Deductions or payments in respect of fines. Deductions or payments in respect of damaged goods. 59 & 60 VICT. c. 44 (1896). An Act to amend the Truck Acts. 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: 1.-(1) An employer shall not make any contract with any workman for any deduction from the sum contracted to be paid by the employer to the workman, or for any payment to the employer by the workman, for or in respect of any fine, unless (a) The terms of the contract are contained in a notice kept constantly affixed at such place or places open to the workmen and in such a position that it may be easily seen, read, and copied by any person whom it affects; or the contract is in writing, signed by the workman; and (b) The contract specifies the acts or omissions in respect of which the (c) The fine imposed under the contract is in respect of some act or (2) An employer shall not make any such deduction or receive any such payment, unless (a) The deduction or payment is made in pursuance of, or in accordance with, such a contract as aforesaid; and (b) Particulars in writing showing the acts or omissions in respect of which the fine is imposed and the amount thereof are supplied to the workman on each occasion when a deduction or payment is made. (3) This section shall apply to the case of a shop assistant in like manner as it applies to the case of a workman. The fact that an agreement is within this section does not oust the jurisdiction of justices under the Employers and Workmen Act, 1875: Buxton Lime Firms Co., Ltd. v. Howe, [1900] 2 Q. B. 232. A rule forming part of the contract between a factory owner and his employees provided that all workers shall observe good order and decorum while in the factory," and imposed a fine for infringement: Held, a sufficient compliance with sub-sect. 1 (b): Squire v. Bayer & Co., [1901] 2 K. B. 299. 2. (1) An employer shall not make any contract with any workman for any deduction from the sum contracted to be paid by the employer to the workman, or for any payment to the employer by the workman for or in respect of bad or negligent work or injury to the materials or other property of the employer, unless (a) The terms of the contract are contained in a notice kept constantly affixed at such place or places open to the workmen and in such a position that it may be easily seen, read, and copied by any person (b) The deduction or payment to be made under the contract does not (c) The amount of the deduction or payment is fair and reasonable, having regard to all the circumstances of the case. (2) An employer shall not make any such deduction or receive any such payment unless (a) The deduction or payment is made in pursuance of, or in accordance with, such a contract as aforesaid; and (b) Particulars in writing showing the acts or omissions in respect of are supplied to the workman on each occasion when a deduction or materials. 3.-(1) An employer shall not make any contract with any workman for Deductions or any deduction from the sum contracted to be paid by the employer to the payments in workman, or for any payment to the employer by the workman for, or in respect of respect of, the use or supply of materials, tools or machines, standing room, light, heat, or for or in respect of any other thing to be done or provided by the employer in relation to the work or labour of the workman unless(a) The terms of the contract are contained in a notice kept constantly affixed at such place or places open to workmen, and in such a position that it may be easily seen, read, and copied by any person whom it affects; or the contract is in writing, signed by the workman; and (b) The sum to be paid or deducted under the contract in respect of materials, tools or machines, standing room, light, heat, or any other thing, does not exceed, in the case of materials or tools supplied to the workman, the actual or estimated cost thereof to the employer, or in the case of the use of machinery, light, heat, or any other thing in this section mentioned, a fair and reasonable rent or charge, having regard to all the circumstances of the case. (2) An employer shall not make any such deduction or receive any such payment, unless (a) The deduction or payment is made in pursuance of, and in accordance with, such a contract as aforesaid; and (b) Particulars in writing showing the things in respect of which the to the workman on each occasion when a deduction or payment is 4. If any employer enters into any contract contrary to this Act, or makes Penalty. any deduction or receives any payment contrary to this Act, he shall be guilty of an offence against the Truck Act, 1831, and shall be liable to the 1 & 2 Will. 4, penalties imposed by section nine of that Act as if the offence were an offence c. 37. in that section mentioned. Recovery of payments or deductions. Production of contract. Exemption of contract from stamp duty. Saving as to contracts and payments illegal under existing Acts. 1 & 2 Will. 4, c. 37. 50 & 51 Vict. c. 46. 37 & 38 Vict. c. 48. 5. Any workman or shop assistant may recover any sum deducted by or paid to his employer contrary to this Act, provided that proceedings for such recovery are commenced within six months from the date of the deduction or payment sought to be recovered, and that where he has consented to or acquiesced in any such deduction or payment, he shall only recover the excess which has been deducted or paid over the amount, if any, which the Court may find to have been fair and reasonable, having regard to all the circumstances of the case. 6. (1) Every employer who has made any contract purporting or intending to operate as a contract under this Act, shall, on demand in writing by one of her Majesty's inspectors of factories or of mines, produce the contract or a true copy thereof at any convenient time and place to be named by the inspector, and the inspector shall be at liberty to take a copy of the same or of any part thereof, and the employer of any workman or shop assistant who is party to any such contract shall at the time of making the contract give the workman