Factories acts

STUDY UNIT

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After having worked through this study unit, students are expected to:

• Appreciate the Concept of the Factories  Act

 

4.0      THE FACTORIES ACT
4.1      Introduction
The British Colonial Government recognized the need to protect workers in its colonies against the risks of accidents and occupational diseases. This had negative impact on productivity. It was also realized that apart from loss of human life, huge sums of money were spent on replacing plant damaged during the accidents. The British Government was also under pressure in the country from workers’ organizations and reformist employers who pressed for Law Reforms to improve working conditions in the factories and mines. The Factories Acts and subsidiary Legislations were enacted in 1802,1875, 1878, 1901, 1929 and 1937.In October 1942, the Governor promulgated the Factories Ordinance Chapter 193 of the Laws of Northern Rhodesia which came into force in 1943.

The Ordinance basically provided for the supervision of Factories and machinery with a view of minimising the risks of accidents and damage to machinery. In October 1942, the Governor promulgated the Factories Ordinance Chapter 193 of the Laws of Northern Rhodesia which came into force in 1943.The Ordinance basically provided for the supervision of Factories and machinery with a view of minimising the risks of accidents and damage to machinery. The Legislation which was based on the British Factories Act of 1937 did not clearly provide the institutional framework for enforcement. The ordinance however gave more powers to the minister to make regulations. The first Inspector of Factories was only appointed in 1956 to cover a few factories and steam boilers. The maximum penalty for non-compliance was twelve months imprisonment or a fine not exceeding two hundred British pounds.

OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH (OSH) LEGISLATION
The Occupational Safety and Health Legislation in the country is fragmented. There are pieces of laws on safety and health namely:
The Factories Act by Ministry of Labour and social Security. The Environmental Protection and Pollution Control Act by Ministry of Tourism, Environment and Natural Resources. The Mines and Minerals Act by Ministry of Mines and Mineral Development. Ionizing Radiation by Ministry of Health. The Explosives Act by Ministry of Mines and Mineral Development. Workers Compensation Act by Ministry of Labour and social Security. The Public Health Act by Ministry of Local Government and Housing.

 

 

THE ZAMBIAN SAFETY AND HEALTH LEGISLATION

• The Government enacted the Factories Act Chapter 514 of the Laws of Zambia which came into force in 1967.
• The Act is an extract from the British Factories Act of 1961.
• The Act inter alia provided for appointment of Inspectors of Factories through the Office of the Labour commissioner.
• The Factories Act, 1962, has since been amended six times through Acts 9 of 1968, 20 of 1974, 24 of 1975, and the recent one,13 of 1994.
• The amendment of 1994 changed the chapter from Cap 514 to Cap 441.

THE FACTORIES ACT CAP 441

• The Act is Volume XXIX of the Laws of Zambia.
• It is classified under the Labour Laws.
• This the piece of legislation stipulating the requirements of safety and health in workplaces in Zambia.

OBJECTIVE OF THE ACT

• The main objective of the Act is summarised in its preamble:
• An Act to make further and better provision for the regulation of the conditions of employment in factories and other places as regards the safety, health and welfare of persons employed therein; to provide for safety, examination and inspection of certain plant and machinery; and to provide for purposes incidental to or connected with the matters aforesaid.
• Safeguard dangerous parts of machinery while in motion.
• Prevent catastrophic failures of machinery such as steam boilers, steam receivers and air receivers, etc.
• Promote safety and health of workers through systematic inspection of all workplaces covered by the Act.
• Provide for first-aid treatment at the workplace.
• Provide for safe design, operation and maintenance of machinery and processes.
• Investigation of industrial accidents and dangerous occurrences.
• Provide for the prosecution of persons found in violation of the provisions of the Act.

SUPPLEMENTARY LEGISLATIONS

• The Factories Act is supplemented by detailed Regulations.
• The Regulations are issued by the Minister through Statutory Instruments.
• The Statutory Instruments are published in the Government Gazette, the official Government journal/or publisher.
• The following are some of the current Regulations in force in Zambia:
• The Factories (Electricity) Regulations, 1967.
• The Woodworking Machinery Regulations, 1967.
• The Factories (Plant Inspection and Examination Fees) Regulations, 1967.
• The First-Aid Boxes Regulations, 1974.
• The Factories (Benzene) Regulations, 1978.
• The Construction (Safety and Health) Regulations, 1967.

