sweating system

American  

noun

1. the practice of employing workers in sweatshops.

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Etymology

Origin of sweating system

First recorded in 1850–55

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

sweating system

The attempt to secure by legislation or by combination an eight hours day, or its equivalent, might seem to affect the "sweating system" most directly, as a restriction on excessive hours of labour.

From Problems of Poverty by Hobson, J. A. (John Atkinson)

The sweating system had established the show shops and the ticket system, both of which were countenanced by the government, till it had become a fashion to support them.

From Alton Locke, Tailor and Poet An Autobiography by Hughes, Thomas

Irregularity of employment, or, more accurately speaking, insufficiency of employment--for the "irregularity" is itself regular--forms one of the most terrible phases of the sweating system.

From Problems of Poverty by Hobson, J. A. (John Atkinson)

Take the sweating system of the East End of London, in which, bad conditions of labour always going together, we find starvation wages combined with long hours and unwholesome work-rooms.

From Contemporary Socialism by Rae, John

The central labor body of Chicago, then called the Trades and Labor Assembly, had previously appointed a committee of investigation to inquire into the sweating system.

From Twenty Years at Hull House; with autobiographical notes by Addams, Jane