64 BIENNIAL REPORT OF DEPARTMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 



Amendment Necessary to Law Regulating Labor Hours of Employment 

 on Public Works: 



On December 8, the office of State Attorney General Cammaek 

 rendered an opinion that Chapter 123 of the Acts, 1910, General As- 

 sembly, pertaining to the regulation that eight hours work consti- 

 tutes a days work for laborers and mechanics employed on all public 

 works in this Commonwealth as being unenforceable because the act 

 does not set out in its title a penalty for the violation of the provisions 

 of the act. 



The opinion in full follows: 



"You have requested an opinion of this department concerning 

 Chapter 123 of the Acts of 1910 General Assembly, which in brief 

 regulates the hours of labor of mechanics employed on any of the 

 public works in this State. You further ask to whom should ap- 

 plication be made for enforcement of this Act. 



"Section 1 of said Act is as follows: 



" 'That service and employment of all laborers and mechanics 

 who are now or may hereafter be employed by the Commonwealth 

 of Kentucky, or by any contractor or sub-contractor, upon any of 

 the public works of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is hereby 

 limited and restricted to eight hours in any one calendar day, and 

 it shall be unlawful for any officer of the Commonwealth of Ken- 

 tucky or any such contractor or sub-contractor, whose duty it 

 shall be to employ, direct, or control the services of such laborer 

 or mechanic to work more than eight hours in any calendar day 

 except in case of extraordinary emergency.' 



"Section 2 provides the penalty for violation thereof. 

 "The title to said Act is as follows : 



" An Act providing that eight hours shall constitute a day 

 for laborers and mechanics employed on all public works in 

 this Commonwealth.' 



"'Section 51 of the Constitution of Kentucky provides as follows: 



"No law enacted by the General Assembly shall relate to more 

 than one subject, and that shall be expressed in the title, and no 

 law shall be revised, amended or the provisions thereof extended 

 or conferred by reference to its title only, but so much thereof as 

 is revised, amended, extended or conferred shall be reenacted and 

 published at length.' 



"You will notice that the title of said Act does not in any way 

 include a statement to the effect that a penalty for the violation 

 of said act is provided in said act. For that reason we are of the 

 opinion that Section 2 of said act, which provides the penalty, is 

 of no force and effect. That being true, it would be of no avail 

 for you to make application for the enforcement thereof." 



It is hereby recommended that this act be amended to correct the 

 title iby including the penalty statement. It is further recommended 

 that this act be amended by providing for a section prescribing it to 



