Chapter 174. 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
1,006 words·~5 min read·
/statutes-at-large/vol-37/chapter-174-727817·A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.
CHAP. 174.— An Act 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.June 19, 1912. [[H. R. 9061](/us/bill/62/hr/9061).] [[Public, No. 199](/us/pl/62/199).] *Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled*,Eight-hour work-day.All public contracts to provide for, by laborers or mechanics.
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 m any one calendar day upon such work; and every such contractPenalty to be stipulated. 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 said work; and any officer or person designated asInspectors to report violations. 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 of this Act directed to be made in every such contract, together with the name of each laborer or mechanic who has been required or permitted to labor in violation of such stipulation and the day of such violation, and the amount of the penaltiesDeduction from contract. imposed according to the stipulation in any such contract shall be directed to be withheld for the use and benefit of the United States, the District of Columbia, or the Territory contracting 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 contractorAppeals to head of department, etc. or subcontractor aggrieved by the withholding of any penalty as hereinbefore provided shall have the right within six months thereafter to appeal to the head of the department making the contract on 138behalf of the United States or the Territory, and in the case of a contract made by the District of Columbia to the Commissioners thereof, Right of action in Court of Claims.who shall have power to review the action imposing the penalty, and in all such appeals from such final order whereby a contractor or sub-contractor may be aggrieved by the imposition of the penalty herein’ before provided such contractor or subcontractor may within six months after decision by such head of a department or the Commissioners of the District of Columbia file a claim in 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. Contracts excepted. That nothing in this Act shall apply to contracts for transportation by land or water, or for the transmission of intelligence, or for the purchase of supplies by the Government, whether manufactured to conform to particular specifications or not, or for such materials or articles as may usually be bought in open market, except armor and armor plate, whether made to conform to particular specifications or not, or to the construction or repair of levees or revetments necessary for protection against floods or overflows on the navigable *Proviso*.All classes of contract work included.waters of the United States: *Provided*, That all classes of work which have been, are now, or may hereafter be performed by the Government shall, when done by contract, by individuals, firms, or corporations for or on behalf of the United States or any of the Territories or the District of Columbia, be performed in accordance with the terms Waiver in time of war.and provisions of section one of this Act.
The President, by Executive order, may waive the provisions and stipulations in tins Act as to any specific contract or contracts during time of war or a time when Isthmian Canal exceptions.war is imminent, and until January first, nineteen hundred and fifteen, as to any contract or contracts entered into in connection with the construction of the Isthmian Canal. No penalties shall be imposed Emergencies, etc.for any violation of such provision in such contract due to any extraordinary events or conditions of manufacture, or to any emergency caused by fire, famine, or flood, by danger to life or to property, or by other extraordinary event or condition on account of which the President shall subsequently declare the violation to have been Eight-hour law not affected.Vol. 27, p. 340.excusable.
Nothing in this Act shall be construed to repeal or modify the Act entitled “An Act relating to the limitation of the hours of daily service of laborers and mechanics employed upon the public works of the United States and of the District of Columbia” being chapter three hundred and fifty-two of the laws of the Fifty-second Vol. 34, pp. 33, 669.Congress, approved August first, eighteen hundred and ninety-two, as modified by the Acts of Congress approved February twenty-seventh, nineteen hundred and six, and June thirtieth, Contracts under prior appropriation acts.nineteen hundred and six, or apply to contracts which have been or may be entered into under the provisions of appropriation Acts approved prior to the passage of this Act.
Sec. 3. In effect January 1, 1913. That this Act shall become effective and be in force on and after January first, nineteen hundred and thirteen. Approved, June 19, 1912.