Shops (Conditions of Employment) Act, 1938

Prohibition of payment of wages below minimum rates.

51.—(1) Where any rules regulating minimum rates of wages are for the time being in force, the proprietor of a shop shall pay to each member of the staff of such shop to whom such rates are applicable wages at a rate not less than the appropriate minimum rate under such rules clear of all deductions.

(2) If the proprietor of a shop acts in contravention of this section, such proprietor shall be guilty of an offence under this section.

(3) In any proceedings against the proprietor of a shop under this section, it shall lie with such proprietor to prove that he has paid wages at not less than the minimum rate.

(4) Where the proprietor of a shop is convicted of an offence under this section the court may, in addition to the penalty imposed by the court, order such proprietor to pay to the member of the staff of such shop in relation to whom the offence was committed such sum as appears to the court to be due by such proprietor to such member on account of wages; the wages being calculated on the basis of the minimum rate payable under the rules regulating minimum rates of wages applicable to such member, but the power to order payment of wages under this provision shall not be in derogation of any right of such person to recover wages by any other proceedings.

(5) Any agreement for the payment of wages in contravention of this section or for abstaining to exercise any right of enforcing the payment of wages in accordance with this section shall be void.

(6) For the purposes of this section the word “deduction” includes deductions for or in respect of any matter whatsoever (other than deductions under the National Insurance Act, 1911, as amended by subsequent enactments, or the Unemployment Insurance Act, 1920, as amended by subsequent enactments, or the Widows' and Orphans' Pensions Act, 1935 (No. 29 of 1935), as amended by subsequent enactments, or deductions authorised by any Act to be made from wages in respect of contributions to any superannuation or other provident fund), and notwithstanding that they are deductions which may lawfully be made from wages under the provisions of the Truck Acts, 1831 to 1896, and where any payment being a payment authorised to be received by an employer under section 1 of the Truck Act, 1896, is made by a member of the staff of a shop to his employer, the employer shall, for the purposes, of the foregoing provision be deemed to have deducted that amount from wages.