MASTER & SERVANT ACT

This Act was enacted in 1823 in Britain and was designed to regulate the behaviour of both employers and employees.

The wording of the title of the Act gives some indication of which group the Act favoured.

Infringements of the act by either party were punishable by law and included fines and imprisonment. In reality it was only the Master who had to resources to avail themselves of the Act's provisions.

The Act helped perpetuate the class system and it was in force in Western Australia until 1900 when it was replaced by the Arbitration Act. Although some amendments were made through out the years, the Act was always slanted in favour of the employer.

In the early years of settlement in Western Australia the Act was strictly applied. The attitude of the ruling classes is summed up by an 1881 article in the West Australian newspaper which said in part:

"Nowadays all children are kept in elegant idleness at school until they are 13 or 14. It was better and healthier when poor children were taken into service at the age of about 7."

Conditions for many of the 'working poor' during the early years of settlement were not far removed from outright slavery. Domestic servants fared much worse than every day labourers because they were usually friendless and subject to the whims of their employers.

Abortion and infanticide were not uncommon for women who were taken advantage of. When children were not disposed of in these manners they could be left in what became known as 'baby farms'. One instance of this was detected in West Perth where about 12 infants were sick with dysentery and some close to death. This case led directly to the institution of the State Children's Act of 1907.

The two groups that probably suffered most under the Master and servant Act were the imported Chinese labourers and the Aborigines. Neither group evoked much sympathy and in many cases severe neglect led to a number of completely avoidable deaths.

Aborigines in particular were forced to sign indentures that they did not understand. Groups were effectively kidnapped and brought before a magistrate (usually a man of the same social standing and with very similar interests to the 'employer') and made to sign papers they could not hope to comprehend. If they absconded they were hunted down and severe punishments were handed out.

In the late 1880s and through the 1890s, labour began to become more organised and unions started to take shape. This was the beginning of the end for the old Act but it took a series of strikes to start to bring the change about.

Fremantle was at the centre of the labour disputes with the Lumpers' Union taking action on several occasions. A strike in 1899 lasted 5 weeks.

When the new Act became law in 1901 the criminal prosecutions were replaced by a system of arbitration.