§ 350 — Legislative purpose and definitions

§ 350. Legislative purpose and definitions. 1. The employment of women\nand minors in industry in the state of New York under conditions\nresulting in wages unreasonably low and conditions injurious to their\nhealth and general welfare is a matter of grave and vital public\nconcern. Any conditions of employment especially fostering such working\nconditions are therefore destructive of purposes already accepted as\nsound public policy by the legislature of the state and should be\nbrought into conformity with that policy. Uncontrolled continuance of\nhomework is such a condition; here wages are notoriously lower and\nworking conditions endanger the health of the worker; the protection of\nfactory industries, which must operate in competition therewith and of\nthe women and minors employed therein and of the public interest of the\ncommunity at large in their health and well-being, require strict\ncontrol and gradual elimination of industrial homework. In the\nconsidered judgment of the legislature this article is constitutional.\n 2. Whenever used in this article: a. "Manufacture," "manufacturing,"\n"manufactured" or "making" includes preparation, alteration, repair or\nfinishing, in whole or in part, or handling in any way.\n b. "Employer" means any person who either directly or through an\nemployee, agent, independent contractor, or any other person, delivers\nor causes to be delivered to another person, any materials to be\nmanufactured in a home, and which are thereafter to be returned to him,\nnot for the personal use of himself or of a member of his family, or to\nbe delivered, mailed, or shipped to others.\n c. "Home" means a room or an apartment in any house.\n d. "House" means any building in which one or more persons regularly\nsleep, and shall include outbuildings upon premises which include such\nbuilding; but where only a person or persons or the family of a person\nor persons engaged in the service of the building, sleep in such\nbuilding, the term "house" shall apply only to the separate room or\nrooms or to the apartment or apartments in which one or more of such\npersons sleep.\n e. "Industrial homework" means the manufacturing in a home, in whole\nor in part, with or of material which has been furnished by an employer,\nof any article or articles to be returned to the said employer, or to be\ndelivered, mailed, or shipped to others.\n f. "Industrial homeworker" means any person who manufactures in a\nhome, in whole or in part, with or out of material furnished by an\nemployer for industrial homework, any article or articles to be returned\nto such employer directly or indirectly, or to be delivered, mailed or\nshipped to others.\n g. "Person" includes a corporation, a copartnership or a joint stock\nassociation.\n h. "Homework contractor or distributor" means any person who for the\naccount or benefit of an employer delivers to a homeworker or any other\nperson not engaged by such employer articles or materials to be\nmanufactured in a home and thereafter to be returned to said person or\notherwise disposed of in accordance with his direction.\n