Agricultural Wages (Regulation) (Scotland) Act 1937
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1937 c. 53 |
| Year | 1937 |
Agricultural Wages (Regulation) (Scotland) Act, 1937
(1 Edw. 8 & 1 Geo. 6.) CHAPTER 53.
An Act to provide for the Regulation of Wages of Workers in Agriculture in Scotland, and for purposes incidental thereto.
[20th July 1937]
B E 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 andan Agricultural Wages Board.
(1) Subject to the provisions of this Act, the Department of Agriculture for Scotland (in this Act referred to as the Department) shall, as soon as may be, by order divide Scotland into districts and shall establish an agricultural wages committee for each district, and an Agricultural Wages Board for Scotland, to be called the Scottish Agricultural Wages Board.
(2) An agricultural wages committee (hereinafter referred to as a committee) and the Scottish Agricultural Wages Board (hereinafter referred to as the Board) shall respectively be constituted in accordance with the provisions of the Schedule to this Act and shall be established by order made by the Department.
(3) The Department, if they think it expedient, may on receipt of resolutions in that behalf passed by the several committees concerned from time to time by order vary the boundaries and number of the districts into which Scotland is divided under subsection (1) of this section 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.
(4) Every order made by the Department under subsection (1) or subsection (3) of this section shall be laid before both Houses of Parliament forthwith, and if an address to His Majesty is agreed to by either House of Parliament within the next subsequent twenty-eight days on which that House has sat after any such order is laid before it praying that the order may be annulled, it shall thenceforth be void but without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done thereunder or the making of a new order.
2 Duties and powers of agricultural wages committeeswith respect to minimum rates of wages.
(1) Subject to the provisions of this Act, 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 district for which the committee act, or to any special class of workers so employed, or to any special area in the district, 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) Where a committee fix minimum rates in pursuance of this section, they shall determine the benefits or advantages (not being benefits or advantages prohibited by law) which may be reckoned as payment of wages in lieu of payment in cash, the extent to which they maybe so reckoned, and, subject to regulations made by the Department in pursuance of paragraph (a ) of subsection (1) of section eight of this Act, the value at which they are to be so reckoned.
(4) Where a committee in fixing a minimum rate provide for a differential rate in the case of overtime, they shall determine what employment is to be treated as overtime employment.
(5) The provisions of this Act with regard to the fixing, reconsideration, cancelling or varying a minimum rate shall apply to any determination under either of the last two foregoing subsections, in like manner as those provisions apply to a minimum rate.
(6) 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.
(7) 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.
(8) A committee may, if they think it expedient, cancel or vary any minimum rate fixed under this Act.
(9) 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 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 Department and to the Board notification of their decision.
(2) The 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 piecework where no minimum piece rate has been fixed.
4. Any worker employed in agriculture in any district on piece work for which no minimum piece rate has been fixed or any person authorised by such a worker may complain to the committee for the district 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...
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