[ Act No. 3071, March 16, 1923 ]

AN ACT TO REGULATE THE EMPLOYMENT OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN IN SHOPS, FACTORIES, INDUSTRIAL, AGRICULTURAL, AND MERCANTILE ESTABLISHMENTS, AND OTHER PLACES OF LABOR IN THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS; TO PROVIDE PENALTIES FOR VIOLATIONS HEREOF, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Philippines in Legislature assembled and by the authority of the same:

SECTION 1. It shall be unlawful for any person, firm or corporation to employ females or males below the age of fourteen years as laborers in the mines or in places of labor where explosives are used or manufactured.

SEC. 2. Any person, firm or corporation owning a factory, shop or industrial or mercantile establishment, shall be obliged to provide and place in its establishment, for the use of its laborers, seats proper for women and children and permit them to use said seats during the hours when they are free of work and during working hours, provided they can perform their duties in this position without detriment to efficiency. Laborers shall be allowed not less than sixty minutes for their noon meal.

SEC. 3. No person, firm or corporation shall employ nor permit the employment of any person below the age of sixteen years for work in its shops, factories, commercial or industrial establishment or other places of labor for more than seven hours daily or forty-two hours weekly. It shall be the duty of every employer to post signs in the most conspicuous places in each room where minors are working, stating the hours during which these are authorized to work.

SEC. 4. No person, firm or corporation shall employ nor permit the employment of any boy or girl below the age oi fourteen years in its factory, shop, commercial or industrial establishment or other place of labor on school days, unless such child knows how to read and write.  Every employer shall be obliged to have in his establishment a duly certified copy of the birth certificate of each of his laborers below the age of eighteen years while such laborer is employed by him.

SEC. 5. It shall be unlawful for any person, firm or corporation licensed to establish a bar to employ or permit the employment in said bar of females under eighteen or males under sixteen years of age.

SEC. 6. It shall be unlawful for any person, firm or corporation to employ women in factories, shops and similar places of labor where the nature of the work requires the employee to work always standing.

SEC. 7. It shall be unlawful for any person, firm or corporation to employ or permit the employment of persons below the age of sixteen years in departments or divisions of their factories, shops or other places of labor where work is being done in connection with the preparation of any poisonous, noxious, explosive or infectious substance.

SEC. 8. It shall be unlawful for any person, firm or corporation to employ or permit the employment in his factory, shop, commercial or industrial establishment, or other place of labor of persons below the age of eighteen years for performing any work not specified in this Act which involves serious danger to the life of the laborer.

SEC. 9. Any person, firm or corporation owning, leasing or managing a factory, shop or place of labor of any description shall be obliged to establish for the use of its laborers separate and suitable closets and separate lavatories for males and females, and to provide at least one dressing-room for the women and 'children: Provided, That the Director of the Bureau of Labor shall be' authorized, in his discretion, to exempt from this provision small shops which, on account of their small capital, cannot comply with the provisions of this section.

SEC. 10. No person, firm or corporation shall employ or permit the employment in its factory, shop or other place of labor of. any person below the age of sixteen years as operator of elevators, motorman or fireman, or to clean machinery, work underground, or do similar work.

SEC. 11. It shall be unlawful for any person, firm or corporation to employ or cause the employment of persons below the age of sixteen years in billiard rooms, cockpits or other places where games are being played with stakes of money or things worth money, and in dance halls, stadiums or race courses as bailarinas, boxers or jockeys.

SEC. 12. No person, firm or corporation shall employ in its factory, shop or other place of labor, or permit the employment therein of any person below the age of sixteen years, to work before six o'clock ante meridian or after six o'clock post meridian.

SEC 13. Every person, firm or corporation owning or managing a factory, shop or place of labor of any description shall be obliged to grant to any woman employed by it as a laborer who may be pregnant, thirty days vacation with pay before and another thirty days after confinement: Provided, That the employer shall not discharge such laborer without just cause, under the penalty of being required to pay to her wages equivalent to the total of two months counted from the day of her discharge.

SEC. 14. It shall be unlawful for any person, firm or corporation to employ or permit the employment of persons below the age of sixteen years for the sale of medicines and drugs in a pharmacy or for any work that may affect the health of the public.

SEC. 15. Any person, firm or corporation violating any of the provisions of this Act shall be punished by a fine of not less than fifty pesos nor more than two hundred and fifty, or by imprisonment for not less than ten days nor more than six months, or both, in the discretion of the court.

In the case of firms or corporations, the presidents, directors or managers thereof or, in their default, the persons acting in their stead, shall be criminally responsible for each violation of the provisions of this Act.

SEC. 16. This Act shall take effect on its approval.

Approved, March 16, 1923.

Source: Supreme Court E-Library