Belting, etc., in factories to be guarded. R. L. 104, § 41. 1907, 503, § 2; 537, § 5. Hatchways, etc., to be protected. R. L. 104, §§ 43, 108. Temporary Same subject. Enforcement of laws and Use of explosives regulated. R. L. 104, § 47. Appliances for expectoration. 1907, 503, § 2. SECTION 94. The belting, shafting, gearing and drugs of all factories, if so placed as, in the opinion of the inspectors of factories and public buildings, to be dangerous to employees therein while engaged in their ordinary duties, shall be as far as practicable securely guarded. No machinery except steam engines in a factory shall be cleaned while running if objection in writing is made by one of said inspectors. All factories and workshops shall be well lighted, well ventilated and kept clean, and this requirement shall be enforced by the state inspectors of health. SECTION 96. The openings of hoistways, hatchways, elevators and well holes upon every floor of a factory or mercantile or public building shall be protected by sufficient trap doors or selfclosing hatches and safety catches, or such other safeguards as the inspectors of factories and public buildings direct; and due diligence shall be used to keep such trap doors closed at all times, except when in actual use by the occupant of the building who has the use and control of the same. SECTION 97. If, in the erection of an iron or steel framed building the spaces between the girders or floor beams of any floor are not filled or covered by the permanent construction of said floors before another story is added to the building, a close plank flooring shall be placed and maintained over such spaces, from the time when the beams or girders are placed in position until said permanent construction is applied; but openings, protected by a strong hand railing not less than four feet high, may be left through said floors for the passage of workmen or material. SECTION 98. In the construction of any iron or steel framed building having a clear story of twenty-five feet elevation or more, a staging with a close plank flooring shall be placed under the whole extent of the beams, girders or trusses of such story upon which iron or steel workers are working, and not more than ten feet below the under side of such beams, girders and trusses. SECTION 99. Inspectors of factories and public buildings shall enforce the provisions of the two preceding sections, and whoever violates any provision thereof shall be punished by a fine of not less than fifty nor more than five hundred dollars for each offence. SECTION 100. Explosive or inflammable compounds shall not be used in any factory in such place or manner as to obstruct or render hazardous the egress of operatives in case of fire. SECTION 103. Suitable receptacles for expectoration shall be provided in all factories and workshops by the proprietors thereof, the same to be of such form and construction and of 1907, 164. such number as shall be satisfactory to the board of health of the city or town in which the factory or workshop is situated. SECTION 104. Every person, firm or corporation operating a Surgical appliances factory or shop in which machinery is used for any manufactur- for employees. ing or other purpose except for elevators, or for heating or hoisting apparatus, shall at all times keep and maintain, free of expense to the employees, such a medical and surgical chest as shall be required by the board of health of the city or town where such machinery is used, containing plasters, bandages, absorbent cotton, gauze, and all other necessary medicines, instruments and other appliances for the treatment of persons injured or taken ill upon the premises. A person, firm or corporation violating any provision of this section shall be punished by a fine of not less than five dollars nor more than five hundred dollars for every week during which such violation continues. PAYMENT OF WAGES. SECTION 112. Every manufacturing, mining, or quarrying, mercantile, railroad, street railway, telegraph or telephone corporation, every incorporated express company or water company, and every contractor, person or partnership engaged in any manufacturing business, in any of the building trades, in quarries or mines, upon public works or in the construction or repair of railroads, street railways, roads, bridges or sewers, or of gas, water or electric light works, pipes or lines, shall pay weekly each employee engaged in his or its business the wages earned by him to within six days of the date of said payment, but any employee leaving his or her employment, [or being discharged from such employment] shall be paid in full on the following regular pay day and any employee discharged from such employment shall be paid in full on the day of his discharge, or in the city of Boston as soon as the provisions of law requiring pay rolls, bills and accounts to be certified shall have been complied with; and the commonwealth, its officers, boards and commissions shall so pay every mechanic, workman and laborer who is employed by it or them, and every person employed by it or them in any penal or charitable institution, and every county and city shall so pay every employee who is engaged in its business the wages or salary earned by him, unless such mechanic, workman, laborer or employee requests in writing to be paid in a different manner; and every town shall so pay each employee in its business if so required by him; but an employee who is absent from his regular place of labor at a time fixed for payment shall be Weekly of wages. 62. payment R. L. 106, 1902, 450. 1906, 427. 1907, 193. 1908, 650. 163 Mass. 589. 170 Mass. 140. 172 Mass. 230. Amended. 195 Mass. 548. 1910, 350. Chief of police to prosecute violations of preceding section. R. L. 106, § 63. Penalty for discharge of employee without notice. R. L. 106, § 10. paid thereafter on demand. The provisions of this section shall not apply to an employee of a co-operative corporation or association if he is a stockholder therein unless he requests such corporation to pay him weekly. The board of railroad commissioners, after a hearing, may exempt any railroad corporation from paying weekly any of its employees if it appears to the board that such employees prefer less frequent payments, and that their interests and the interests of the public will not suffer thereby. No corporation, contractor, person or partnership shall by a special contract with an employee or by any other means exempt himself or itself from the provisions of this and the following section. Whoever violates the provisions of this section shall be punished by a fine of not less than ten nor more than fifty dollars. SECTION 113. The chief of the district police or an inspector of factories and public buildings