4.2      THE FACTORIES ACT

• The Act is divided or arranged into fifteen Parts (PART I – PART XV). For example:
• Part IV: Provides for establishment of an Appeals Board.
• The channel of appeal through the Labour Commissioner or his appointee.
• Part V: Provides for health general requirements:
• It provides for matters dealing with problems in cleanliness, lighting, overcrowding  sanitary conveniences, general ventilation.
• Part VI: Covers a wide range of Safety Precautions to be taken by the employer to safeguard employees
• Part VII: Deals with the safety of lifting machinery : hoists, lifts, cranes and chain blocks etc.
• It stipulates requirements for examination and testing of lifting equipment.

• PART VIII: Deals with the safety of steam boilers and other pressure vessels i.e.  Air Receivers, steam receivers and other pressurized vessels.
• It provides for the requirements for maintenance, examination and their use.
• These vessels can be potential “bombs” if there not regularly inspected and properly maintained.
• Part IX: Deals with the provisions of welfare facilities:
• Such as clean drinking water, washing and sitting facilities.
• Prohibition of taking meals in certain trades.
• Protective clothing and equipment.
• Restriction of lifting excessive loads
• PART X: Deals with problems of safety, health and welfare which include:-
• Removal of dust and fumes.
• The section also gives power to the Minister to make safety and health regulations.
• PART XI: Provides for the notification of accidents, occupational diseases and dangerous occurrences.  Medical practitioners are under legal obligation to report/notify the inspectorate when they discover an occupational disease.
• PART XII: Deals with cases of factories, building operations and works of engineering construction as regard to dangerous conditions.
• PART XIII: Provides for posting of posts and maintenance of certain documents:  Abstract of the  Act, general register records, electric shock poster etc.
• This Part provides for duties of persons employed.
• PART XIV: Deals with offences, penalties and legal proceedings as regards contraventions made by employed persons (workers) and employers (Occupiers).

 

GENERAL DUTIES OF EMPLOYERS TO THEIR EMPLOYEES
In terms of the Factories Act Chapter 441, of the Laws of Zambia, the duties of the employer can be summarized as follows:

• The duty to provide safe plant and safe systems of work.
• The duty to provide adequate supervision and training.
• The duty to prove competent persons for various operations.
• The duty to report accidents to the authorities.
• The duty to provide protective equipment and ensure their appropriate use.
• The duty to provide first aid equipment and medical supervision at the workplace.

DUTIES OF EMPLOYED PERSONS

• The duties of the employed persons are as follows:
• The duty not to willfully interfere with any device or equipment provided for their own safety and health welfare.
• The duty to use all protective equipment and devices provided by the employer.
• The duty not to do anything likely to injure themselves or others.

OFFENCES

• In the event of any contravention in or in connection with or in relation to a factory or workplace of the provisions of this Act or of any order, regulation or lawful requirement made there-under, the occupier, or (if the contravention is one in respect of which the owner is by or under this Act made responsible) the owner of the factory or workplace shall, subject to the following provisions of this part, be guilty of an offence.

The duties of employers and occupiers of premises towards nonemployees working in their premises or undertaking can be summarised as follows:
(a) a general duty of care to all lawful visitors;
(b) a general duty not to expose non-employees to risks to their health or safety;
(c) a general duty on controllers of premises to provide safe premises, safe access and egress, safe plant and substances;
(d) a specific duty to provide instructions and information on risks and precautionary measures necessary by the non-employees or selfemployed persons concerned.
Practical procedures to implement these requirements
1. Provision of written instructions to non-employees with regard to safe working practices generally.
2. Provision of comprehensible written information to non-employees on the hazards and precautions necessary.
3. Formal health and safety training sessions for all non-employees prior to commencing work on the host employer’s premises.
4. Specification of the health and safety competence necessary for  onemployees at the tender stage of contracts.
5. Operation of formal hazard reporting systems by non-employees.
6. Disciplinary procedures against non-employees for a failure to comply with written instructions and safety signs, including dismissal from the site or premises in serious cases of non-compliance.
7. General supervision of non-employees and regular meetings to reinforce the safety requirements for such persons.
8. Liaison with the external employers, and certification where necessary, to ensure the employees concerned have received the appropriate information, instruction and training necessary prior to commencing work in the host employer’s undertaking.
9. Pre-tender and ongoing site inspections by the external employer to ensure his employees are not exposed to risks to their health or safety.

SELF-EVALUATION QUESTIONS:

Q1.      Briefly describe legislation in Zambia that guides the occupational safety and health?

