Payment of Wages Act, 1936
No: 4 Dated: Apr, 23 1936
THE PAYMENT OF WAGES ACT, 1936
ACT NO. 4 OF 1936
An Act to regulate the payment of wages of certain classes to employed persons.
WHEREAS it is expedient to regulate the payment of wages to certain classes of employed persons.
It is hereby enacted as follows:—
1. Short title, extent, commencement and application.—(1) This Act may be called the Payment of Wages Act, 1936.
(2)It extends to the whole of India
(3) It shall come into force on such date5 as the Central Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, appoint.
(4) It applies in the first instance to the payment of wages to persons employed in any factory, to persons employed (otherwise than in a factory) upon any railway by a railway administration or, either directly or through a sub-contractor, by a person fulfilling a contract with a railway administration ,and to persons employed in an industrial or other establishment specified in sub-clauses (a) to (g) of clause (ii) of section 2.
(5) Appropriate Government may, after giving three months’ notice of its intention of so doing, by notification in the Official Gazette, extend the provisions of this Act or any of them to the payment of wages to any class of persons employed in any establishment or class of establishments specified by 11appropriate Government under sub-clause (h) of clause (ii) of section 2:
Provided that in relation to any such establishment owned by the Central Government no such notification shall be issued except with the concurrence of that Government.
(6) This Act applies to wages payable to an employed person in respect of a wage period if such wages for that wage period do not exceed twenty four thousand rupees per month or such other higher sum which, on the basis of figures of the Consumer Expenditure Survey published by the National Sample Survey Organisation, the Central Government may, after every five years, by notification in the Official Gazette, specify.
2. Definitions.—In this Act, unless there is anything repugnant in the subject or context,—
(i) "appropriate Government" means, in relation to railways, air transport services, mines and oilfields, the Central Government and, in relation to all other cases, the State Government;
(i-a) "employed person" includes the legal representative of a deceased employed person;
(i-b) "employer" includes the legal representative of a deceased employer;
(i-c) "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;
(ii) "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 oilfield;
(e) plantation;
(f) workshop or other 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 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 approriate Governmentmay, 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;
(ii-a) "mine" has the meaning assigned to it in clause (j) of sub-section (1) of section 2 of the Mines Act, 1952 (35 of 1952);
(iii) "plantation" has the meaning assigned to it in clause (f) of section 2 of the Plantations Labour Act, 1951 (69 of 1951);
(iv) "prescribed" means prescribed by rules made under this Act;
(v) "railway administration" has the meaning assigned to it in clause (32) of section 2 of the Railways Act, 1989 (24 of 1989);
(vi) "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, be 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 the 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).
3. Responsibility for payment of wages .-(1) Every employer shall be responsible for the payment of all wages required to be paid under this Act to persons employed by him and in case of persons employed,-
(a) in factories, if a person has been named as the manager of the factory under clause (f) of sub-section (1) of section 7 of the Factories Act, 1948 (63 of 1948);
(b) in industrial or other establishments, if there is a person responsible to the employer for the supervision and control of the industrial or other establishment;
(c) upon railways (other than in factories), if the employer is the railway administration and the railway administration has nominated a person in this behalf for the local area concerned;
(d) in the case of contractor, a person designated by such contractor who is directly under his charge; and
(e) 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.
(2) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (1), it shall be the responsibility of the employer to make payment of all wages required to be made under this Act in case the contractor or the person designated by the employer fails to make such payment.