Allowances to Plantation Workers Act 1981

Short title ard date of operation..

This Act may be cited as the Allowances to Plantation

Workers Act, No. 72.of 1981; anc shall come into operation on such date as may be appointed by the Minister by Order published in the Gazette (hereinafter referred to as the

“appointed date”).

The Commissioner shall be the competent authority for the purposes of this Act.

With effect from the appointed date, the provisions of this Act shall apply to, and in relation to, plantation workers in the following trades, namely :—

the tea growing and manufacturing trade ;

the rubber growing and manufacturing trade;

the coconut growing trade;

the cocoa, cardamom and pepper growing and manufacturing trade ;

the cinnamon trade; and

the tobacco trade, and such workers shall be entitled. to the allowances specified under section 5, irrespective of the extent of the plantation.

The provisions of the Wages Boards Ordinance shall apply to, and in relation to, payments of any allowances under this Act, to workers specified in section 3, as though such payments were required to be made by a decision made by the appropriate Wages Board.

The Minister shall, by Order published in the

The Minister may vary the amount specified under subsection (1) by a subsequent Order published in the Gazette,

The provisions of this Act shall have force and effect notwithstanding anything in any other written law of any contraet. of employment whether oral, written, express or implied, and accordingly, in the event'of any conflict or inconsistency between the provisions of this Act and any such other law or such contract, the provisions of this Act shall, to the extent of such inconsistency, prevail over any such other law or such contract.

The employer of a worker in any trade set out in section 3 shall maintain and keep in the premises in which that trade is cartied on, a record in respect of the workers employed in that trade, showing—

Every person who, as an employer, maintains or has maintained under subsection (1), any record, shall preserve such record for a period of six years and shall, when required to do so by the competent authority, produce such record for inspection and furnish a.true copy of such record or permit such copy to be made.

Any employer who fails to maintain and keep such record as is required to be maintained and kept by him under subsection (1), shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction before a Magistrate, to a fine not exceeding five hundred rupees, or to imprisonment of either description for a term not exceeding three raonths, or to both such fine and imprisonment.

The competent authority shall have the power—

to enter and inspect at all reasonable hours of the day or night any place in which workers referred’

where any such record or register is not available for examination when he is inspecting such place, to require the production of such register or record on a specified later date for examination at such place or at his office;

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

. to direct in writing any employer to whom this Act applies to furnish to him on or before a specified date-—

Any employer who fails to pay a sum required to be paid to a worker of such: employer tinder this Act, 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,

Where an employer has been convicted for failure to pay any sum required to be paid to a worker of such

In this section “prescribed” means prescribed by regulation made under section 11.

Notwithstanding anything in any written law, nothing in the Interim Devaluation Allowance of Employees

Act, No. 40 of 1968, the Special Allowance for Workers Law,

No. 17 of 1978, the Budgetary Relief Allowance of Workers

Law, No. 1 of 1978, the Budgetary Relief Allowance of

Workers (No. 2) Law, No. 18 of 1978, and the Supplementary

Allowance of Workers Act, No. 65 of 1979, shall apply to any worker specified in section 3.

The Minister may make regulations in respect of all matters which are stated or required by this Act to be prescribed.

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.

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.

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

Tn this Act, unless the context otherwise requires.

“einnamon trade” has the same meaning as in the Order made by the Minister of Labour under section 6

of the Wages Boards Ordinance, in respect of that trade and published in Gazette No. 11,410 of July 4, 1958

;

’

“ cocoa, cardamom and pepper growing and manufacturing trade” has the same meaning as in the Order made by the Minister of Labour under section 8 of the

Wages Boards Ordinance, in respect of those trades and published in Gazette No. 9,546 of April 4, 1946 ;

“coconut growing trade” has the same meaning as in the Order made by the Minister of Labour under section € of the Wages Boards Ordinance, in respect of that trade and published in Gazette No. 9,961 of

March 80, 1949 ;

Allowances to Plantation Workers 6

Act, No. 72 of 1981

“Commissioner” means, the person for the time being holding the office of Commissioner of Labour and includes any person for the time being holding office as a Deputy Commissioner of Labour or as a Senior

Assistant Commissioner of Labour or as an

Assistant Commissioner of Labour or as a Labour

Officer ;

“employer” means any person who on his own behalf employs, or on whose behalf any other person employs, any worker in any trade, and includes any person who on behalf of any person employs any worker in any trade;

“rubber growing and manufacturing trade” has the same

~ meaning as in the Order made by the Minister of

Labour under section 6 of the Wages Boards

Ordinance in respect of that trade, and published in

Gazette No. 10,035 of October 22, 1949;

“tea growing and manufacturing trade” has the same meaning as in the Order made by the Minister of

Labour under section 6 of the Wages Boards

Ordinance in respect of that trade, and published in Gazette No. 9,224 of January 7, 1944;

“tobacco trade” has the same meaning as in the Order made by the Minister of Labour under section 6 of the Wages Boards Ordinance in respect of that trade and published in Gazette Extraordinary

No. 13,713 of July 31, 1963; and

“wages” has the same meaning as in the Wages Boards

Ordinance, fa edi

Annual subscription of Bills and Laws of the Parliament Rs. 60 (Local),

Rs, 80 (Foreign), payable to the SUPERINTENDENT, GOVERNMENT PUBLICATIONS BUREAU,

P. O, Box 500, CoLomso 1, before 15th December each year in respect of the year following.

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