Plantations Labour Act, 1951
No: 69 Dated: Nov, 02 1951
THE PLANTATIONS LABOUR ACT, 1951
ACT NO. 69 OF 1951
An Act to provide for the welfare of labour, and to regulate the conditions of work, in plantations.
BE it enacted by Parliament as follows:—
CHAPTER I
PRELIMINARY
1. Short title, extent, commencement and application.—(1) This Act may be called the Plantations Labour Act, 1951.
(2) It extends to the whole of India except the State of Jammu and Kashmir.
(3) It shall come into force on such date as the Central Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, appoint
(4) It applies to the following plantations, that is to say,—
(a) to any land used or intended to be used for growing tea, coffee, rubber, cinchona or cardamom which admeasures 5 hectares or more and in which fifteen or more persons are employed or were employed on any day of the preceding twelve months;
(b) to any land used or intended to be used for growing any other plant, which admeasures 5 hectares or more and in which fifteen or more persons are employed or were employed on any day of the preceding twelve months, if, after obtaining the approval of the Central Government, the State Government, by notification in the Official Gazette, so directs.
Explanation.—Where any piece of land used for growing any plant referred to in clause (a) or clause (b) of this sub-section admeasures less than 5 hectares and is contiguous to any other piece of land not being so used, but capable of being so used, and both such pieces of land are under the management of the same employer, then, for the purposes of this sub-section, the piece of land first mentioned shall be deemed to be a plantation, if the total area of both such pieces of land admeasures 5 hectares or more.
(5) The State Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, declare that all or any of the provisions of this Act shall apply also to any land used or intended to be used for growing any plant referred to in clause (a) or clause (b) of sub-section (4), notwithstanding that—
(a) it admeasures less than 5 hectares, or
(b) the number of persons employed therein is less than fifteen: Provided that no such declaration shall be made in respect of such land which admeasured less than 5 hectares or in which less than fifteen persons were employed, immediately before the commencement of this Act.
2. Definitions.—In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,—
(a) “adolescent” means a person who has completed his fourteenth year but has not completed his eighteenth year;
(b) “adult” means a person who has completed his eighteenth year;
(c) “child” means a person who has not completed his fourteenth year;
(d) “day” means a period of twenty-four hours beginning at midnight;
(e) “employer” when used in relation to a plantation, means the person who has the ultimate control over the affairs of the plantation, and where the affairs of any plantation are entrusted to any other person (whether called a managing agent, manager, superintendent or by any other name) such other person shall be deemed to be the employer in relation to that plantation;
Explanation.—For the purposes of this clause, "the person who has the ultimate control over the the affairs of the plantation" means in the case of a plantation owned or controlled by—
(i) a company, firm or other association of individuals, whether incorporated or not, every director, partner or individual;
(ii) the Central Government or State Government or any local authority, the person or persons appointed to manage the affairs of the plantation; and
(iii) a lessee, the lessee;
(ee) “family”, when used in relation to a worker, means—
(i) his or her spouse, and
(ii) the legitimate and adopted children of the worker dependent upon him or her, who have not completed their eighteenth year, and includes parents and widow sister, dependent upon him or her;
(eee) “inspector” means an inspector of plantations appointed under sub-section (1) of section 4 and includes an additional inspector of plantations appointed under sub-section (1A) of that section;
(f) “plantation” means any plantation to which this Act, whether wholly or in part, applies and includes offices, hospitals, dispensaries, schools, and any other premises used for any purpose connected with such plantation, but does not include any factory on the premises to which the provisions of the Factories Act, 1948 (63 of 1948) apply;
(g) “prescribed” means prescribed by rules made under this Act;
(h) “qualified medical practitioner” means a person holding a qualification granted by an authority specified or notified under section 3 of the Indian Medical Degrees Act, 1916 (7 of 1916), or specified in the Schedules to the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956 (102 of 1956), and includes any person having a certificate granted under any Provincial or State Medical Council Act;
(i) “wages” has the meaning assigned to it in clause (h) of section 2 of the Minimum Wages Act, 1948 (11 of 1948);
(j) “week” means a period of seven days beginning at mid-night on Saturday night or such other night as may be fixed by the State Government in relation to plantations in any area after such consultation as may be prescribed with reference to the plantations concerned in that area;
(k) “worker” means a person employed in a plantation for hire or reward, whether directly or through any agency, to do any work, skilled, unskilled, manual or clerical and includes a person employed on contract for more than sixty days in a year, but does not include—
(i) a medical officer employed in the plantation;
(ii) any person employed in the plantation (including any member of the medical staff) whose monthly wages exceed rupees ten thousand;
(iii) any person employed in the plantation primarily in a managerial or administrative capacity, notwithstanding that his monthly wages do not exceed ten thousand; or
(iv) any person temporarily employed in the plantation in any work relating to the construction, development or maintenance of buildings, roads, bridges, drains or canals;
(l) “young person” means a person who is either a child or an adolescent.