Payment of Wages Act

OBJECT AND SCOPE

The main object of the Act is to eliminate all malpractices by laying down the time and mode of payment of wages as well as securing that the workers are paid their wages at regular intervals, without any unauthorized deductions. In order to enlarge its scope and provide for more effective enforcement the Act empowering the Government to enhance the ceiling by notification in future. The Act extends to the whole of India.

Definitions

“Employed person” includes the legal representative of a deceased employed person. {Section 2(ia)}

“Employer” includes the legal representative of a deceased employer. {Section 2(ib)}

“Factory” means a factory as defined in clause (m) of section 2 of the Factories Act 1948 (63 of 1948) and includes any place to which the provisions of that Act have been applied under sub-section (1) of section 85 thereof. {Section 2(ic)}

“Industrial or other establishment” means any –

(a) tramway service or motor transport service engaged in carrying passengers or goods or both by road for hire or reward;

(aa) air transport service other than such service belonging to or exclusively employed in the military naval or air forces of the Union or the Civil Aviation Department of the Government of India;

(b) dock wharf or jetty;

(c) inland vessel mechanically propelled;

(d) mine quarry or oil-field;

(e) plantation;

(f) workshop or other establish establishment in which articles are produced adapted or manufactured with a view to their use transport or sale;

(g) establishment in which any work relating to the construction development or maintenance of buildings roads bridges or canals or relating to operations connected with navigation irrigation or to the supply of water or relating to the generation transmission and distribution of electricity or any other form of power is being carried on;

(h) any other establishment or class of establishments which the Appropriate Government may having regard to the nature thereof the need for protection of persons employed therein and other relevant circumstances specify by notification in the Official Gazette. {Section 2(ii)}

“Wages” means all remuneration (whether by way of salary allowances or otherwise) expressed in terms of money or capable of being so expressed which would if the terms of employment express or implied were fulfilled by payable to a person employed in respect of his employment or of work done in such employment and includes –

(a) any remuneration payable under any award or settlement between the parties or order of a court;

(b) any remuneration to which the person employed is entitled in respect of overtime work or holidays or any leave period;

(c) any additional remuneration payable under the terms of employment (whether called a bonus or by any other name);

(d) any sum which by reason of the termination of employment of the person employed is payable under any law contract or instrument which provides for the payment of such sum whether with or without deductions but does not provide for the time within which the payment is to be made;

(e) any sum to which the person employed is entitled under any scheme framed under any law for the time being in force, but does not include –

(1) any bonus (whether under a scheme of profit sharing or otherwise) which does not form part of the remuneration payable under the terms of employment or which is not payable under any award or settlement between the parties or order of a court;

(2) the value of any house-accommodation or of the supply of light water medical attendance or other amenity or of any service excluded from the computation of wages by a general or special order of Appropriate Government;

(3) any contribution paid by the employer to any pension or provident fund and the interest which may have accrued thereon;

(4) any travelling allowance or the value of any travelling concession;

(5) any sum paid to the employed person to defray special expenses entailed on him by the nature of his employment; or

(6) any gratuity payable on the termination of employment in cases other than those specified in sub-clause (d). {Section 2(vi)}

Responsibility for payment of wages

Section 3 provides that every employer shall be responsible for the payment to persons employed by him of all wages required to be paid under the Act. However, in the case of persons employed in factories if a person has been named as the manager of the factory; in the case of persons employed in industrial or other establishments if there is a person responsible to the employer for the supervision and control of the industrial or other establishments; in the case of persons employed upon railways if the employer is the railway administration and the railway administration has nominated a person in this behalf for the local area concerned; in the case of persons employed in the work of contractor, a person designated by such contractor who is directly under his charge; and in any other case, a person designated by the employer as a person responsible for complying with the provisions of the Act, the person so named, the person responsible to the employer, the person so nominated or the person so designated, as the case may be, shall be responsible for such payment. It may be noted that as per section 2(ia) “employer” includes the legal representative of a deceased employer.

