Catering Wages Act 1943



Catering Wages Act, 1943

(6 & 7 Geo. 6.) CHAPTER 24.

An Act to make provision for regulating the remuneration and conditions of employment of catering and other workers and, in connection therewith, for their health and welfare and the general improvement and development of the industries in which they are employed.

[10th June 1943]

Be it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—

S-1 The Catering Wages Commission and the workers to whom this Act applies.

1 The Catering Wages Commission and the workers to whom this Act applies.

(1) The Minister of Labour and National Service (hereafter in this Act referred to as ‘the Minister’) shall establish a Commission, to be called the Catering Wages Commission, (hereafter in this Act referred to as ‘the Commission’) to perform, in relation to the workers to whom this Act applies and their employers, such functions as are entrusted to the Commission by this Act.

The provisions of the First Schedule to this Act shall have effect with respect to the constitution, officers and proceedings of the Commission.

(2) The workers to whom this Act applies are all persons employed in any undertaking, or any part of an undertaking, which consists wholly or mainly in the carrying on (whether for profit or not) of one or more of the following activities, that is to say, the supply of food or drink for immediate consumption, the provision of living accommodation for guests or lodgers or for persons employed in the undertaking and any other activity so far as it is incidental or ancillary to any such activity as aforesaid of the undertaking.

(3) In this Act the expression ‘undertaking’ includes any business, whether carried on by way of trade or not, and the activities of any body of persons, whether corporate or unincorporated.

(4) For the purposes of this Act, any worker who, for the purposes of any undertaking or part of an undertaking, performs any work in pursuance of an arrangement express or implied made by the worker by way of trade with the persons carrying on that undertaking shall be deemed to be employed by them in that undertaking or part.

S-2 General functions of the Commission.

2 General functions of the Commission.

(1) The Commission—

(a ) shall make such enquiries as they think fit or as they may be directed by the Minister to make into the existing methods of regulating the remuneration and conditions of employment of workers to whom this Act applies, and into any other matter affecting the remuneration, conditions of employment, health or welfare of such workers;

(b ) shall make such enquiries as they think fit or as they may be directed by the Minister to make into means for meeting the requirements of the public, including in particular the requirements of visitors from overseas, and for developing the tourist traffic;

(c ) shall make such recommendations (if any) as they think fit to any government department with respect to any matter affecting the remuneration, conditions of employment, health or welfare of such workers or with respect to any such matter as is mentioned in paragraph (b ) of this subsection;

(d ) shall report to the Minister on any matter which he has directed them to enquire into and shall annually submit to him a general report on their proceedings.

Any such general report shall include a statement as to the workers and employers whom the Commission have had under consideration in the period covered by the report and as to the conclusions they have reached with respect to them and the Minister shall as soon as may be lay every such general report before Parliament.

(2) Where any recommendation is made by the Commission under this section to a government department, that department shall forthwith take the recommendation into consideration.

S-3 Machinery for wage regulation by agreement.

3 Machinery for wage regulation by agreement.

(1) If the Commission are of opinion that there exists machinery set up by agreement between organisations representing employers and workers respectively, which is, or can by improvements which it is practicable to secure be made, adequate for regulating the remuneration and conditions of employment of any workers to whom this Act applies, the Commission may report to the Minister accordingly and may in their report include any suggestion which they think fit to make as to the improvement of that machinery.

In considering for the purposes of this or the next succeeding section whether any machinery is adequate for regulating the remuneration and conditions of employment of any workers, the Commission shall consider not only what matters are capable of being dealt with by that machinery, but also to what extent those matters are covered by the agreements or awards arrived at or given thereunder and to what extent the practice is in accordance with those agreements or awards.

(2) Where the Commission in any such report as aforesaid suggest methods for improving any such machinery as aforesaid, the Minister shall take such steps as appear to him to be expedient and practicable to secure the improvements in question and, if the improvements are not thereby secured, he may, if he thinks fit, refer the report back to the Commission and the Commission shall thereupon reconsider it having regard to any observations made by the Minister and shall make a further report to him.

S-4 Establishment of wages boards.

4 Establishment of wages boards.

(1) If the Commission are of opinion, as respects any workers to whom this Act applies and their employers, that such machinery as aforesaid for regulating those workers' remuneration and conditions of employment either does not exist or is not, and cannot by any improvement which it is practicable to secure be made, adequate for the regulation thereof, the Commission may make a recommendation to the Minister (hereafter in this Act referred to as ‘a wages board recommendation’) for the establishment of a wages board in respect of those workers and those employers.

The Commission shall not be prevented from making a wages board recommendation in respect of any workers and their employers by the fact that they have previously made a report in respect of some or all of them under subsection (1) of the last preceding section, or by the fact that the conditions for making such a report are fulfilled as respects some (but not all) of them.

(2) Before making a wages board recommendation, the Commission shall make all such investigations as appear to them to be necessary, and shall publish in the prescribed manner a notice stating the terms of the proposed recommendation and further stating that they will consider representations with regard thereto made to them in writing within such period, not being less than twenty-one days from the publication of the notice, as may be specified therein; and the Commission shall consider any written representations made to them within the said period and shall make such further enquiries as they consider necessary and may then make the recommendation to the Minister either as originally proposed to be made or with such amendments as the Commission think fit having regard to any of the representations.

(3) Where the Minister receives a wages board recommendation, he may, if he thinks fit, by order provide for the establishment of a wages board in respect of such workers and such employers as may be described in the order.

The workers and the employers described in any such order shall be workers to whom this Act applies and their employers and shall be the workers and employers covered by the recommendation, with such variations, if any, as the Minister thinks fit, being variations which in his opinion do not effect important alterations in the character of the recommendation.

(4) Where the Minister receives a wages board recommendation, he may, if he thinks fit, refer it back to the Commission and the Commission shall thereupon reconsider it having regard to any observations made by the Minister and may, if they think fit, re-submit it to the Minister either without amendments or with such amendments as they think fit having regard to those observations; and where a recommendation is so re-submitted, the like proceedings may be had thereon as in the case of an original recommendation.

S-5 Abolition, or variation of jurisdiction, of wages boards.

5 Abolition, or variation of jurisdiction, of wages boards.

(1) If the Commission are of opinion, as respects any wages board, that the board is no longer necessary or that its field of operation should be varied, they may make a recommendation to the Minister accordingly:

Provided that the provisions of subsection (2) of the last preceding section shall apply in relation to any such recommendation as they apply in relation to wages board recommendations.

(2) Where any such recommendation is to the effect that a wages board should cease to operate in relation to any workers and that another wages board should operate in relation to them, the recommendation may provide that anything done by, or to give effect to proposals made by, the first wages board shall have effect in relation to those workers as if it had been done by, or to give effect to proposals made by, the second wages board, and may make such further provision as seems expedient in connection with the transition.

(3) Where the Minister receives any such recommendation as is referred to in the preceding provisions of this section, he may, if he thinks fit, make an order for giving effect to the recommendation with such modifications, if any, as he thinks fit, being modifications which in his opinion do not effect important alterations in the character of the recommendation:

Provided that the provisions of...

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