Report of the Royal Commission on Labour in India

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 1850495947

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-233603

Document type:: Monograph

Title:: Report of the Royal Commission on Labour in India

Place of publication:: London

Publisher:: His Majesty's Stationery Off.

Year of publication:: 1931

Scope:: xviii, 580 S.; graph. Darst., Kt.

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

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Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Chapter V. - Working conditions in factories

Collection:: Economics Books

WORKING CONDITIONS IN FACTORIES. 69 latter case, the infrequency of prosecutions appears to reflect the policy of the provincial Government. We found no reason for believing that conditions in Bihar and Orissa, as compared with other provinces, justified particular leniency in the matter of the administration of the Act, and we recommend that in this province greater rigour be shown in the future in'this respect. In some provinces the Chief Inspector of Factories is subordinated to the Director of Industries. We consider this an un- desirable arrangement, as the Director of Industries is naturally expected by employers to assist them to the utmost of his ability. The factory inspection staff, on the other hand, exists primarily for the protection of labour. While it is not desired to reflect in any way on the manner in which Directors of Industries have carried out the difficult duty imposed on them, we think that this duty should be transferred to an authority more independent of employers. We discuss the appropriate authority in a later chapter, but we should add here that the system of giving the Director of Industries responsibility for factory administration does not prevail in any of the three Presidencies or in Burma (where there is no Director) and these provinces contain the great majority of the factories. We understand that, in some cases, control is or has been exercised over the Chief Inspector of Factories in the matter of individual prosecutions. We recognise that the executive government must retain the power to lay down broad lines of policy ; but we desire to emphasise the fact that, if an officer is fit to fill the responsible post of Chief Inspector, he must be fit to decide generally when a prosecution is required. In any case it is most important that he should not be required to submit pro- posals for individual prosecutions to another authority. Part-time Inspectors. In addition to the regular factory inspection staff, with which we have been dealing in the preceding paragraphs, there ave many other officers who exercise powers as Inspectors of Factories. All District Magistrates are ex-officio inspectors. In addition, local Governments have empowered various other officers as inspectors, including a number of sub-divisional and other magistrates, and, more rarely, medical officers. On occasion, a few of these officials have displayed some energy in factory inspection, but, generally speaking, the amount of assistance given by them to factory administration has been small, and such work as they do is not always well directed. So far as non-technical officers are concerned, we believe that it is generally a waste of time for them to attempt inspections in perennial factories. It is occasionally possible for them to save the time of a regular inspector by visits to small factories lying far from im- portant lines of communication ; but ordinarily the adequate inspection of a perennial factory requires expert technical knowledge. On the other band we consider that, if new methods are adopted, part-time officers could do most valuable work in connection with seasonal factories, and we develop this point in the chapter dealing with these. In the meantime, it is sufficient to observe that, in estimating the staff required for the inspection of perennial factories, the contribution that can be made by such officers must be ionored.

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