Payment of Wages Act 1960



Payment of Wages Act , 1960

(8 & 9 Eliz. 2) 37

An Act to remove certain restrictions imposed by the Truck Acts, 1831 to 1940, and other enactments, with respect to the payment of wages; and for purposes connected therewith.

Be it enacted by the Queen'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 Request for payment of wages otherwise than in cash.

1 Request for payment of wages otherwise than in cash.

(1) If an employed person requests his employer to pay his wages in a way specified in the request, being one of the ways authorised by this Act, and the employer agrees to that request, nothing in the enactments mentioned in the next following subsection shall operate—

(a ) so as to render that request, or the employer's agreement thereto, unlawful, or

(b ) so as to render unlawful or invalid any payment of wages to which the request applies if, at a time while the request and agreement remain in force, the payment is made in the way specified in the request and the requirements of the next following section are fulfilled in relation thereto.

(2) The said enactments (hereafter in this Act referred to as ‘the specified enactments’) are—

(a ) sections one and three of the Truck Act, 1831 (which render unlawful and invalid any contract to pay, or payment of, wages to an artificer otherwise than in the current coin of the realm);

(b ) section one of the Hosiery Manufacture (Wages) Act, 1874 (which requires all contracts for wages to which that Act applies to make the wages payable in the current coin of the realm), and section three of that Act (which imposes penalties) except in so far as it relates to deductions from wages; and

(c ) section twelve of the Stannaries Act, 1887 (which relates to the payment of wages to miners to whom that Act applies).

(3) The following ways of payment are authorised by this Act, that is to say,—

(a ) payment into an account at a bank, being an account standing in the name of the person to whom the payment is due, or an account standing in the name of that person jointly with one or more other persons;

(b ) payment by postal order;

(c ) payment by money order;

(d ) payment by cheque:

Provided that, in relation to the making of any payment before the appointed day, this subsection shall have effect as if paragraph (d ) thereof were omitted.

(4) Any request made by an employed person as mentioned in subsection (1) of this section shall be made by notice in writing given to his employer.

(5) An employer may signify his agreement to such a request either by notice in writing given to the employed person or by paying the wages in the way specified in the request.

(6) Any such request—

(a ) shall cease to have effect if, before the end of the period of fourteen days beginning with the day on which the notice containing the request is given, the employer gives to the employed person notice in writing that he refuses the request, and

(b ) in any other case, shall cease to have effect at the end of that period unless before the end thereof the employer has signified his agreement to the request as mentioned in the last preceding subsection.

(7) A request under subsection (1) of this section may be made in respect of part of the wages of an employed person; and, in relation to any such request, any reference in this Act to a payment of wages shall be construed as a reference to a payment of such part of the wages as may be specified in the request.

S-2 Requirements applicable to payments authorised by s. 1.

2 Requirements applicable to payments authorised by s. 1.

(1) A request that any wages may be paid into an account at a bank shall specify the bank and the branch thereof at which the account is kept and the person or persons in whose name or names the account stands; and a payment of wages in accordance with such a request does not fulfil the requirements of this section unless it is made into the account so specified.

(2) A payment of wages by cheque does not fulfil the requirements of this section unless the cheque is made payable to, or to the order of, the person to whom the wages are due.

(3) A payment of wages in any of the ways authorised by this Act does not fulfil the requirements of this section if, in calculating the payment, any deduction from the gross amount of the wages is made by reason that the payment is made in that way.

(4) Subject to the following provisions of this section, a payment of wages (in whichever of the ways authorised by this Act it is made) does not fulfil the requirements of this section unless, at or before the time when the payment is made, a statement in writing, containing the particulars required by the next following subsection, is given to the employed person.

(5) The said particulars are—

(a ) the gross amount of the wages in respect of which the payment is made, clear of all deductions;

(b ) the amount of each deduction made from that gross amount in calculating the payment, and the matters in respect of which each such deduction is made;

(c ) the net amount payable, being that gross amount less the deductions specified in the statement; and

(d ) where the payment is made in pursuance of such a request as is mentioned in subsection (7) of the preceding section, the net amount payable in the way specified in that request and the net amount of the balance payable otherwise than in accordance therewith:

Provided that this subsection shall have effect subject to the provisions of the Schedule to this Act.

(6) Where a statement is given to an employed person which contains an error in, or omission from, the particulars required by the last preceding subsection, but in other respects complies with the requirements of that subsection, the statement shall be treated as complying with those requirements if it is shown that the error or omission was made by way of a clerical mistake, or was otherwise made accidentally and in good faith.

(7) The Minister may by order vary the provisions of the Schedule to this Act to such extent and in such manner as he may determine; and any such order—

(a ) may make different provision for different classes of cases, and

(b ) may contain such transitional, supplementary and incidental provisions as may appear to the Minister to be necessary or expedient for the purposes of the order.

(8) The power to make orders under this section shall be exercisable by statutory instrument, and shall include power to vary or revoke any such order by a subsequent order made thereunder; and any statutory instrument containing an order made under this section shall be subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of Parliament.

S-3 Cancellation of request or of employer's agreement.

3 Cancellation of request or of employer's agreement.

(1) Subject to the provisions of this section—

(a ) an employed person who has made such a request as is mentioned in section one of this Act may at any time cancel that request by notice in writing given to his employer;

(b ) an employer who has agreed to such a request may at any time cancel his agreement thereto by notice in writing given to the person who made the request.

(2) A notice under this section shall take effect at (but not before) the end of the period of four weeks beginning with the day on which the notice is given.

(3) Without prejudice to the exercise of any power conferred by subsection (1) of this section, where such a request and an employer's agreement thereto are for the time being in force, the employer and the employed person may at any time, by agreement in writing, cancel that request and agreement as from such date as may be specified in the agreement made under this subsection.

S-4 Payment of wages otherwise than in cash in cases of absence.

4 Payment of wages otherwise than in cash in cases of absence.

(1) The provisions of this section shall have effect where, at the time when an employed person's wages fall to be paid, he is absent from the proper or usual place for the payment thereof, or for the payment of so much thereof as is not covered by a request and agreement under section one of this Act, and no notice excluding him from the operation of this section is in force at that time.

(2) If no part of those wages is covered by a request and agreement under section one of this Act, and either—

(a ) the employed person has duties in connection with his employment which require him to be absent as mentioned in the preceding subsection, and the employer has reasonable grounds for believing that he is absent in order to carry out those duties, or

(b ) the employer has reasonable grounds for believing that the employed person's absence is on account of his being ill or having sustained a personal injury,

nothing in the specified enactments shall operate so as to render unlawful or invalid any payment of those wages, if they are paid by postal order or money order and, at or before the time when the payment is made, a statement in writing, containing the particulars required by subsection (5) of section two of this Act, is given to the employed person.

(3) If part of the wages in question is covered by a request and agreement under section one of this Act, and the conditions mentioned in paragraph (a ) or paragraph (b ) of the last preceding subsection are fulfilled, nothing in the specified enactments shall operate so as to render unlawful or invalid any payment of any part of those wages not covered by such a request and agreement, if it is paid by postal order or money order and, at or before the time when the payment is made, such a statement as is mentioned in the last preceding subsection is given to the employed person.

(4) If an employed person, by notice in writing given to his employer, declares that he does not...

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