SWEATSHOP

workplace in which workers are employed for long hours at low wages and under unhealthy or oppressive conditions. In England, the word sweater was used as early as 1850 to describe an employer or middleman who exacted monotonous work at very low wages. Sweating first became widespread in the United States during the 1880s, when immigrants from eastern and southern Europe provided a large source of cheap labour. In continental Europe the same conditions were present, and with the industrialization of parts of Latin America and Asia in the 20th century, the problem emerged there as well. Sweating often involves wage rates that are inadequate in relation to the work performed or in relation to a basic standard of living, excessive hours of labour, and unsafe or unhealthy conditions in the workplace. Certain social and economic conditions are necessary for sweating to be possible: (1) a mass of unskilled and unorganized labourers, often including children, (2) imperfect systems of management, which totally neglect the human factor, and (3) ignorance of poor working conditions, or lack of will to intervene, on the part of the state. Historically the sweatshop has been associated with the survival of homework and the development of contracting. In the homework system, members of a family do piecework for pay in their own home or in a residence that has been converted into a small factory. In contracting, individual workers or groups of workers contract to do a certain job for a certain price. Sometimes they carry out this contract themselves; sometimes they let it out to subcontractors at lower prices. Contracting makes possible labour exploitation, often of women and children, and it produces erratic employment. When trade is brisk, extremely long hours are worked in seriously overcrowded workrooms or dwelling houses. When trade is slack, subcontractors, whose overhead costs are far lower than those of factory employers, dismiss workers without consideration. One of the earliest objectives of factory and minimum-wage legislation was to eliminate such exploitation. Sweatshops, homework, and contracting remain common in the garment-manufacturing industry. In the 19th century, outwork existed in other industries, such as shoe manufacture, soapmaking, cigar making, and the making of artificial flowers. Conditions tended to be worse in large cities, where sweatshops were hidden away in slum areas. Although legislation had by the middle of the 20th century either eliminated or carefully controlled sweating in most developed countries, the system was still operating in many countries in Asia, where large numbers of people were engaged in homework and in small factory shops. Four main factors have contributed to the control of sweatshops in the 20th century: the growth of social idealism, the pressure of trade unions, the extension of the franchise and the growth of labour parties, and the greater economies of factory production and increased interest in human relations in industry. The International Labour Organisation has been active in attempting to raise labour standards in those countries where sweatshops are still common.