection to several other industries, and an order of July 30, 1926,
* International Labor Conference, eleventh session, Geneva, May, 1928. Report on
Minimum Wage-Fixing Machinery. Geneva, International Labor Office, 1928, p. 70.
* Broda, R.: La Fixation orl des Salaires, Paris, 1912.
8 Bulletin du Ministére du Travail, Parls, July-September, 1925, p. 243.
® Idem, August-September—October, 1918, p. 363.