A severe epidemic of fever in the cotton mills near Manchester in 1784 drew widespread public opinion against the use of children in dangerous conditions. A local inquiry chaired by Dr Thomas Percival was launched by Lancashire Justices of the Peace, and the resulting report recommended limiting child labour hours. [1] In 1802, the first major labour law was passed – the Apprentices` Health and Morality Act. This was a first, albeit modest, step towards labour protection. The law limited working time to twelve hours a day and abolished night work. It required a basic level of education for all apprentices, as well as adequate sleeping conditions and clothing. The Factory Acts (first in 1802 and again in 1833) and the Master and Servant Act of 1823 were the first laws regulating industrial relations in the United Kingdom. Most labour law before 1960 was based on contract law. Since then, there has been a significant expansion, mainly due to the “equality movement”[52] and the European Union. [ref. needed] Acts are either Acts of Parliament called Acts, statutory regulations (issued by a Secretary of State under an Act of Parliament) or case law (developed by various courts). Other labour laws concern worker safety.
The first English Mills Act was passed in 1802 and dealt with the safety and health of children`s textile workers. Labour law, the different sets of rules applied to issues such as employment, remuneration, working conditions, trade unions and industrial relations. In the broadest sense, the term also includes social security and disability insurance. Unlike contract law, tort law or property law, the elements of labour law are somewhat less homogeneous than the rules governing a particular legal relationship. In addition to individual contractual relations arising from the traditional employment situation, labour law deals with the legal requirements and collective relations that are becoming increasingly important in mass production enterprises, the legal relations between organized economic interests and the State, and the various rights and obligations associated with certain types of social services. Collective labour law concerns relations between employer, employee and trade unions. Unions (also called “unions” in the United States) are organizations that generally seek to promote the interests of their members. This law regulates the wages, benefits and obligations of employees as well as the conduct of disputes between the enterprise and the union. Such situations are often described in a collective agreement (CBA). The legal recognition of the right to organize has a long history. There is no other aspect of labour law in which successive periods of progress and regression have been significantly influenced by political changes and considerations. The legal prohibition of such an association was lifted in the United Kingdom in 1824 and in France in 1884; There were many subsequent legislative changes and perhaps other changes, but these were about details rather than basic principles.
In the United States, freedom of association remained precarious and subject to the unpredictable scale of the labour injunction by which the courts helped restrict union activity until the 1930s. The breakthrough for trade unions and collective bargaining was achieved by the National Industrial Relations Act (Wagner Act) of 1935. In many other countries, progress and setbacks in freedom of association occur in clearly distinct periods, separated by decisive political changes. This was certainly the case in Germany, Italy, Spain, Japan and much of Eastern Europe; There have been many examples of this, and there may well be more in the developing world. International Labour Organization Convention No. 158 states that a worker “shall not be dismissed without lawful cause” and “before he has had an opportunity to defend himself”. Thus, on 28 April 2006, following the unofficial termination of the first French employment contract, the Longjumeau (Essonne) Labour Court ruled that the new employment contract was contrary to international law and therefore “illegitimate” and “without legal value”. The Court found that the two-year period of “fire at will” (without legal grounds) was “unreasonable” and contrary to the Convention. [23] [24] Swiss labour law covers all employment standards, regardless of their nature.