The Plight of Workers of the Early Industrial Revolution

In 1831 -32, the British parliament held committee hearings on the shocking conditions of
child workers in factories during the Industrial Revolution. The word “slave driver” came to
mean a cruel boss or manager who maltreated employees. But read, what kind of cruelty these
19th century factory workers had to endure:
Q: At what time in the morning, did those girls come to the mills?
A: For about six weeks, they have gone at 3 o’clock in the morning, and ended at 10, or nearly
half-past night.
Q: What intervals were allowed for rest or refreshments during those nineteen hours of labor?
A: Breakfast a quarter of an hour, and dinner half an hour, and drinking a quarter of an hour.
Two meals a day.
Q: Did you have great difficulty in awakening your children to this excessive labor?
A: Yes, in the early time we had… to shake them when we got them on the floor to dress them,
before we could get them off to work.
Q: Were the children excessively fatigued by this labor?
A: Many times… they have fallen asleep with food in their mouths.
Q: Did the excessive labor bring much cruelty also?
A: Yes, with being so very much fatigued the strap was very frequently used. The child
workers were often beaten with a belt when they got tired.
Q: What were their wages?
A: Three shillings and seven pence half penny. (About 25 pesos)
Q: Would you work today under these conditions? Of course not! We have to thank the Lord
that there are many improvements in the law to help workers. But even today, there are still
many workers, not only women and children, who are forced to work in cruel conditions.

Answer the following questions individually. Submit your answers through my institutional
email (eacflores@bpsu.edu.ph) or my gmail account (boflores167@gmail.com)

1. Identify the Problems of the Workers

2. Compare the present problems of workers in the Philippines.
3. Give Solutions.
4. Give the Constitutional Safeguard designed to protect the workers. (use the 1987 Philippine
Constitution as the main reference).