The Theory and Policy of Labour Protection Part 20

1. If they become incapable of continuing work;

2. If the employer or his representatives are guilty of violence or abuse towards the workers or their relatives;

3. If the employer or his representatives or their relatives lead or seek to lead the workers or their relatives into illegal or immoral courses, or if they unite with relatives of the workers in committing illegal or immoral acts;

4. If the employer does not pay the wage due to the workers in the manner prescribed, if, under the piece-work system, he does not provide them with sufficient employment, or if he is guilty of illegally over-reaching them;

5. If, by continuing the work, the life or health of the workers would be exposed to a demonstrable risk which was not apparent at the time of entering into the contract.

In the cases mentioned under No. 2, quitting service without notice is no longer permissible if the grounds thereof have been known to the workers for longer than one week.

-- 124_a_.

Besides the cases specified in ---- 123 and 124, each party may, in cases where urgent reasons exist, demand to be released from working relations before the expiration of the contract time and without observing the due period of notice, if the contract is for longer than four weeks, or if a longer period of notice than fourteen days has been agreed upon.

-- 124_b_.

If a journeyman or a.s.sistant has quitted work illegally, the employer may claim compensation for the day of the breach of contract and for each following day of the contract time or legal working time, during one week at most, to the amount of the local customary daily wage (-- 8 of the Insurance against Sickness Act of June 15, 1883; _Imperial Law Gazette_, p. 73). This claim need not rest upon proof of loss. When thus made good, claim for fulfilment of contract and further compensation for loss is precluded. The journeyman or a.s.sistant shall enjoy the same right against the employer, if he has been dismissed before the legal ending of the working relations.

-- 125.

Any employer inducing a journeyman or a.s.sistant to quit work before the legal ending of working relations, shall himself be liable to the former employer for loss arising, or for the legal compensation claim under -- 124_b_. In the same manner an employer shall be answerable if he takes into his employ a journeyman or a.s.sistant who to his knowledge is still contracted to any employer.

Any employer shall also be liable under the foregoing sub-section if he employs a journeyman or a.s.sistant, who to his knowledge is still contracted to another employer, throughout the duration of such term; the claim expires after fourteen days from the date of the illegal dissolution of working relations.

The persons specified in -- 119_b_ shall be accounted as journeymen and a.s.sistants as understood by the foregoing provisions.

III. APPRENTICE RELATIONS.

-- 126.

The master shall be bound to instruct the apprentice in all branches of the work of the trade forming part of his business, in due succession and to the extent necessary for the complete mastery of the trade or handicraft. He must conduct the instruction of the apprentice himself or through a fit representative expressly appointed thereto. He shall not deprive the apprentice of the necessary time and opportunity on Sundays and holidays for his education and for attendance at Divine Service, by employing him in other kinds of service. He shall train his apprentice in habits of diligence and in good morals, and shall keep him from evil courses.

-- 127.

The apprentice shall be placed under the parental discipline of the master. He shall be bound to render obedience to the one who conducts his instruction in the place of the master.

-- 128.

Apprentice relations may be dissolved by the withdrawal of one party during the first four weeks after the beginning of the apprentices.h.i.+p, unless a longer time has been agreed upon.

Any agreement to fix this time of probation at longer than three months shall be void.

After the expiration of the time of probation the apprentice may be dismissed before the ending of the apprentices.h.i.+p agreed upon, if any one of the cases provided for in -- 123 applies to him.

On the part of the apprentice, relations may be dissolved at the expiration of the time of probation:

1. If any one of the cases provided for in -- 124 under nos. 1, 3 to 5 occurs;

2. If the master neglects his legal obligations towards the apprentice in a manner endangering the health, morals or education of the apprentice, or if he abuses his right of parental discipline, or becomes incapable of fulfilling the obligations imposed upon him by the contract.

The contract of apprentices.h.i.+p shall be dissolved by the death of the apprentice. The contract of apprentices.h.i.+p shall be dissolved by the death of the master if the claim is made within four weeks.

Written contracts of apprentices.h.i.+p shall be free of stamp duty.

-- 129.

At the termination of apprentice relations, the master shall deliver to the apprentice a testimonial stating the trade in which the apprentice has been instructed, the duration of the apprentices.h.i.+p, the knowledge and skill acquired during that time, and also the conduct of the apprentice. This testimonial shall be certified by the borough magistrate free of costs and stamp duty.

In cases where there are guilds or other industrial representative bodies, letters or certificates from these may supply the place of such testimonials.

-- 130.

If the apprentice quits his instruction under circ.u.mstances not provided for in this Act, without consent of his master, the latter can only make good his claim for the return of the apprentice, if the contract of apprentices.h.i.+p has been drawn up in writing. In such case the police magistrate may, on application of the master, oblige the apprentice to remain under instruction so long as apprentice relations are declared by judicial ruling to be still undissolved.

Application is only admissible if made within one week after the departure of the apprentice. In case of refusal, the police magistrate may cause the apprentice to be taken back by force, or he may compel him to return under pain of a fine, to the amount of fifty marks, or detention for five days.

-- 131.

If the parent or guardian acting for the apprentice, or if the apprentice himself, being of age, shall deliver a written declaration to the master, that the apprentice wishes to enter into some other industry or some other calling, apprentice relations shall cease after the expiration of four weeks, if the apprentice is not allowed to leave earlier. The grounds of the dissolution must be notified in the work register by the master.

The apprentice shall not be employed in the same trade by another employer, without consent of the former master, within nine months after such dissolution of apprentice relations.

-- 132.

If apprentice relations are severed by either party, before the appointed time, the other party can claim compensation only if the contract has been made in writing. In the cases referred to in -- 128, 1, 4, the claim will only hold if the kind and degree of compensation has been specified beforehand, in the contract.

The claim is void unless made within four weeks of the dissolution of apprentice relations.

-- 133.

If apprentice relations are dissolved by the master, because the apprentice has quitted his work without permission, the compensation claimed by the master shall, unless some other agreement have been made in the contract, be fixed at a sum amounting for every day succeeding the day of breach of contract, up to a limit of six months, to the half of the customary local wage paid to journeymen and a.s.sistants in the trade of the master.