 

 

STUDY UNIT
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After having worked through this study unit, students are expected to:

• Define types of workplaces where the Factories Act is applicable

• Describe how the Act is administered
•  

DEFINITIONS, TERMS AND APPLICATION OF THE FACTORIES ACT
The factories Act , cap 441 of the Laws of Zambia is one of the pieces of labour legislations and it is an Act that  makes further and better provision for the regulation of the conditions of employment in factories and other places as regards the safety, health and welfare of persons employed therein; to provide for the safety, examination and inspection of certain plant and machinery; and to provide for purposes incidental to or connected with the matters aforesaid.
[1st May, 1967]                   

The expression "factory" means any premises in which, or within the close or curtilage or precincts of which, persons are employed in manual labour in any process for or incidental to any of the following purposes, namely:        
(1)Definition of "factory" includes :          

• the making or assembling of any article or of part of any article;                      

 

• the altering, repairing, ornamenting, finishing, cleaning or washing or the breaking-up or demolition of any article; or               

• the adapting for sale of any article;

 

• being premises in which, or within the close or curtilage or precincts of which, the work is carried on by way of trade or for purposes of gain and to or over which the employer of persons employed therein has the right of access or control.   

(2)  Whether or not such premises are factories by virtue of subsection (1), the expression "factory" also includes the following premises in which persons are employed in manual labour, that is to say:            

• any premises in which the business of sorting any articles is carried on as a preliminary to the work carried on in any factory or incidentally to the purposes of any factory;

                      

• any premises in which the business of washing or filling bottles or containers or packing articles is carried on incidentally to the purposes of any factory;                 

• any laundry carried on as ancillary to another business, or incidentally to the purposes of any public institution;               

 

• any premises in which the construction, reconstruction or repair of locomotives, vehicles or other plant for use for transport purposes is carried on as ancillary to a transport undertaking or other industrial or commercial undertaking;             

• any premises in which printing by letterpress, lithography, photogravure, or other similar process, or bookbinding is carried on by way of trade or for purposes of gain or incidentally to another business so carried on;            

 

• any premises in which articles are made or prepared incidentally to the carrying on of building operations or works of engineering construction, not being premises in which such operations or works are being carried on;                      

• any premises in which persons are regularly employed in the generating, transforming or controlling of electrical energy for supply by way of trade or for supply for the purposes of any industrial or commercial undertaking;                     

 

• any premises in which mechanical power is used for the purposes of or in connection with a public water supply;           

• any sewage works in which mechanical power is used and any pumping station used in connection with any sewage works; and                  
• any premises in which the refrigeration of any article is carried on by way of trade or for purposes of gain, except where such refrigeration is incidental to the conduct of a business engaged mainly in the sale of goods by retail.                   

 

(3)  Any line or siding, not being part of a railway, which is used in connection with and for the purposes of a factory, shall be deemed to be part of the factory; and if any such line or siding is used in connection with more than one factory belonging to different occupiers, the line or siding shall be deemed to be a separate factory.           

(4)  A part of a factory may, with the approval in writing of the Commissioner, be taken to be a separate factory and two or more factories may, with the like approval, be taken to be a single factory.            

 

(5)  Any workplace in which, with the permission of or under agreement with the owner or occupier, two or more persons carry on any work which would constitute such workplace a factory if the persons working therein were in the employment of the owner or occupier shall be deemed to be a factory for the purposes of this Act, and, in the case of any such workplace not being a tenement factory or part of a tenement factory, the provisions of this Act shall apply as if the owner or occupier of the workplace were the occupier of the factory and the persons working therein were persons employed in the factory.                      
(6)  Where a place situate within the close, curtilage or precincts forming a factory is solely used for some purpose other than the processes carried on in the factory, that place shall not be deemed to form part of the factory for the purposes of this Act, but shall, if otherwise it would be a factory, be deemed to be a separate factory.           

(7)  Premises shall not be excluded from the definition of a factory by reason only that they are open air premises.            

(8)  Any premises belonging to or in occupation of the Republic or any local or other public authority shall not be deemed not to be a factory, and building operations or works of engineering construction undertaken by or on behalf of the Republic or any such authority shall not be excluded from the operation of this Act, by reason only that the work carried on thereat is not carried on by way of trade or for purposes of gain.                 

 

