Agricultural Wages (Regulation) Act 1924
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1924 c. 37 |
| Year | 1924 |
Agricultural Wages (Regulation) Act, 1924
(14 & 15 Geo. 5.) CHAPTER 37.
An Act to provide for the Regulation of Wages of Workers in Agriculture, and for purposes incidental thereto.
[7th August 1924]
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:—
1 Establishment of agricultural wages committees and an Agricultural Wages Board.
(1) Subject to the provisions of this Act, the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries (in this Act referred to as the Minister) shall, as soon as may be, establish an agricultural wages committee for each county in England and Wales, and an Agricultural Wages Board for England and Wales.
(2) An agricultural wages committee and the Agricultural Wages Board shall respectively be constituted in accordance with the provisions of the First Schedule to this Act and shall be established by order made by the Minister.
(3) The Minister may, if he thinks it expedient, establish one agricultural wages committee for two or more counties instead of a separate committee for each county should resolutions in favour of such combination be passed by the representative members of the committees for the several counties, and thereupon that committee shall be the agricultural wages committee for the combined counties.
(4) Notwithstanding anything in the foregoing provisions of this section, the Minister shall, on the first establishment of agricultural wages committees, establish one committee for each combination of counties specified in the Second Schedule to this Act.
(5) Where one committee has been established for a combination of counties, the Minister at any time thereafter may, and on the representation of the committee by resolution of the representative members shall, dissolve the committee, and until such committee is dissolved the counties included in the combination shall for the purposes of this Act be deemed to be one county.
2 Duties and powers of agricultural wages committees with respect to minimum rates of wages.
(1) Subject to the provisions of this Act, agricultural wages committees shall fix minimum rates of wages for workers employed in agriculture for time work, and may also, if and so far as they think it necessary or expedient, fix minimum rates of wages for workers employed in agriculture for piece work.
(2) Any such minimum rates may be fixed by a committee so as to apply universally to all workers employed in agriculture in the county for which the committee act, or to any special class of workers so employed, or to any special area in the county, or to any special class in a special area, subject in each case to any exceptions which may be made by the committee for employment of any special character, and 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 overtime.
In the exercise of their powers under this subsection a committee shall, so far as is reasonably practicable, secure a weekly half-holiday for workers.
(3) If, on an application in that behalf, a committee are satisfied that any worker employed or desiring to be employed on time work to which a minimum rate fixed under this Act is applicable is so affected by any physical injury or mental deficiency, or any infirmity due to age or to any other cause, that he is incapable of earning that minimum rate, the committee shall grant to the worker a permit exempting, as from the date of the application, or from any later date specified in the permit, the employment of the worker from the provisions of this Act requiring wages to be paid at not less than the minimum rate, subject to such conditions as may be specified in the permit, including if the committee think fit, a condition as to the wages to be paid to the worker; and, while the permit has effect, an employer shall not be liable to any legal proceedings under this Act for paying wages to the worker at a rate less than the minimum rate if the conditions specified in the permit are complied with. If an application for a permit is not disposed of within twenty-one days after the day on which it is received, then the employer of the worker to whom the application relates shall not be liable to any legal proceedings under this Act for paying wages to the worker at a rate less than the minimum rate during the interval between the expiration of the said period and the date on which the application is ultimately disposed of.
(4) In fixing minimum rates a committee shall, so far as practicable, secure for able-bodied men such wages as in the opinion of the committee are adequate to promote efficiency and to enable a man in an ordinary case to maintain himself and his family in accordance with such standard of comfort as may be reasonable in relation to the nature of his occupation.
(5) A committee may, if they think it expedient, cancel or vary any minimum rate fixed under this Act.
(6) Before fixing, cancelling or varying any minimum rate, the committee shall give such notice as may be prescribed of the rate which they propose to fix or of their proposal to cancel the rate or of the proposed variation of the rate as the case may be, and of the manner in which and the time within which objections to the proposal may be lodged, not being less than fourteen days from the date of the notice, and shall consider any objections to the proposal which may be lodged within the time mentioned in the notice.
Where the proposal is modified in consequence of any objection so lodged, notice of the modified proposal need not be given except where in the opinion of the Agricultural Wages Board the proposal has been altered so materially that a fresh notice ought to be given.
3 Rates fixed by committees.
(1) Where a committee have fixed any minimum rate of wages or have cancelled or varied any such rate, they shall forthwith send in the prescribed manner to the Agricultural Wages Board notification of their decision.
(2) The Agricultural Wages Board, on receipt of such notification, shall as soon as practicable make such order as may be necessary for the purpose of carrying out the decision of the committee.
(3) The Board shall, as soon as may be after they have made an order under this section, send notification thereof to the committee concerned, and give notice of the making of the order and the contents thereof in the prescribed manner.
(4) Any such minimum rate or the cancellation or variation thereof shall become effective from the date specified in that behalf in the order.
The date to be so specified shall be a date subsequent to the date of the order and where, as respects any employer who pays wages at intervals not exceeding seven days, the date so specified does not correspond with the beginning of the period for which wages are paid by that employer, the rate, or the cancellation or variation thereof, shall become effective as from the beginning of the next such period following the date specified in the order.
4 Complaints as to inadequate payment for piece work where no minimum piece rate has been fixed.
4. Any worker employed in agriculture in any county on piece work for which no minimum piece rate has been fixed or any person authorised by such a worker may complain to the agricultural wages committee for the county that the piece rate of wages paid to the worker for that work is such a rate as would yield in the circumstances of the case to an ordinary worker a less amount of wages than the minimum rate for time work applicable in the case of that worker and the committee may, on any such complaint after giving the employer an opportunity of making such representations as he thinks desirable, direct that the employer shall pay to the worker such additional sum by way of wages for any piece work done by him at that piece rate at any time within fourteen days before the date of complaint or at any time after the date of complaint and before the decision of the committee thereon as in their opinion represents the difference between the amount which would have been paid if the work had been done by an ordinary worker at the minimum rate for time work and the amount actually received by the worker by whom, or on whose behalf, the complaint is made, and any sum so directed to be paid may be recovered by or on behalf of the worker from the employer summarily as a civil debt.
5 Power of Agricultural Wages Board to fix, cancel or vary minimum rates in certain cases.
5. If an agricultural wages committee
the Agricultural Wages Board may, after giving the prescribed notices, by order fix, cancel or vary the rate as the case requires, and for that purpose shall have and may exercise all the powers of the committee.
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