17.-(1) A factory shall not, while work is carried on, be so overcrowded as to cause risk of injury to the health of the persons employed therein.
(2) Without prejudice to the generality of the provisions of subsection (1), a factory shall be deemed to be so overcrowded as aforesaid, if the number of persons employed at a time in any workroom is such that the amount of cubic space allowed for every person employed in the room is less than eleven cubic metres:
Provided that, if the Chief Inspector is satisfied that owing to the special conditions under which the work is carried on in any workroom the application of this subsection to that workroom would be inappropriate or unnecessary, he may by certificate in writing except the workroom from those provisions subject to any conditions specified in the certificate.
(3) As respects any room used as a workroom at the date of the enactment of this Law, subsection (2) shall, for the period of three years after that date, and, if before the expiration of that period effective and suitable mechanical ventilation has been provided in the room, for a further period of three years, have effect as if for the reference therein to eleven cubic metres there were substituted a reference to seven cubic metres:
Provided that this subsection shall cease to apply to the room-
(a) if the room passes into the occupation of any person other than the person who was the occupier thereof at the date of the enactment of this Law, or his successor in the same business; or
(b) if, during the first of the said periods, the inspector for the region requires the provision of effective and suitable mechanical ventilation in the room and default is made in complying with the requirement; or
(c) if, during the second of the said periods or in a case where it has been provided in pursuance of the inspector’s requirement during either of those periods, the effective and suitable mechanical ventilation provided in the room ceases to be maintained.
(4) The Υπουργός may make rules, as respects any class or description of factory or parts thereof or any process, increasing the number of cubic metres which must under this section be allowed for every person employed in a workroom.
(5) In calculating, for the purposes of this section, the amount of cubic space in any room, no space more than four metres and twenty-five centimetres from the floor shall be taken into account, and, where a room contains a gallery, the gallery shall be treated for the purposes of this section as if it were partitioned off from the remainder of the room and formed a separate room:
Provided that every workshop or gallery shall be not less than two metres and twenty-five centimetres in height measured from the floor of the workshop or gallery to the lowest part of the ceiling.
(6) If an Inspector so requires, there shall be posted in the workroom a notice specifying the number of persons who, having regard to the provisions of this section, may be employed in that room.