3.  (1)  In the factories  Act, unless the context otherwise requires-
"article" includes any solid, liquid or gas, or any combination thereof;
"bodily injury" includes injury to health;
"boiler book" means a book kept in accordance with the provisions of subsection (11) of section fifty-five;
"building operation" means the construction, structural alteration, repair or maintenance of a building (including repainting, redecoration and external cleaning of the structure), the demolition of a building, and the preparation for and laying the foundation of an intended building, but does not include any operation which is a work of engineering construction within the meaning of this Act;
"child" means a person under the apparent age of fourteen years;
"class or description", in relation to factories, includes a group of factories described by reference to locality;
"Commissioner" means the Labour Commissioner;
"competent person", in relation to any particular duty or function, means a person who has had adequate training and experience to enable him to perform that duty or function;
"driving-belt" includes any driving strap or rope;
"electricity substation" means any premises, or part thereof, in which no person is regularly employed and in which electrical energy is transformed or converted to or from pressure above medium pressure if such premises or part thereof are large enough for a person to enter after the apparatus is in position;
"fume" includes gas and vapour;
"general register" means a register kept under the provisions of section eighty-six;
"harbour" includes any harbour properly so called, whether natural or artificial, and any estuary, navigable river, pier, jetty or other works in or at which craft can obtain shelter, or ship or unship goods or passengers;
"inspector" means the Chief Inspector of Factories or any other inspector appointed under the provisions of section six;
"machinery" includes any driving-belt;
"magistrate" means a magistrate empowered under the Subordinate Courts Act to hold a subordinate court of the first or second class;
"maintained" means maintained in an efficient state, in efficient working order and in good repair;
"medium pressure" means a difference of electrical potential between any two conductors, or between a conductor and earth, in a system normally exceeding 250 volts but not exceeding 650 volts at the point where the electrical energy is used;
"occupier" means the person or persons in actual occupation of a factory, whether the owner or not;
"owner" means the person for the time being receiving the rents or profits of the premises in connection with which the word is used, whether on his own account or as agent or trustee for any other person, or who would so receive the same if the premises were let;
"plant" includes any equipment, gear, machinery, apparatus or appliance, or any part thereof;
"prime mover" means every engine, motor or other appliance which provides mechanical energy derived from steam, water, wind, electricity, the combustion of fuel or other source;
"process" includes the use of any locomotive;
"railway" means any railway used for the purpose of public traffic, whether passenger, goods or other traffic, and includes any works of the railway company or railway authority connected with a railway;
"sanitary convenience" includes a privy, urinal, pail closet, pit closet, earth closet, chemical closet and water closet;
"standard specification" means a specification of construction approved from time to time by the British Standards Institution, and includes a specification which, in the opinion of the Commissioner, in any case, is equivalent to a specification approved by that Institution;
"tenement factory" means any premises where mechanical power from any prime mover within the close or curtilage of the premises is distributed for use in manufacturing processes to different parts of the same premises occupied by different persons in such manner that those parts constitute separate factories;
"transmission machinery" means every shaft, wheel, drum, pulley, system of fast and loose pulleys, coupling, clutch, driving-belt or other device by which the motion of a prime mover is transmitted to or received by any machine or appliance;
"work of engineering construction" means the construction of any railway line or siding, otherwise than upon an existing railway, the construction of any road, and the construction, structural alteration, repair (including re pointing and repainting) or demolition of any dock, harbour, inland navigation, tunnel, bridge, viaduct, waterworks, reservoir, pipeline (for whatever purpose required), aqueduct, sewer, sewage works or gasholder, and includes such other works as the Minister may by regulation specify;

"young person" means a person who has attained the apparent age of fourteen years but who has not attained the apparent age of eighteen years.  A woman, child or young person who works in a factory, whether for wages or otherwise, either in a process or in cleaning any part of the factory used for any process, or in cleaning or oiling any part of the machinery or plant, or in any other kind of work whatsoever incidental to or connected with the process or connected with the article made or otherwise the subject of the process therein, shall, save as is otherwise provided by this Act, be deemed to be employed therein for the purposes of this Act or of any proceedings there under .  A young person who works in a factory, whether for wages or otherwise, in collecting, carrying or delivering goods, carrying messages or running errands shall be deemed to be employed in such factory for the purposes of this Act or of any proceedings there ,under.                
For the purposes of the Act, an apprentice is deemed to be a person employed.
(As amended by Act No. 24 of 1975) . The provisions of the  Act  applies only to factories as defined by this Act except where the contrary intention appears, apply to all such factories.         The provisions of the Act applie to any factories belonging to or in occupation of the Republic and to building operations and works of engineering construction undertaken by or on behalf of the Republic.                       

ADMINISTRATION  OF THE FACTORIES ACT

The department of occupation ,health and safety is headed by the Director in the ministry of labour and social security although by law the labour commissioner plays a very cardinal role and the Commissioner may delegate to any other public officer in writing and subject to such restrictions, reservations, exceptions and conditions as he may think fit, all or any of the powers conferred upon him by or under the Act.  There are appointed   public officers  Chief Inspectors of Factories and such other inspectors as shall be necessary for the proper administration of the Act.     Every inspector according to the law is  furnished with a certificate of appointment in the prescribed form, and when visiting a factory or place to which any of the provisions of the Act apply he or she , if required, produce such certificate to the occupier of or other person holding a responsible position of management at the factory or place.
(As amended by Act No. 24 of 1975)                 

 

SELF-EVALUATION QUESTIONS:

Q.        Describe the premises considered as factories by the Act