Master And Servant Act
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Master and Servant Acts or Masters and Servants Acts were
law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...
s designed to regulate relations between
employer Employment is a relationship between two parties regulating the provision of paid labour services. Usually based on a contract, one party, the employer, which might be a corporation, a not-for-profit organization, a co-operative, or any ot ...
s and
employee Employment is a relationship between two party (law), parties Regulation, regulating the provision of paid Labour (human activity), labour services. Usually based on a employment contract, contract, one party, the employer, which might be a cor ...
s during the 18th and 19th centuries. The UK's Master and Servant Act 1823 described its purpose as "the better regulations of servants, labourers and work people". This particular act greatly influenced
industrial relations Industrial relations or employment relations is the multidisciplinary academic field that studies the employment relationship; that is, the complex interrelations between employers and employees, labor union, labor/trade unions, employer organ ...
and
employment law Labour laws (also spelled as labor laws), labour code or employment laws are those that mediate the relationship between workers, employing entities, trade unions, and the government. Collective labour law relates to the tripartite relationship be ...
in the
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,
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(an 1845 act),
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(1847),
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(1850),
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(1856) and
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(1856). These acts are generally regarded as heavily biased towards employers, designed to discipline employees and repress the "combination" of workers in
trade unions A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...
. The law required the obedience and loyalty from servants to their
contract A contract is an agreement that specifies certain legally enforceable rights and obligations pertaining to two or more parties. A contract typically involves consent to transfer of goods, services, money, or promise to transfer any of thos ...
ed employer, with infringements of the contract punishable before a court of law, often with a jail sentence of hard labour. It was used against workers organising for better conditions from its inception until well after the first UK Trade Union Act 1871 was implemented, which secured the legal status of trade unions. Until then, a trade union could be regarded as illegal because of being "in restraint of trade". A 2013 study found evidence suggesting that:


Use in Britain

During the 1860s, punitive provisions were extended by judicial interpretation, leading to the imprisonment of union officials who led strikes or issued verbal calls challenging an employer's hiring practices such as only using non-union workers. A revised Master and Servant Act 1867 was passed, which supposedly limited imprisonment to "aggravated" breaches of contract (where injury to persons or property was likely to result), but it was clear that only workers were subject to its provisions. Imprisonment, even for non-aggravated breaches of contract, continued when working people failed to comply with court orders for specific performance or for non-payment of monetary damages and fines. Between 1858 and 1875 on average 10,000 prosecutions a year took place under the act in Britain. Ernest Jones, a
barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdiction (area), jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include arguing cases in courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, jurisprud ...
, estimated that, " one year alone, 1864, the last return given, under the Master and Servants Act, 10,246 working men were imprisoned at the suit of their masters — not one master at the suit of the men!" There is some evidence, however, that this may not universally have been the case; at least one scholar has shown that local courts enforced causes of action in the early-to-mid-19th century against masters as well, in at least some instances, albeit in Canada. ;List of acts * Master and Servant Act 1823 ( 4 Geo. 4. c. 34) * Master and Servant Act 1867 ( 30 & 31 Vict. c. 141)


Use in Australia

As little as one hour's absence by a free servant without permission could precipitate a punishment of prison or the treadmill. In 1840, employees in Australia who left their employment without permission were subject to being hunted down under the Bushrangers Act. In the
Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...
jurisdiction, between 1835 and 1845, when labour shortages were acute, over 20% of prison inmates had been convicted under the New South Wales Act 1823 for offences including leaving place of work without permission and being found in hotels.''Newcastle Miners and The Master and Servant Act, 1830–1862'' by J.W. Turner in ''Labour History'' number 16, May 1969. By 1902, the 1823 act had been modified to include forfeit of wages if the written or unwritten contract for work was unfulfilled. Absence from place of work was punishable by imprisonment of up to three months with or without hard labour. There were also penalties of up to 10 pounds for anyone who harboured, concealed or re-employed a 'servant' (i.e. worker) who had deserted or absconded or absented himself from his duty implied in the 'contract'. Masters and Servants Act (1902) N.S.W. The 1823 act is not a widely remembered part of Australian political history (although there is a more general association of unacceptable exploitation of workers with the Victorian period). In 2006 a group of trade unionists referred to the 1823 act in their criticism of the "
WorkChoices WorkChoices was the name given to changes made to the federal industrial relations laws in Australia by the Howard government#Fourth term: 2004–2007, Howard government in 2005, being amendments to the ''Workplace Relations Act 1996'' by the '' ...
" industrial relations policies of the
Howard Howard is a masculine given name derived from the English surname Howard. ''The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names'' notes that "the use of this surname as a christian name is quite recent and there seems to be no particular reason for ...
government, claiming that "Our rights as workers are back where they were in the early 1800s - the only thing now missing is a Master - Servants Act." Similar comparisons have been made by social commentators, unionists and politicians.


See also

* Master and Servant Act 1889


References


External links


The Legal Concept of Employment: Marginalizing Workers
- Law Commission of Canada *

by Mark Curthoys, , Oxford University Press. Reviewed by Philip Benesch. * * * Hay, Douglas; Craven, Paul (ed.). Masters, Servants, and Magistrates in Britain and the Empire, 1562–1955 (Studies in Legal History). Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2004. xi, 592 p. . *Naidu, Suresh, and Noam Yuchtman. 2013.
Coercive Contract Enforcement: Law and the Labor Market in Nineteenth Century Industrial Britain
" American Economic Review, 103 (1): 107-44. {{DEFAULTSORT:Master And Servant Act History of labour law United Kingdom labour law Australian labour law