Agricultural Wages (Scotland) Act 1949
Agricultural Wages (Scotland) Act , 1949.
(12, 13 & 14 Geo. 6) CHAPTER 30.
An Act to consolidate the Agricultural Wages (Regulation) (Scotland) Acts, 1937 to 1947, and so much of the Holidays with Pay Act, 1938, as enables a wage regulating authority to make provision for holidays and holiday remuneration for workers in Agriculture in Scotland.
[26th April 1949]
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 the present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
The Scottish Agricultural Wages Board and Agricultural Wages Committee.
1 The Scottish Agricultural Wages Board.
(1) There shall be a Board, to be called the Scottish Agricultural Wages Board (in this Act referred to as ‘the Board’) which shall have, in relation to each of the districts for which agricultural wages committees are established under the next following section, such functions with respect to the fixing of minimum rates of wages for workers employed in agriculture and of directing that such workers shall be entitled to be allowed holidays, and such other functions, as are conferred on the Board by the subsequent provisions of this Act.
(2) In the exercise, in relation to a district, of their functions under this Act with respect to fixing, cancelling and varying rates of wages, reckoning benefits and advantages as payment of wages and the payment of premiums in respect of apprentices or learners, the Board shall, without prejudice to any other provision of this Act, have regard to representations made to them by the agricultural wages committee established under the next following section for the district.
(3) The provisions of the First Schedule to this Act shall have effect with respect to the constitution and proceedings of the Board.
2 Agricultural wages committees for districts.
(1) Subject to the provisions of this Act, the Secretary of State shall, as soon as may be by order made by statutory instrument, divide Scotland into districts and shall establish an agricultural wages committee for each district:
Provided that, if in the case of each of the committees for two or more districts, there are passed resolutions in favour of varying the boundaries and numbers of these districts, the Secretary of State may, if he thinks it expedient, by order made by statutory instrument vary the boundaries and number of the districts into which Scotland is divided by this subsection and may make such provision as is necessary in consequence of any such variation, with regard to the establishment of committees for the districts affected by the variation.
(2) The functions of agricultural wages committees under this Act shall, subject to the provisions of this and any order made thereunder, be exercised in accordance with any direction in that behalf given by the Board.
(3) A resolution for the purposes of the proviso to subsection (1) of this section that is passed at a meeting of an agricultural wages committee unanimously by such of the members thereof representing employers and such of the members thereof representing workers in agriculture as are present and voting shall be deemed, for the purposes of the said proviso, to be a resolution of those members.
(4) The provisions of the Second Schedule to this Act shall have effect with respect to the constitution and proceedings of agricultural wages committees.
Wages and Holidays.
3 Power of Scottish Agricultural Wages Board to fix rates of wages, and holidays.
(1) Subject to and in accordance with the provisions of this section, the Board shall have power, for each district for which an agricultural wages committee is established under this Act,—
(a ) to fix minimum rates of wages for workers employed in agriculture; and
(b ) to direct that any such workers shall be entitled to be allowed by their employers holidays of such duration as may be specified in the direction.
(2) The powers of the Board with respect to the fixing of minimum rates of wages as aforesaid shall be powers—
(a ) to fix minimum rates for time work;
(b ) to fix minimum rates for piece work;
(c ) to fix minimum rates for time work, to apply in the case of workers employed in piece work, for the purpose of securing to such workers a minimum rate of remuneration on a time work basis;
(d ) to fix separate minimum rates by way of pay in respect of holidays;
and the exercise by the Board of their powers under paragraph (a ) of this subsection shall be obligatory:
Provided that the minimum time rate for piece work shall not in any case be higher than the minimum rate which, if the work were time work, would be applicable thereto by virtue of paragraph (a ) of this subsection.
(3) A direction under paragraph (b ) of subsection (1) of this section that a worker shall be entitled to be allowed a holiday shall not be given unless both minimum rates of wages in respect of the period of the holiday and minimum rates of wages otherwise than in respect of the holiday have been or are being fixed under this section for that worker, shall provide for the duration of the holidays being related to the duration of the period for which the worker has been employed or engaged to be employed by the employer who is to allow the holiday and, subject as aforesaid, may make provision as to the times at which or the periods within which, and the circumstances in which, the holiday shall be allowed; and the power to fix separate minimum rates of wages by way of pay in respect of holidays shall include power to make provision with respect to the times at which, and the conditions subject to which, those wages shall accrue and shall become payable, and for securing that any such wages which have accrued to a worker during his employment by any employer shall, in the event of his ceasing to be employed by that employer before he becomes entitled to be allowed a holiday by him, nevertheless become payable by the employer to the worker.
(4) Any such minimum rates may be fixed so as to vary according as the employment is for a day, week, month or other period, or according to the number of working hours, or the conditions of the employment, or so as to provide for a differential rate in the case of employment defined by the Board as being overtime employment, and, without prejudice to the generality of the preceding words, a minimum time rate for piece work may be fixed so as to provide for a differential rate for work done in such circumstances that, if it were time work, it would be treated as overtime for the purposes of the minimum rate applicable thereto by virtue of paragraph (a ) of subsection (1) of this section.
In the exercise of their powers under this subsection, the Board shall, so far as is reasonably practicable, secure a weekly half-holiday for workers.
(5) The Board may, if they think it expedient, cancel or vary a minimum rate fixed or a direction as to holidays given under this section.
(6) The powers conferred on the Board by this section shall be exercised by order made in accordance with the provisions of the Third Schedule to this Act.
(7) Nothing in this section shall be construed as preventing the Board fixing or varying a minimum rate of wages so as to secure that workers receive remuneration calculated by reference to periods during the currency of their employment.
4 Enforcement of wages and holidays orders.
(1) Subject to the provisions of this Act, if an employer fails—
(a ) to pay to a worker to whom an order under the last preceding section applies wages at a rate not less than the minimum rate fixed by the order, or
(b ) to pay to any such worker, in respect of a holiday, wages at the times and subject to the conditions specified in the order, or
(c ) to allow to any such worker the holidays fixed by the order;
he shall be liable on summary conviction in respect of each offence to a fine not exceeding twenty pounds and, in the case of an offence consisting of a failure to pay wages in accordance with the order, to a fine not exceeding one pound for each day on which the offence is continued after conviction; and in any proceedings against an employer under this subsection in respect of a failure to pay wages at a rate not less than the minimum rate, the court shall, whether there is a conviction or not, order the employer to pay in addition to the fine, if any, such sum to the worker as may be found by the court to represent the difference between the amount which ought, at the minimum rate applicable, to have been paid to the worker by way of wages during the period of six months immediately preceding the date on which the complaint was served, and the amount actually so paid to him.
(2) Where proceedings are brought under the preceding subsection in respect of an offence consisting of a failure to pay wages to a worker at a rate not less than the minimum rate applicable, then, if notice of intention so to do has been served with the complaint—
(a ) evidence may, on the employer's having been convicted of the offence, be given of any failure on the part of the employer to pay wages to that worker at not less than the minimum rate applicable to him at any time during the eighteen months immediately preceding...
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