Docks and Harbours Act 1966



Docks and Harbours Act 1966

1966 CHAPTER 28

An Act to make further provision for regulating the employment of dock workers, including provision for compensating persons prohibited from employing, or working on their own account as, dock workers and for raising sums required for paying such compensation; to make provision for welfare amenities in ports; to confer additional powers on harbour authorities; to provide for the assumption by harbour authorities as successors to certain other harbour authorities of a proportion of the debts of those other authorities; to make further provision for giving financial assistance in connection with the construction and improvement of harbours and the carrying out of harbour operations, and with respect to the orders and schemes which may be made under the Harbours Act 1964, the charges which may be made by certain harbour authorities and lighthouse authorities, the policing of harbours and the furnishing of information and forecasts and the promotion of research, training and education under that Act; and for purposes connected with the matters aforesaid.

[9th August 1966]

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:—

I Control of Employment of Dock Workers

Part I

Control of Employment of Dock Workers

Licensing of employers

Licensing of employers

S-1 Additional control of employment of dock workers.

1 Additional control of employment of dock workers.

(1) No person shall engage any other person for employment, or employ any other person, as a dock worker in a port specified in Schedule 1 to this Act unless he holds a licence for the purpose and except in accordance with the terms of the licence:

Provided that the foregoing provision shall not apply—

(a ) to the engagement for employment, or the employment, of a person in any port by the licensing authority for the port; or

(b ) to the employment of a person by the Board in pursuance of the provisions of any labour scheme.

(2) A licensing authority shall not engage any person for employment, or employ any person, as a dock worker in a port so specified for which it is the licensing authority unless the authority has in accordance with the following provisions of this Part of this Act made a proposal to employ dock workers in that port and is entitled under those provisions to carry out the proposal.

(3) No person shall work as a dock worker in a port so specified unless—

(a ) he does so in the employment of another person; or

(b ) at the time he does so, he employs some other person as a permanent worker in that port.

(4) Any person who contravenes any of the foregoing provisions of this section shall be liable on summary conviction—

(a ) if an individual, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months or to a fine not exceeding 50 or both;

(b ) if a body corporate, to a fine not exceeding 500.

S-2 Licensing authorities and their ports.

2 Licensing authorities and their ports.

(1) Subject to subsection (3) of this section, for the purposes of this Act the licensing authority having the function of issuing licences authorising the employment of dock workers in any port specified in Schedule 1 to this Act shall be the body specified in relation to that port in column 2 of that Schedule.

(2) For the purposes of this Act the area of a port shall, subject to the provisions of any order made under paragraph (d ) of the next following subsection, be taken to be the area of the port as designated for the purposes of any labour scheme for the time being applicable to the port.

(3) The Minister may by order—

(a ) substitute for any body specified in relation to any port in Schedule 1 to this Act any other body specified in the order;

(b ) add to that Schedule a port to which a labour scheme for the time being applies, specifying the body which is to be the licensing authority therefor;

(c ) remove a port from that Schedule;

(d ) vary the limits of a port specified in that Schedule.

S-3 Applications for licences.

3 Applications for licences.

(1) An application for a licence shall be made in the prescribed manner and shall be accompanied by the prescribed particulars.

(2) Any such application made before the commencement of section 1 of this Act shall be made within the prescribed time, and any such application made after that time shall not be entertained until after the commencement of that section and shall be treated for the purposes of this Part of this Act as having been made after the commencement of that section.

(3) An applicant for a licence shall give the licensing authority such information in addition to the prescribed particulars as the licensing authority may reasonably require for enabling the authority to come to a decision on the application.

(4) The particulars which may be prescribed by regulations made for the purposes of this section may be particulars which are to accompany all applications for a licence or applications of a prescribed class, and any such regulations may prescribe different times for the purposes of subsection (2) of this section for different ports.

S-4 Consideration of applications for licences, etc.

4 Consideration of applications for licences, etc.

(1) The licensing authority shall consider every application for a licence made to the authority and shall make a decision on every such application in accordance with the following provisions of this section and the provisions of the next following section.

(2) Where it appears to the Minister that a licensing authority has failed to deal with any application for a licence within a reasonable time, he may by notice given to the licensing authority direct that that application and, if that application is made before the commencement of section 1 of this Act, all the other applications for a licence so made for the port in question, be referred to him instead of being dealt with by the licensing authority; and—

(a ) any decisions taken or other things done by a licensing authority in relation to those applications shall be of no effect; and

(b ) the Minister shall have the like powers and duties in relation to all applications so made for the port in question as he has in relation to appeals from decisions on applications for licences and the like consequences shall ensue as in the case of such appeals.

(3) In deciding whether or not to grant a licence to an applicant and in deciding the conditions on which a licence is to be granted to him the licensing authority shall have regard to any material considerations and in particular to the following considerations:—

(a ) whether the applicant efficiently manages or is likely so to manage his business or undertaking so far as it relates to the employment of dock workers and, in particular, whether he makes or is likely to make efficient use of the services of the dock workers employed by him and whether he provides or is likely to provide all necessary and proper equipment for use in connection with their work;

(b ) in the case of an application made before the commencement of section 1 of this Act, whether the applicant is willing and able to employ as permanent workers, in accordance with the provisions of any labour scheme for the time being applicable to the port to which the licence will relate, such a proportion of the registered dock workers in that port (other than supplementary workers and unavailable workers) as is proper and reasonable having regard to the authority's obligation under section 5(4) of this Act to secure that all dock workers (other than as aforesaid) in the port are employed there as permanent workers and to the extent (if any) to which the applicant has as a registered employer employed registered dock workers (other than supplementary workers) and to his future capacity to employ dock workers;

(c ) whether the applicant is willing and able—

(i) to give employment as a permanent worker to every dock worker (other than a supplementary worker) employed by him and to employ every such worker at the rates of remuneration and on the conditions of service for the time being applicable in the port in question under any national or local agreement; and

(ii) except where the licensing authority is satisfied that it is the normal practice in the port to which the licence will relate to transfer to a substantial extent dock workers employed there to work temporarily in another port, to give such employment for such a proportion of the working time of every worker (other than supplementary workers) employed by the applicant that no such worker is likely to be made available in any period of twelve months for temporary transfer to work for another employer for more than one-fifth of that time in that period;

(d ) the desirability of securing that the number of employers of dock workers (including the licensing authority) in the port to which the licence will relate is brought or kept within a limit which in the opinion of the licensing authority is the maximum number which is compatible with the efficient working of the port having regard to all the circumstances, including—

(i) the need for any special provision for the efficient handling of particular descriptions of cargo and for the efficient performance of particular descriptions of cargo handling operations;

(ii) the need for the provision of services ancillary to the handling of cargoes;

(iii) the possibility of special difficulties being...

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT