The Administration of the Protective Labour Laws

Abstract

The revolutionary year of 1917 greatly enhanced the priority of labour protection in Russia, and particularly for women. From February 1917 the Provisional Government initiated attempts to investigate and improve the poor conditions of work which existed for millions of workers in factories and mines. The earlier debates on the regulation of night work by women were taken up again in this period. The Provisional Government established its own Ministry of Labour to look into questions of labour protection and the Ministry sought to mitigate some of the harsh conditions of work in factories and mines for women and young workers. A number of the wartime initiatives which had allowed for the unregulated expansion of the industrial labour force were retracted. The Provisional Government also established a number of commissions to investigate a range of labour issues but these were largely ineffective.