EIGHT HOURS ON GOVERNMENT WORK.

HEARING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON LABOR OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ON THE BILL H. R. 15651, ENTITLED “A BILL LIMITING THE HOURS OF DAILY SERVICE OF LABORERS AND MECHANICS EMPLOYED UPON WORK DONE FOR THE UNITED STATES, OR FOR ANY TERRITORY OR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES."

Copy of bill under consideration, H. R. 15651, Sixtieth Congress, first session. A BILL Limiting the hours of daily service of laborers and mechanics employed upon work done for the United States, or for any Territory, or for the District of Columbia, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That every contract hereafter made to which the United States, any Territory, or the District of Columbia is a party, and every such contract made for or on behalf of the United States, or any Territory, or said District, which may require or involve the employment of laborers or mechanics shall contain a provision that no laborer or mechanic doing any part of the work contemplated by the contract, in the employ of the contractor or any subcontractor contracting for any part of said work contemplated, shall be required or permitted to work more than eight hours in any one calendar day upon such work; and every such contract shall stipulate a penalty for each violation of such provision in such contract of five dollars for each laborer or mechanic for every calendar day in which he shall be required or permitted to labor more than eight hours upon such work; and any officer or person designated as inspector of the work to be performed under any such contract, or to aid in enforcing the fulfillment thereof, shall, upon observation or investigation, forthwith report to the proper officer of the United States, or of any Territory, or of the District of Columbia, all violations of the provisions in this Act directed to be made in every such contract, together with the names of each laborer or mechanic violating such stipulation and the day of such violation, and the amount of the penalties imposed according to the stipulation in any such contract shall be directed to be withheld by the officer or person whose duty it shall be to approve the payment of the moneys due under such contract, whether the violation of the provisions of such contract is by the contractor or any subcontractor. Any contractor or subcontractor aggrieved by the withholding of any penalty as hereinbefore provided shall have the right to appeal to the head of the Department making the contract, or in the case of a contract made by the District of Columbia to the Commissioners thereof, who shall have power to review the action imposing the penalty, and from such final order whereby a contractor or subcontractor may be aggrieved by the imposition of the penalty hereinbefore provided such contractor or subcontractor may appeal to the Court of Claims, which shall have jurisdiction to hear and decide the matter in like manner as in other cases before said court. SEC. 2. That nothing in this Act shall apply to contracts for transportation by land or water, or for the transmission of intelligence, or for such materials or articles as may usually be bought in open market, whether made to conform to particular specifications or not, or for the purchase of supplies by the Government, whether manufactured to conform to particular specifications or not. The proper officer on behalf of the United States, any Territory, or the District of Columbia, may waive the provisions and stipulations in this Act during time of war or a time when war is imminent. No penalties shall be imposed for any violation of such provision in such contract due to any emergency caused by fire, famine, or flood, by danger to life or to property, or by other extraordinary event or condition. Nothing in this Act shall be construed to repeal or modify chapter three hundred and fifty-two of the laws of the Fifty-second Congress, approved August first, eighteen hundred and ninety-two.

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