Agricultural Produce (Eggs) Act, 1939

Obligation to employ skilled persons.

37.—(1) It shall not be lawful for a registered wholesaler to carry on or permit to be carried on any of the operations of testing, grading, and packing eggs on any premises of which he is the registered proprietor unless such operations are continuously under the supervision and control of a skilled person.

(2) It shall be the duty of every registered wholesaler—

(a) to employ at least one skilled person in every registered premises of which he is the registered proprietor, and

(b) to furnish to the Minister or to an inspector on demand a statement of the number of skilled persons employed by such registered wholesaler together with such information in respect of every skilled person so employed as the Minister or such inspector shall require.

(3) Where a registered wholesaler is himself a skilled person and supervises and controls the operations of testing, grading and packing eggs on registered premises of which he is the registered proprietor, he may reckon himself as a skilled person employed by him for the purposes of the foregoing sub-sections of this section and thereupon this section shall apply and have effect as if he were such skilled person so employed.

(4) Every registered wholesaler who does any act (whether of commission or omission) which is a contravention of this section shall be guilty of an offence under this section and shall be liable on summary conviction thereof, in the case of a first such offence, to a fine not exceeding ten pounds and, in the case of a second or any subsequent such offence, to a fine not exceeding twenty pounds, together with, in any case, a further fine not exceeding ten pounds for every week or part of a week during which the offence is continued.

(5) In this section the expression “skilled person” means a person who is skilled within the meaning of this Act in the business of testing, grading, and packing eggs.