BUDGETARY RELIEF ALLOWANCE OF WORKERS (NO. 1)

(1) The Commissioner shall be the competent authority for the purposes of this Law.

(2) The competent authority may delegate to any officer of the Department of Labour any power, function or duty conferred or imposed on, or assigned to, such authority by this Law.

(a) in the case of a worker remunerated at a monthly rate, an amount not less than twenty-five per centum of the wages or salary due to such worker for the month ;

(b) in the case of a worker paid at a daily rate, an amount not less than twenty-five per centum of the daily rate due to such worker for each day he has worked during the month ;

(c) in the case of a worker who is employed on a piece-rate basis, an amount not less than twenty-five per centum of the wages due to such worker at such piece-rate for the month:

(1) The employer of a worker in any trade shall maintain and keep in the premises in which that trade is carried on, a register setting out-

(2) Every employer who maintains or has maintained a register under subsection (1), shall preserve such register for a period of four years commencing on the 1st day of December, 1977, and shall, when required to do so by the Commissioner, produce such register for inspection or furnish a true copy of such register or permit such a copy to be made.

(a) to enter and inspect at all reasonable hours of the day or night, any place in which workers in any trade are employed, for the purpose of examining any register or of ascertaining whether the provisions of this Law are being complied with ; or

(b) if any such register is not available for examination when he is inspecting such place, to require the production of such register on a specified later date for examination at such place or at the office of such authority ; or

(c) to take copies of the whole or any part of any such register ; or

(d) to interrogate any person whom he finds in such place and whom he has reasonable cause to believe is an employer or, a worker employed in any trade carried on in such place ; or

(e) to direct in writing any employer of workers in any trade to furnish to him on or before a specified date-

(a) fails to furnish the means required by the competent authority as necessary for any entry or inspection or the exercise of his powers under section 6 ; or

(b) hinders or molests such authority in the exercise of the powers conferred by that section ; or

(c) refuses to produce any register or furnish any information which such authority requires him to produce or furnish ; or

(d) makes or causes to be made in any register, any statement which is false in any material particular, or produces, or causes or knowingly allows to be produced, any register containing a false statement to such authority, knowing the same to be false ; or

(e) furnishes any information to such authority acting under the powers conferred by that section, knowing the same to be false ; or

(f) makes default in complying with any directions given by such authority under section 6, or who, when called upon to furnish a return under that section, knowingly, makes or furnishes, or causes to be made or furnished, a return containing any false statement,

(1) Every employer who fails to pay a sum required to be paid to a worker of such employer under this Law or fails to comply with the provisions of section 4 or section 8 shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable, on conviction before a Magistrate, to a fine not exceeding one thousand rupees or to imprisonment of either description for a term not exceeding six months or to both such fine and imprisonment.

(2) Upon conviction by the Magistrate’s Court of an employer for failure to pay any sum required to be paid to a worker of such employer under this Law, the court shall, in addition to any other penalty which it may impose for such offence, order such employer to pay such sum to such worker, within a period specified in the order, and if such sum is not so paid, such sum shall be recovered and paid to such worker on the order of the court, as if it were a fine imposed by the court.

(1) Where an employer has been convicted for failure to pay any sum required to be paid to a worker of such employer under this Law, then, if a notice in the prescribed form of intention so to do has been served on the employer at any time before the date of commencement of the trial, evidence may be given of any failure on the part of the employer to pay any sum in accordance with the provisions of this Law to that worker or any other worker or workers at any time during the four years preceding the date on which complaint was made to court of the offence of which the employer has been so convicted and, on proof of the failure, the court may order the employer to pay such sum as may be found by the court to be due from him to such worker or workers. Any sum ordered to be paid under this subsection may be recovered in the same manner as a fine.

(2) In this section ” prescribed ” means prescribed by regulation made under section 11.

(1) The Minister may make regulations for the purpose of carrying out or giving effect to the principles and provisions of this Law.

(2) Every regulation made by the Minister shall be published in the Gazette and shall come into operation on the date of such publication or on such later date as may be specified in the regulation.

(3) Every regulation made by the Minister shall, as soon as convenient after its publication in the Gazette, be brought before Parliament for approval. Any regulation which is not so approved shall be deemed to be rescinded as from the date of disapproval but without prejudice to anything previously done thereunder.

(4) Notification of the date on which any regulation made by the Minister is so deemed to be rescinded shall be published in the Gazette.