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TH DECEMBER 1945] 4 P ART I - SECT 17

Officers.

17.(1) The Ministry, with the approval of the Ministry of Finance as to
numbers and salaries, may appoint officers to act for the purposes of this
Part of this Act.

(2) Every officer acting for the purposes of this Part of this Act shall be
furnished by the Ministry with a certificate of his appointment or authority
so to act, and when acting under this Part of this Act shall, if so required
by any person affected, produce the certificate to him.

(3) An officer acting for the purposes of this Part of this Act shall have
power for the performance of his duties

(a)to require the production of wages sheets or other records of time worked
or of wages paid kept by an employer, and records of payments made to
outworkers by persons giving out work, and any other such records as are
required by this Part of this Act to be kept by employers, and to inspect and
examine those sheets or records and copy any material part thereof;

(b)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 made or to
be made for the work;

(c)at all reasonable times to enter any premises or place at which any
employer to whom a wages regulation order applies carries on his business
(including any place used, in connection with that business, for giving out
work to outworkers and any premises which the officer has reasonable cause to
believe to be used by or by arrangement with the employer to provide living
accommodation for workers);

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

(e)to examine, either alone or in the presence of any other person, as he
thinks fit, with respect to any matters under this Part of this Act, any
person whom he has reasonable cause to believe to be or to have been a worker
to whom a wages regulation order applies or applied or the employer of any
such person or a servant or agent of the employer employed in the employer's
business and to require every such person to be so examined and to sign a
declaration of the truth of the matters in respect of which he is so examined:

Provided that no person shall be required under paragraph (e) of this
sub-section to give any information tending to criminate himself [or, in the
case of a person who is married, his or her wife or husband].

(4) An officer acting for the purposes of this Part of this Act may institute
proceedings for any offence under this Part of this Act and may, although not
of counsel or a solicitor, conduct any such proceedings.

(5) An officer acting for the purposes of this Part of this Act who is
authorised in that behalf by general or special directions of the Ministry
may, if it appears to him that a sum is due from an employer to a worker on
account of the payment to him of remuneration less than the statutory minimum
remuneration and that it is not possible to recover, by means of a prosecution
under the foregoing provisions of this Act, the sum so appearing to be due, or
some part of that sum, institute on behalf and in the name of the worker civil
proceedings before any court of competent jurisdiction for the recovery of the
said sum; and in any such civil proceedings the court may make an order for
the payment of costs by the officer as if he were a party to the proceedings.

The power given by this sub-section for the recovery of sums due from an
employer to a worker shall not be in derogation of any right of the worker to
recover such sums by civil proceedings.

(6) Any person who obstructs an officer acting for the purposes of this Part
of this Act in the exercise of any power conferred by this section, or refuses
to comply with any requirement of such an officer made in the exercise of any
such power, shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding
[#100].


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