page_title: History of labour law in the United Kingdom
section_title: Interwar period
hierarchical_section_title: History of labour law in the United Kingdom / Interwar period
caption_attribution_description: English: The cover of a publication of the Treaty of Versailles in EnglishThe text reads THETREATY OF PEACEBETWEENTHE ALLIED AND ASSOCIATED POWERSANDGERMANY,The protocol annexed thereto, the Agreement respectingthe military occupation of the territories of the Rhine,AND THETREATYBETWEENFRANCE AND GREAT BRITAINRESPECTINGAssistance to France in the event of unprovokedaggression by Germany.Signed at Versailles, June 28th, 1919.
context_page_description: The History of labour law in the United Kingdom concerns the development of UK labour law, from its roots in Roman and medieval times in the British Isles up to the present. Before the Industrial Revolution and the introduction of mechanised manufacture, regulation of workplace relations was based on status, rather than contract or mediation through a system of trade unions. Serfdom was the prevailing status of the mass of people, except where artisans in towns could gain a measure of self-regulation through guilds. In 1740 save for the fly-shuttle the loom was as it had been since weaving had begun. The law of the land was, under the Act of Apprentices 1563, that wages in each district should be assessed by Justices of the Peace. From the middle of the 19th century, through Acts such as the Master and Servant Act 1867 and the Employers and Workmen Act 1875, there became growing recognition that greater protection was needed to promote the health and safety of workers, as well as preventing unfair practices in wage contracts.
context_section_description: During World War I the sheer brutality of the Western Front demanded the participation of every available person and resource. Women particularly took over traditional "men's jobs", as the Suffragette movement gained momentum. Before the war's conclusion, the Representation of the People Act 1918 gave universal suffrage to men over age 21 and women over 28. A new beginning was promised by the victors to their people. The Versailles Treaty created the International Labour Organization to draw up common standards between countries, for as it said, "peace can be established only if it is based on social justice", and echoed the US Clayton Act 1914 in pronouncing that "labour should not be regarded merely as a commodity or an article of commerce". But the international system remained disjointed as the United States Congress withheld its approval to join the League of Nations. Within the UK the postwar settlement was to make a home fit for heroes. Whitley Councils extended the Trade Boards Act 1909 system to Joint Industrial Councils that encouraged (non legally binding) fair wage agreements, while the Ministry of Labour actively organised and advised the growth of trade unions. This was based on a theory of industrial democracy through collective bargaining, agreement or action, advocated by Sidney Webb and Beatrice Webb in Industrial Democracy to remedy the inequality of bargaining power of workers. Without legal force behind collective agreements, the law remained in a state of collective laissez faire, encouraging voluntarism for agreement and dispute settlement between industrial partners. The 1920s and 1930s were economically volatile. In 1926 a General Strike against coal miners' pay cuts paralysed the country, though was broken by Winston Churchill, by then the Chancellor of the Exchequer. The Trade Disputes and Trade Unions Act 1927 was subsequently passed to prohibit any secondary action. The Labour Party had formed Parliamentary majorities in 1924 and 1929, but achieved little in the way of reform, particularly after the onset of the Great Depression.
  New Ministries and Secretaries Act 1916, created the Ministry of Labour
  Trade Disputes and Trade Unions Act 1927 (c 22)
  Trade Boards and Road Haulage Wages (Emergency Provisions) Act 1940 c. 7
  Truck Act 1940 c. 38
  Workmen's Compensation and Benefit (Byssinosis) Act 1940 c. 56
  Workmen's Compensation (Supplementary Allowances) Act 1940 c. 47
caption: The Versailles Treaty.
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