may make a complaint against any person for a violation of the provisions of the preceding section. Complaints for such violation shall be made within thirty days after the date thereof, and, on the trial, no defence for failure to pay as required, other than the attachment of such wages by the trustee process or a valid assignment thereof or a valid set-off against the same, or the absence of the employee from his regular place of labor at the time of payment, or an actual tender to such employee at the time of payment of the wages so earned by him, shall be valid. The defendant shall not set up as a defence a payment of wages after the bringing of the complaint. An assignment of future wages which are payable weekly under the provisions of this act shall not be valid if made to the person from whom such wages are to become due or to any person on his behalf or if made or procured to be made to another person for the purpose of relieving the employer from the obligation to pay weekly. The word " person " in this section shall include the corporations, contractors, persons and partnerships described in the preceding section. SECTION 120. A person who being engaged in manufacturing requires from his employees, under penalty of forfeiture of a part of the wages earned by them, a notice of intention to leave such employ shall be liable to a like forfeiture, if, without similar notice, he discharges an employee. Liability of employer to § 71. LIABILITY OF EMPLOYERS TO EMPLOYEES. SECTION 127. If personal injury is caused to an employee, who, at the time of the injury, is in the exercise of due care by reason of: First, A defect in the condition of the ways, works or machininery connected with or used in the business of the employer, which arose from, or had not been discovered or remedied in consequence of, the negligence of the employer or of a person in his service who had been entrusted by him with the duty of seeing that the ways, works or machinery were in proper condition; or, Second, The negligence of a person in the service of the employer who was entrusted with and was exercising superintendence and whose sole or principal duty was that of superintendence, or, in the absence of such superintendent, of a person acting as superintendent with the authority or consent of such employer; or, The employee, or his legal representatives, shall, subject to the provisions of the nine following sections, have the same rights to compensation and of action against the employer as if he had not been an employee, nor in the service, nor engaged in the work, of the employer. SECTION 128. If the injury described in the preceding section results in the death of the employee, and such death is not instantaneous or is preceded by conscious suffering, and if there is any person who would have been entitled to bring an action under the provisions of the following section, the legal representatives of said employee may, in the action brought under the provisions of the preceding section, recover damages for the death in addition to those for the injury; and in the same action under a separate count at common law, may recover damages for conscious suffering resulting from the same injury. instantaneous suffering. SECTION 129. If, as the result of the negligence of an em- Action if injury ployer himself, or of a person for whose negligence an employer followed by is liable under the provisions of section one hundred and twentyseven, an employee is instantly killed, or dies without conscious suffering, his widow or, if he leaves no widow, his next of kin, who, at the time of his death, were dependent upon his wages for support, shall have a right of action for damages against the employer. SECTION 130. If an action is brought under the provisions of the preceding section by the widow of the employee, or by the next of kin, who may have such right of action, or if the action is brought under the provisions of section one hundred and twentyseven by the legal representatives, such action shall not fail by reason of the fact that it should have been brought under the death without § 73. Amendment brought of actions under preceding sections. 1908, 457. Damages. R. L. 106, § 74. Notice. other section, but may be so amended as to provide against such failure at any time prior to final judgment. SECTION 131. If under the provisions of section one hundred and twenty-eight and one hundred and twenty-nine damages are awarded for the death, they shall be assessed with reference to the degree of culpability of the employer or of the person for whose negligence the employer is liable. The amount of damages which may be awarded in an action under the provisions of section one hundred and twenty-seven for a personal injury to an employee, in which no damages for his death are awarded under the provisions of section one hundred and twenty-eight shall not exceed four thousand dollars. The amount of damages which may be awarded in such action, if damages for his death are awarded under the provisions of section one hundred and twenty-eight shall not exceed five thousand dollars for both the injury and the death, and shall be apportioned by the jury between the legal representatives of the employee and the persons who would have been entitled under the provisions of section one hundred and twenty-nine to bring an action for his death if it had been instantaneous or without conscious suffering. The amount of damages which may be awarded in an action brought under the provisions of section one hundred and twentynine shall not be less than five hundred nor more than five thousand dollars. SECTION 132. No action for the recovery of damages for injury or death under the provisions of the five preceding sections shall be maintained unless notice of the time, place and cause of the injury is given to the employer within sixty days, and the action is commenced within one year, after the accident which causes the injury or death. Such notice shall be in writing, signed by the person injured or by a person in his behalf. [; but] If the person injured dies within the time required for giving the notice his executor or administrator may give such notice within sixty days after his appointment. If from physical or mental incapacity it is impossible for the person injured to give the notice within the time provided in this section, he may give it within ten days after such incapacity has been removed, and if he dies [without having given notice and without having been for ten days at any time after his injury of sufficient capacity to give it] within said ten days his executor or administrator may give such notice within sixty days after his appointment. A notice given under the provisions of this section shall not be held invalid |