holiday on that date are to be put into application on April 21 (the Fascist holiday) and not on May 1~" The police and the Fascist Militia are required to prosecute all workers who may celebrate May day, and to compel the employers to dismiss them. Working Hours. For some time a· draft bill for the eight-hour working day was before Parliament; it was the result of long and careful elabora ,.ion by the Superior Council of Labour, and was accepted by all the representatives of employers and workers. Following the protest of Signor Turati, the Socialist Deputy, the Fascist Government undertook to deal with the question. Instead, however, it issued the· Royal decree No. 692, of March 1 5, 192 3, and the governing regulations of September 10, 1923, which constitute a negation of the eight-hour day. Such guarantees as the admission of the workers concerned to the controlling bodies, the equal representation of employers and workers, and so on, have been suppressed ; Work on board ship, in religious institutions, and for fixed wages in agriculture is excluded from the scope of the decree; A normal addition· of two hours' work is sanctioned; The additional rate for overtime has been allowed to be reduced to 10 per cent., in place of the 25 per cent. or more already established in every Italian labour agreement and sanctioned by the Washington Convention ; Various devices, averagings and exceptions· have been allowed which in fact annul the eight-hour day in agriculture and in a number of industries; The intervention of the Labour Inspectorate is excluded, the penalties for infringements are reduced to trifling amounts ; and so on. In fact, the Government decree has not improved the conditions of labour of a single Italian worker. Biblioteca Gino Bianco
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