In the small workshop of the old system the master was the real employer.
In the modern "sweating" den he is not the real employer, but a mere link between the employing firm and the worker.

From this point of view we must assign as the true cause of sweating, the evasion of the legal responsibility of the Factory Act rendered possible to firms which employ outside workers either directly or indirectly through the agency of "sweaters." Although it might be prudent as a means of breaking up the small workshop to attempt to impose upon the "middleman" the legal responsibility, genuine reform directed to this aspect of "sweating," can only operate by making the real employing firm directly responsible for the industrial condition of its outdoor direct or indirect employes.
This responsibility imposed by law has been strengthened as an effective safeguard of the interests of the workers by combination among the latter.

In skilled industries where strong trade organization exists, the practical value of such combination exceeds the value of restrictive legislation.
"In their essence Trade Unions are voluntary associations of workmen, for mutual protection and assistance in securing the most favourable conditions of labour." "This is their primary and fundamental object, and includes all efforts to raise wages or prevent a reduction of wages; to diminish the hours of labour or resist attempts to increase the working hours; and to regulate all matters pertaining to methods of employment or discharge, and modes of working."[27] Engineers, boiler- makers, cotton-spinners, printers, would more readily give up the assistance given them by legislative restriction than the power which they have secured for themselves by combination.

It is in proportion as trade combination is weak that the actual protection afforded by Factory and Employers' Liability Acts become important.

Just as we saw that sweating trades were those which escaped the legislative eye; so we see that they are also the trades where effective combination does not exist.