[Home] [Databases] [World Law] [Multidatabase Search] [Help] [Feedback]
	Statutes of Northern Ireland
You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> Statutes of Northern Ireland >> URL: http://www.bailii.org/nie/legis/num_act/ta189689.txt

[New search] [Help]

TRUCK ACT 1896

TRUCK ACT 1896 - LONG TITLE

An Act to amend the Truck Acts.{1}
[14th August 1896]
Deductions or payments in respect of fines.

TRUCK ACT 1896 - SECT 1

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 specified the acts or omissions in respect of which
the fine may be imposed, and the amount of the fine or the
particulars from which that amount may be ascertained; and

(c)the fine imposed under the contract is in respect of some act
or omission which causes or is likely to cause damage or loss to
the employer, or interruption or hindrance to his business; and

(d)the amount of the fine 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 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.

TRUCK ACT 1896 - SECT 2
Deductions or payments in respect of damaged goods.

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 whom it affects; or the contract is in writing,
signed by the workman; and

(b)the deduction or payment to be made under the contract does not
exceed the actual or estimated damage or loss occasioned to the
employer by the act or omission of the workman, or of some person
over whom he has control, or for whom he has by the contract
agreed to be responsible; and

(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 which the deduction or payment is made and the amount thereof
are supplied to the workman on each occasion when a deduction or
payment is made.

TRUCK ACT 1896 - SECT 3
Deductions or payments in respect of materials.

3.(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, 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
deduction or payment is made and the amount thereof are supplied to
the workman on each occasion when a deduction or payment is made.

TRUCK ACT 1896 - SECT 4
Penalty.

4. If any employer enters into any contract contrary to this Act,
or makes 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 penalties imposed by section nine of
that Act as if the offence were an offence in that section
mentioned.

TRUCK ACT 1896 - SECT 5
Recovery of payments or deductions.

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.

TRUCK ACT 1896 - SECT 6
Production of contract.

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 or 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 [#2].

S.7 rep. by 1964 c.24 (NI) s.6 sch.

TRUCK ACT 1896 - SECT 8
Saving as to contracts and payments illegal under existing Acts.

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.

TRUCK ACT 1896 - SECT 9
Power to exempt from provisions of Act.

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 business, or in any branch or department of any
trade or business, either generally or within any specified area,
may by order under his hand grant an exemption from those
provisions in respect of the persons engaged in that trade,
business, branch or department, either generally or within that 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.[

TRUCK ACT 1896 - SECT 10
Appointment of officers for enforcement of existing Acts.

10.(1) The Department of Manpower Services, with the approval of the
Department of the Civil Service as to numbers and salaries, may
appoint such officers as it thinks necessary for the purpose of
enforcing the provisions of this Act and of the Truck Acts 1831
and 1887 and the persons so appointed shall for that purpose have
the powers conferred on them by subsection (3).

(2) Every appointment under subsection (1) shall be made in writing
and an officer appointed thereunder shall, if so required when
exercising or seeking to exercise any power conferred on him by
subsection (3), produce his written appointment or a duly
authenticated copy thereof.

(3) An officer appointed under subsection (1) may, for the purpose
there mentioned, exercise any of the following powers:

(a)at any reasonable time to enter any premises where any person is
or has been employed whom he has reason to believe is a workman
to whom the said Acts apply or applied and, at any reasonable
time, to enter any premises from which work in connection with the
business carried on at those premises is given out to outworkers to
whom he has reason to believe the said Acts apply;

(b)to require the production of, inspect, and take copies of or of
any entry in any wage sheets or other records of wages kept by an
employer, and records of payments made to outworkers by persons
giving out work;

(c)to require any person giving out work and any outworker to give
any information which it is in his power to give with respect to
the names and addresses of the persons to whom the work is given
out or from whom the work is received, as the case may be, and
with respect to the payments to be made for the work;

(d)to inspect and copy the whole or any material part of any list
of outworkers kept by an employer or person giving out work to
outworkers;

(e)to require any person whom he has reasonable cause to believe to
be able to give any information relevant to his investigation under
the said Acts to answer (in the absence of persons other than a
person nominated by him to be present and any persons whom the
officer may allow to be present) such questions as the officer
thinks fit to ask and to sign a declaration of the truth of his
answers, so however that no one shall be required under this
provision to answer any question tending to criminate himself or, in
the case of a person who is married, his or her wife or husband.

(4) An officer appointed under subsection (1) if authorised in that
behalf by the Department of Manpower Services may, although not of
counsel or a solicitor, prosecute before a court of summary
jurisdiction proceedings for an offence under any of the said Acts.

(5) If any person in purported compliance with a requirement imposed
under this section

(a)produces or furnishes or causes or knowingly allows to be
produced or furnished any wages sheet, record, list or other
document which he knows to be false in a material particular; or

(b)makes any statement which he knows to be false in a material
particular or recklessly makes a statement which is so false,

(6) If any person intentionally obstructs an officer appointed under
subsection (1) in the exercise or performance of his powers or
duties or fails to comply with any requirement imposed by such an
officer in the exercise of his powers, he shall be guilty of an
offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding
#20.]

S.11 rep. by SLR 1908

TRUCK ACT 1896 - SECT 12
Short title and construction.

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 may be cited collectively as the Truck Acts, 1831 to
1896.