The persons to whom the benefits of the act applied were added to by the act by Truck of 1887, which repealed the complicated list of trades Acts contained in the principal act and substituted the simpler definition of the Employers and Workmen Act 1875. Thus the Acts 1831 to 1887, and also the Truck Act 1896, apply to all workers (men, women and children) engaged in manual labour, except domestic servants; they apply not only in mines, factories and workshops, but, to quote the published Home Office Memorandum on the acts, "in all places where workpeople are engaged in manual labour under a contract with an employer, whether or no the employer be an owner or agent or a parent, or be himself a workman; and therefore a workman who employs ... and pays others under him must also observe the Truck Acts." The law thus in certain circumstances covers outworkers for a contractor or sub-contractor.
The individuals who benefited from the act were expanded by the 1887 Act, which replaced the complex list of trades Acts in the principal act with a simpler definition of the Employers and Workmen Act 1875. The Acts from 1831 to 1887, as well as the Truck Act of 1896, apply to all workers (men, women, and children) engaged in manual labor, except domestic servants. They apply not only in mines, factories, and workshops but also "in all places where workpeople are engaged in manual labor under a contract with an employer, whether or no the employer be an owner or agent or a parent, or be himself a workman; and therefore a workman who employs ... and pays others under him must also observe the Truck Acts." The law thus covers outworkers for a contractor or sub-contractor in certain circumstances.