or shop assistant a copy of the contract or of the notice containing its terms. (2) A workman or shop assistant who is party to any such contract shall be entitled, on request, to obtain from his employer free of charge a copy of the contract or of the notice containing its terms. (3) Every employer who has made any contract purporting or intending to operate as a contract under section one of this Act shall keep a register of deductions or payments, and shall enter therein every deduction or payment for or in respect of any fine purporting to be made under any such contract, specifying the amount and the nature of the act or omission in respect of which the fine was imposed, and this register shall be at all times open to inspection by one of her Majesty's inspectors of factories or of mines. (4) If any person fails to comply with this section he shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding forty shillings. 7. A contract entered into under the provisions of this Act shall not be liable to stamp duty. 8. Nothing in this Act shall make lawful any contract or payment which is illegal under the Truck Acts, 1831 and 1887, or under the Hosiery Manufacture (Wages) Act, 1874, or affect the provisions of the Coal Mines Regulation Act, 1887, or any amending Act, with respect to persons employed in mines and paid according to weight, or make lawful any deduction from payments made to those persons. 9.-(1) The Secretary of State, if satisfied that the provisions of this Act are unnecessary for the protection of the workmen employed in any trade or 50 & 51 Vict. business, or in any branch or department of any trade or business, either c. 58. generally or within any specified area, may by order under his hand grant Power to an exemption from those provisions in respect of the persons engaged in that trade, business, branch or department, either generally or within that exempt from provisions of Act. area. (2) The Secretary of State may at any time amend or revoke any such order. (3) Every order made under this section shall be laid as soon as may be before both Houses of Parliament, and if either House within the next forty days after the order has been so laid before that House resolves that the order ought to be annulled, the order shall, after the date of that resolution, be of no effect, without prejudice to the validity of anything done in the meantime under the order or to the making of a new order. See order of March 9th, 1897, and of July 30th, 1897: St. R. & O. 1897, pp. 459, 460. 50 & 51 Vict. 10. Sub-section two of section thirteen of the Truck Amendment Act, Duties of 1887 (which relates to the duty of inspectors), shall apply in the case of a inspectors. laundry, and in the case of any place where work is given out by the occupier of a factory or workshop, or by a contractor, or sub-contractor, in like manner as it applies in the case of a factory. 11. This Act shall come into operation on the first day of January one thousand eight hundred and ninety-seven. 12. This Act may be cited as the Truck Act, 1896; and the Truck Acts, 1831 and 1887, and this Act shall be construed together as one Act and be cited collectively as the Truck Acts, 1831 to 1896. c. 46. Commence ment. Short title and may construction. M. A A Penalty for under sixteen Regulating construction of chimneys. CHAPTER V. ACTS RELATING TO CHIMNEY SWEEPERS. 3 & 4 VICT. c. 85 (1840). An Act for the Regulation of Chimney Sweepers and Chimneys (a). 2. Any person who shall compel or knowingly allow any child or young person under the age of twenty-one years to ascend or descend a chimney, or enter a flue, for extinguishing fire therein, shall be liable to a penalty of not more than ten pounds [or less than five pounds (aa)]. 3. It shall not be lawful to apprentice to any person using the trade or business of a chimney-sweeper any child under the age of sixteen years, and every indenture of such apprenticeship which may be entered into shall be null and void. Sections 4 and 5 temporary provisions now repealed. 6. And whereas it is expedient, for the better security from accidents from fire or otherwise, the improved construction of chimneys and flues (a), provided by the said Act be continued: Be it enacted, that all withs and partitions between any chimney or flue, which at any time after the passing of this Act shall be built or rebuilt, shall be of brick or stone, and at least equal to half a brick in thickness; and every breast-back and with or partition of any chimney or flue hereafter to be built or rebuilt shall be built of sound materials, and the joints of the work well filled in with good mortar or cement, and rendered or stuccoed within; and also that every chimney or flue hereafter to be built or rebuilt in any wall, or of greater length than four feet out of the wall, not being a circular chimney or flue twelve inches in diameter, shall be in every section of the same not less than fourteen inches by nine inches; and no chimney or flue shall be constructed with any angle therein which shall be less obtuse than an angle of one hundred and twenty degrees, except as is hereinafter excepted; and every salient or projecting angle in any chimney or flue shall be rounded off four inches at the least, upon pain of forfeiture, by every master builder or other master workman who shall make or cause to be made such chimney or flue, of any sum of not less than ten pounds nor exceeding fifty pounds: Provided, nevertheless, that, notwithstanding this Act, chimneys or flues (a) The provisions of this Act relating to the construction of chimneys and flues within the area affected by the Metropolitan Building Act, 1844, are repealed by sect. 1 of that Act, which is itself repealed by the Metropolitan Building Act, 1855. This latter Act is repealed by the Metropolitan Building Act, 1894, which by sect. 64 prescribes "rules as to chimneys." The repeal of the Act of 1855 does not revive the provisions of this Act repealed by the Act of 1844: Vide the Interpretation Act, 1889, s. 11, sub-s. (1). (aa) Words in brackets repealed by 37 & 38 Vict. c. 96. |