Fixation of wage period : As per section 4 of the Act every person responsible for the payment of wages shall fix wage-periods in respect of which such wages shall be payable. No wage-period shall exceed one month.

Time of payment of wages

Section 5 specifies the time payment of wages. The wages of every person employed upon or in any railway factory or industrial or other establishment upon or in which less than one thousand persons are employed, shall be paid before the expiry of the seventh day.

The wages of every person employed upon or in any other railway factory or industrial or other establishment shall be paid before the expiry of the tenth day, after the last day of the wage-period in respect of which the wages are payable. However, in the case of persons employed on a dock wharf or jetty or in a mine the balance of wages found due on completion of the final tonnage account of the ship or wagons loaded or unloaded as the case may be shall be paid before the expiry of the seventh day from the day of such completion.

Where the employment of any person is terminated by or on behalf of the employer the wages earned by him shall be paid before the expiry of the second working day from the day on which his employment is terminated.

However, the employment of any person in an establishment is terminated due to the closure of the establishment for any reason other than a weekly or other recognised holiday the wages earned by him shall be paid before the expiry of the second day from the day on which his employment is so terminated.

The Appropriate Government may by general or special order exempt to such extent and subject to such conditions as may be specified in the order the person responsible for the payment of wages to persons employed upon any railway or to persons employed as daily-rated workers in the Public Works Department of the Appropriate Government from the operation of this section in respect of wages of any such persons or class of such persons. All payments of wages shall be made on a working day.

Wages to be paid in current coin or currency notes

As per section 6 of the Act, all wages shall be paid in current coin or currency notes or in both. However, the employer may, after obtaining the written authorisation of the employed person, pay him the wages either by cheque or by crediting the wages in his bank account.

Deductions from the wages of an employee

Section 7 of the Act allows deductions from the wages of an employee on the account of the following:- (i) fines; (ii) absence from duty; (iii) damage to or loss of goods expressly entrusted to the employee; (iv) housing accommodation and amenities provided by the employer; (v) recovery of advances or adjustment of overpayments of wages; (vi) recovery of loans made from any fund constituted for the welfare of labour in accordance with the rules approved by the State Government, and the interest due in respect thereof; (vii) subscriptions to and for repayment of advances from any provident fund;(viii) income-tax; (ix) payments to co-operative societies approved by the State Government or to a scheme of insurance maintained by the Indian Post Office; (x) deductions made with the written authorization of the employee for payment of any premium on his life insurance policy or purchase of securities.

Fines

Section 8 deals with fines. It provides that :

(1) No fine shall be imposed on any employed person save in respect of such acts and omissions on his part as the employer with the previous approval of the State Government or of the prescribed authority may have specified by notice under sub-section (2).

(2) A notice specifying such acts and omissions shall be exhibited in the prescribed manner on the premises in which the employment carried on or in the case of persons employed upon a railway (otherwise than in a factory) at the prescribed place or places.

(3) No fine shall be imposed on any employed person until he has been given an opportunity of showing cause against the fine or otherwise than in accordance with such procedure as may be prescribed for the imposition of fines.

(4) The total amount of fine which may be imposed in any one wage-period on any employed person shall not exceed an amount equal to three per cent of the wages payable to him in respect of that wage period.

(5) No fine shall be imposed on any employed person who is under the age of fifteen years.

(6) No fine imposed on any employed person shall be recovered from him by installments or after the expiry of ninety days from the day on which it was imposed.

(7) Every fine shall be deemed to have been imposed on the day of the act or omission in respect of which it was imposed.

(8) All fines and all realisations thereof shall be recorded in a register to be kept by the person responsible for the payment of wages under section 3 in such form as may be prescribed; and all such realisations shall be applied only to such purposes beneficial to the persons employed in the factory or establishment as are approved by the prescribed authority.

It may be noted that when the persons employed upon or in any railway, factory or industrial or other establishment are part only of a staff employed under the same management all such realisations may be credited to a common fund maintained for the staff as a whole provided that the fund shall be applied only to such purposes as are approved by the prescribed authority.

