Working Life in 1890's Pt 4

 Well here we are at another Thursday, and another post about working life in the 1890's.

The number of unions grew between 1855 and 1885 as the old craft unions were joined by mining, industrial, manufacturing and pastoral spheres unions.

A symbol of the growing influence of unions was the building of a Trade Hall in Melbourne in 1859 by the National Trades Hall and Literary Institute. This was claimed to be the first build of its type in the world, the early timber building was replaced in 1876 by a fine Greek-revival Trades Hall building. A Trades and Labour Council was formed in Sydney in 1871 and the Melbourne Trades Hall Council was formed in 1884.

Let's move on to working conditions, the first factory act in Australia regulating the employment of females in workrooms and factories was passed in Victoria in 1873. Hours were limited to eight and a minimum provision of 25 cubic metres of air space per person male or female was stipulated.

These new laws, however, didn't effect conditions for all workers, there were many “home” or “out” workers who were paid at non-union rates. Homework was work taken home by factory hands after hours and paid for by the piece. Outwork was done by people in their homes and was not therefore subject to union conditions. There were also many small workplaces with fewer then 10 people employed which fell outside the 1873 Factory Act provision.

More about conditions next week.