PART IV.

Welfare.

19. —An adequate supply of wholesome drinking water shall be made conveniently available for the use of employed persons.

20. —(1) There shall be provided and maintained for the use of employed persons adequate and suitable facilities for washing and the facilities shall be conveniently accessible and shall be kept in a clean and orderly condition.

(2) The Minister, after consultation with the Minister for Health, may, by regulations, prescribe, either generally or as respects any class or description of office or any particular kind of work, a standard of adequate and suitable washing facilities.

(3) The Minister, after consultation with the Minister for Health, may, by regulations, provide for the exemption of offices from any of the requirements of this section in cases where, by reason of the difficulty of obtaining an adequate supply of water, or the fact that accommodation is restricted and adequate and suitable washing facilities are otherwise conveniently available or such other special circumstances as may be specified in the regulations, the application of the requirement would in his opinion be unreasonable.

21. —(1) Where any employed persons have in the course of their employment reasonable opportunities for sitting without detriment to their work or where a substantial proportion of any work done by employed persons can properly be done sitting, there shall be provided and maintained for their use suitable facilities for sitting.

(2) The Minister may, by regulations, prescribe a standard of suitable facilities for sitting for offices or any class or description of office or parts thereof, or for any particular kind of work.

22. —In every office there shall be provided and maintained so as to be readily accessible one or more first-aid boxes or cupboards suitably equipped.

23. —(1) Where it appears to the Minister that provision requires to be made in relation to any of the matters to which this section applies for securing the welfare of the persons employed or any class of them, he may, after consultation with the Minister for Health, make regulations (in this Act referred to as welfare regulations) requiring such reasonable steps to be taken in connection therewith as may be specified in the regulations, either in addition to, or in substitution for, or by way of extension or variation of, any of the foregoing provisions of this Part.

(2) This section applies to—

(a) the matters dealt with in the foregoing provisions of this Part,

(b) accommodation for clothing,

(c) facilities for preparing and taking meals,

(d) the supply of protective clothing,

(e) ambulance and first-aid arrangements,

(f) rest rooms,

(g) arrangements for the supervision of persons employed,

(3) This section shall not apply to offices in which the only persons employed are members of the same family dwelling there.

(4) Welfare regulations may—

(a) be made for a particular office or for offices of any class or description,

(b) be made contingent in respect of particular requirements upon application being made by a specified number or proportion of the employed persons concerned, and prescribe the manner in which the views of the persons employed are to be ascertained,

(c) provide for the employed persons concerned being associated in the management of the arrangements, accommodation or other facilities for which provision is made, in any case where a portion of the cost is contributed by the persons employed; but no contribution shall be required from the persons employed in any office, except for the purpose of providing additional or special benefits which, in the opinion of the Minister, could not reasonably be required to be provided by the employer alone, and unless two-thirds at least of the employed persons affected in that office, on their views being ascertained in the prescribed manner, assent.

(5) Welfare regulations may impose duties on owners and, so far as relates to the use of any facilities provided, on employed persons.

(6) The Minister may, by regulations, extend the matters to which this section applies so as to include other matters affecting the welfare of employed persons or any class of them.