Maintenance of registers and records

Section 13A provides that every employer shall maintain such registers and records giving such particulars of persons employed by him, the work performed by them, the wages paid to them, the deductions made from their wages, the receipts given by them and such other particulars in prescribed form. Every register and record required to be maintained shall be preserved for a period of three years after the date of the last entry made therein.

Claims arising out of deductions from wages or delay in payment of wages and penalty for malicious or vexatious claims

Section 15 deals with claims arising out of deductions from wages or delay in payment of wages and penalty for malicious or vexatious claims. It provides that the appropriate Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, appoint-

(a) any Commissioner for Workmen’s Compensation; or

(b) any officer of the Central Government exercising functions as,-

(i) Regional Labour Commissioner; or

(ii) Assistant Labour Commissioner with at least two years’ experience; or

(c) any officer of the State Government not below the rank of Assistant Labour Commissioner with at least two years’ experience; or

(d) a presiding officer of any Labour Court or Industrial Tribunal, constituted under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 or under any corresponding law relating to the investigation and settlement of industrial disputes in force in the State; or

(e) any other officer with experience as a Judge of a Civil Court or a Judicial Magistrate, as the authority to hear and decide for any specified area all claims arising out of deductions from the wages, or delay in payment of the wages, of persons employed or paid in that area, including all matters incidental to such claims.

Provided that where the appropriate Government considers it necessary so to do, it may appoint more than one authority for any specified area and may, by general or special order, provide for the distribution or allocation of work to be performed by them under this Act.

Sub-section (2) of section 15 provides that where contrary to the provisions of the Act any deduction has been made from the wages of an employed person or any payment of wages has been delayed such person himself or any legal practitioner or any official of a registered trade union authorised in writing to act on his behalf or any Inspector under this Act or any other person acting with the permission of the authority appointed under subsection (1) may apply to such authority for a direction under sub-section (3) :

However, every such application shall be presented within twelve months from the date on which the deduction from the wages was made or from the date on which the payment of the wages was due to be made as the case may be. Any application may be admitted after the said period of twelve months when the applicant satisfies the authority that he had sufficient cause for not making the application within such period.

As per sub-section (3) when any application under sub-section (2) is entertained, the authority shall hear the applicant and the employer or other person responsible for the payment of wages under section 3, or give them an opportunity of being heard, and, after such further enquiry, if any, as may be necessary, may, without prejudice to any other penalty to which such employer or other person is liable under this Act, direct the refund to the employed person of the amount deducted, or the payment of the delayed wages, together with the payment of such compensation as the authority may think fit, not exceeding ten times the amount deducted in the former case and not exceeding three thousand rupees but not less than one thousand five hundred rupees in the latter, and even if the amount deducted or delayed wages are paid before the disposal of the application, direct the payment of such compensation, as the authority may think fit, not exceeding two thousand rupees.

A claim under the Act shall be disposed of as far as practicable within a period of three months from the date of registration of the claim by the authority. It may be noted that the period of three months may be extended if both parties to the dispute agree for any bona fide reason to be recorded by the authority that the said period of three months may be extended to such period as may be necessary to dispose of the application in a just manner.

No direction for the payment of compensation shall be made in the case of delayed wages if the authority is satisfied that the delay was due to-

(a) a bona fide error or bona fide dispute as to the amount payable to the employed person; or

(b) the occurrence of an emergency, or the existence of exceptional circumstances, the person responsible for the payment of the wages was unable, in spite of exercising reasonable diligence; or

(c) the failure of the employed person to apply for or accept payment.

As per sub-section (4) if the authority hearing an application under this section is satisfied that the application was either malicious or vexatious the authority may direct that a penalty not exceeding three hundred seventy five Rupees be paid to the employer or other person responsible for the payment of wages by the person presenting the application; or in any case in which compensation is directed to be paid under sub-section (3) the applicant ought not to have been compelled to seek redress under this section the authority may direct that a penalty not exceeding three hundred seventy five Rupees be paid to the State Government by the employer or other person responsible for the payment of wages.