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April 26, 2024 Clear | 34°F
The 193rd General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts

Section 156: Specifications and tickets; posting and attaching; contents; pick clocks; excess of maximum lengths; violation of statute

Section 156. The occupier or manager of every textile factory shall post in every room where any employees work by the job, in legible writing or printing, and in sufficient numbers to be easily accessible to such employees, specifications of the character of each kind of work to be done by them, and the rate of compensation. Such specifications in the case of weaving rooms shall state the intended and maximum length of a cut or piece, the count per inch of reed, and the number of picks per inch, width of loom, width of cloth woven in the loom, and the price per cut or piece, or per pound; or, if payment is made per pick or per yard, the price per pick or per yard; and each warp shall bear a designating ticket or mark of identification; and in factories operating the looms on a piece rate basis pick clocks shall be placed on each loom, other than a gang loom, so called, in operation on work other than carpet weaving, linen fire hose weaving or elastic web weaving, and each weaver shall be paid according to the number of picks registered on said clock. In roving or spinning rooms, the number of roving or yarn and the price per hank for each size machine shall be stated; and each machine shall bear a ticket stating the number of the roving or yarn made upon it. In spooling rooms the boxes shall bear a ticket stating the number of pounds the box contains and the price per pound. The maximum length of a cut or piece shall not exceed its intended length by more than three per cent; but if it appears that a variation in excess of the amount hereinbefore set forth has been caused in whole or in part by any weaver in the employ of any person charged with the violation of this section, it shall be deemed a sufficient defence to a prosecution. The said specifications shall also contain a detailed schedule of the method of computation of the price of cotton or silk or mixed cotton and silk weaving to be paid by the said occupier or manager, and no particular in the specifications shall be expressed by means of symbols, but every particular shall be sufficiently clear and complete to enable the operative to determine readily the price payable for the cut or piece. Violation of any provision of this section shall for the first offence be punished by a fine of one hundred dollars, for the second offence by a fine of two hundred dollars, and for a subsequent offence by a fine of five hundred dollars or by imprisonment for not more than one month, or both.