Anti-Job, Pro-Freedom Quote Of The Week 52

The Master and Servants Act was the culmination of a series of laws designed to regulate relations between employers and employees during the 18th and 19th centuries, although heavily biased on the employers' terms. It was instituted in 1823 in Great Britain and described its purpose as "for the better regulations of servants, labourers and work people". This law greatly influenced labor relations and Employment law in the USA, Canada (1847), Australia (1845), New Zealand (1856) and South Africa (1856). In reality the law was designed to discipline employees and repress the 'combination' of workers in labour unions.The law required the obedience and loyalty from servants to their contracted employer, with infringements of the contract punishable before a court of law, often with a jail sentence of hard labour. It was used against workers organising for better conditions from its inception until well after the first Trade Union Act was implemented in Great Britain in 1871, which secured the legal status of trade unions. Up till then a trade union could be regarded as criminal because of being "in restraint of trade".
Wikipedia