The Eight-Hour Law Loophole

Repeated complaints have reached the officers of the State Federation of Labor regarding alleged violations of the eight-hour law on public work. Complaints were made that employees of public institutions were compelled to work more than eight hours in direct violation of the law. These complaints were taken up with state officials and the result is a decision recently handed down by the attorney general's office, construing the eight-hour law. The decision is a laborious effort, technical to the core, but effectively wipes out much of the law's effectiveness. Under the ruling of the attorney general, hosts of employees are exempted from its protection. It is a hair-trigger question involved when one must decide when mental effort is dominant over physical, and vice-versa. It will take a Philadelphia lawyer to decide when physical effort ceases to be physical effort and becomes mental. Ambiguity of phrase seems to be a long suit with law-making bodies. If the decision is allowed to stand, it won't be long before it will be read to apply to county, city, and all other sub-divisions of the state. The only apparent reason why the state authorities should be so anxious to make this distinction is the added number of employees the shorter workday would make necessary.