Cotton Factory Act Essay

Britain paved the way for health and safety regulations by being the first country to implement a government endorsed act to protect workers. The first acts were aimed at children, but spread later to women, and eventually to men. The original act passed was called the Health and Morals of Apprentices Act. The act applied to all apprentices up to the age of twenty one but was specifically targeted at pauper apprentices, who were children often under the age of ten. The act itself prohibited apprentices from working during the night, and also limited them to working twelve hours during the day. Additionally, it also made provision for the apprentices to receive some basic education. The Act required employers to keep the mill clean and healthy
The Cotton Mills Regulation Act (1825) aimed to improve the enforceability of health and safety legislation. The appointed magistrates could visit mills on their own initiative, and could call witnesses to attend hearings in order to gain evidence. In theory, this should have made prosecutions more frequent as evidence would be easier to come by. However, the magistrates were still local to the factories, and often did not want to enforce punishments to people they knew. All magistrates were male, and it has been argued that this made women less likely to complain about their unhealthy working conditions. It was stressed that female factory workers would only feel comfortable in discussing their working conditions with another woman. Although arguably exaggerated, it is fair to assume that for some women, this would have been the case. In this act, children aged between nine and fourteen were limited to eight hour working days, which needed to have two hours of schooling. Those under the age of eighteen were limited to twelve hour working days. Unlike the previous acts which were only for cotton mills, this act applied to all textile mills which was a huge towards improving working conditions. George Phillips, a factory owner in Salford, called for the act to be repealed, stating that the management in mills were much