Chapter 318: Chapter 314: Child Labor Law Act
The production state of the coal mine wasn’t beyond Perfikot’s expectations, and she was mentally prepared for the issue of child labor.
But when she truly saw those kids, even younger than her, working naked in the mines, she still couldn’t hold it together.
They were all teenagers, some even younger, as only children of this age could crawl into the narrow tunnels to work, while adults had to lie on the ground.
This does not mean the mine is intentionally using child labor.
Perfikot couldn’t govern the situation of the old-world countries, but she could ensure that in her own Northern Territory, the mines wouldn’t intentionally use child labor.
Yet, this era presents itself, and if these child laborers don’t work, they will indeed starve to death.
Expect them to go to school? Sorry, this era doesn’t have that many schools, and they can’t afford the tuition.
Perhaps this sounds hard to understand, but in fact, even in the original world that has entered the information era, as the largest economy in the United States, the proportion of functional illiterates still exceeds 10% of the total population.
This number means that over 20% of adults in the United States do not possess the ability to read and use writing; they cannot manage daily tasks such as understanding instruction manuals, reading newspapers, or looking up dictionaries.
Does this sound absurd? But it’s the truth, and the United States is even considered better.
While China, with the highest literacy rate in the world, improved its population’s literacy rate to 97% through the miracle-called literacy campaign and compulsory education.
So, expecting all those kids to go to school in this era? Unless Perfikot issued an order in the name of the Lord of the North, established schools herself, didn’t charge tuition, and provided accommodation and meals for these children, it’s impossible.
And correspondingly, there would not only be huge education expenditures but also labor shortages in various industries due to the absence of these "little workers."
You must know that in this era, many cramped and crowded places rely on these children to use their slim figures to move smoothly, crawl into tunnels, machinery interiors, etc., for cleaning or repairs.
They could even be said to be an indispensable key technical workforce.
And even if Perfikot didn’t care about these, forcibly promoting the popularization of compulsory education, making all children in the Northern Territory go to school, the parents of those children wouldn’t be willing to send their kids to school.
It’s not that these parents are too ignorant to understand the benefits that allowing kids to study would bring.
In fact, most of them can understand the benefits of learning a skill or craft, or having a good education.
After all, the wages offered by factories are tangible; if you’ve gone to primary school, you can be a foreman or leader; if you graduate from secondary school and can read blueprints, you’re even better, you might become a technical supervisor in a factory; and a college graduate, a real engineer, is someone that even factory owners must curry favor with.
So, it’s not that these parents don’t want to send their children to school; they simply can’t afford the expenses and loss of income brought about by a child completely dedicating time to study.
This is a very realistic problem.
Take textile workers for example, in Langton’s textile factory, skilled male textile workers can earn about half to one gold pound a week, while child labor wages are about a quarter of an adult’s.
If there are two or three children at home, it adds up to an additional income.
And as the child grows, this income gradually increases until the child grows up, gets married, and establishes their own family.
In fact, in a considerable number of families, even after children grow up and get married, they continue living with their parents because they can’t bear the costs of living independently.
Children and minors are laborers in social production, and supporters of family economies, and this cruel social reality is difficult for even Perfikot to change.
But that doesn’t mean she does nothing.
"From today, all workplaces in the Northern Territory must limit the use of child labor. Any child under the age of 16 shall not work more than eight hours a day, and shall not engage in heavy physical labor jobs such as coal mining, steel, or any dangerous jobs risking limb damages," Perfikot exercised her full authority as the Lord of the North and issued new laws.
Moreover, she issued another order: "By the order of the Lord of the North, all settlements in the Northern Territory must establish primary schools, with children aged five to twelve required to receive compulsory education, ensuring that they spend at least half a day in school each day."
Although this is still very harsh, or rather, still exploits these poor child laborers, compared to their previous conditions of working continuously for at least 14-18 hours a day in dangerous environments, it is already a significant improvement.
Even though this might severely impact the income of child laborers, causing great impacts on their family economics, Perfikot does not wish to see places like child labor mines appearing on the lands of the Northern Territory.
As for promoting compulsory education law like in the original world, requiring all children to be compulsorily enrolled in school, it’s unrealistic.
We must know that in the original world’s United Kingdom, it spent nearly half a century from 1802 to 1870 to progressively solve the child labor problem; Perfikot cannot make major changes on this matter at this critical juncture.
Within limited scope, being able to provide them with education, improving working conditions, and shortening work hours is already the limit of what she, the Lord of the North, can do.
Yet even so, there are still people opposing this matter, and some even came directly to Perfikot to protest.
"Your new law is just too impractical! Making those kids stop working to study, this will result in a significant loss of labor force for the factories! I can’t even find qualified workers to run the machines now!" A bald man with a huge hook nose bellowed in front of Perfikot, gesticulating in a very excited manner.
But Perfikot just looked at him coldly, asking in a tone devoid of emotion, "So, what do you think I should do?"
"You should rescind the order, letting those kids work is what’s proper! They should be working, not wasting time in school." The bald man seemed to think that Perfikot was backing down, showing a smug expression on his face, as he sat down in front of her, pulling out a cigar and said, "I agree with letting those little brats study a bit more, so as to get better workers.
But those brats aren’t cut out for it! You don’t know, even if they learn stuff in the factory, they’re very slow, the poor shouldn’t waste time learning anything, they need to be whipped to learn how to work..."
When this bald man continued to spout nonsense and was about to light the cigar in his hand, Perfikot, unable to bear it any longer, raised her hand: "Who permitted you to be so presumptuous in front of me?"