Citation, commencement and interpretation

1.—(1) These Regulations may be cited as the Agricultural Wages (1977 Order) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1999 and shall come into operation on 1st April 1999.

(2) The Interpretation Act (Northern Ireland) 1954(2) shall apply to these Regulations as it applies to a Measure of the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Amendment

2.—(1) The Agricultural Wages (Regulation) (Northern Ireland) Order 1977(3) shall be further amended in accordance with this regulation.

(2) In Article 8A(1) for the words “paragraphs (3) and (4)” there shall be substituted the words “paragraphs (3) to (4)”.

(3) Article 8A(3)(f) shall be omitted.

(4) After Article 8A(3) there shall be inserted—

“(3A) In the application of section 17 of the National Minimum Wage Act 1998 by paragraph (1)—

(a)for subsection (2) there shall be substituted the following subsection—

“(2) That amount is the difference between—

(a)the remuneration received by the worker as a worker employed in agriculture for the pay reference period from his employer; and

(b)the amount which he would have received as a worker employed in agriculture for that period had he been remunerated by the employer at the minimum rate applicable under the Agricultural Wages (Regulation) (Northern Ireland) Order 1977.”;

(b)subsection (3) shall be disregarded.”.

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations.)

These Regulations further amend the Agricultural Wages (Regulation) (Northern Ireland) Order 1977 (“the 1977 Order”). Paragraph 26 of Schedule 2 to the National Minimum Wage Act 1998 (“the 1998 Act”) amended the 1977 Order so as to apply the enforcement provisions of the 1998 Act for the purposes of that Order. The effect of these Regulations is to specify the additional remuneration to which a worker is entitled for agricultural work where his employer has paid him at a rate less than the minimum rate applicable under the 1977 Order.

The amount is the difference between what the worker received from his employer for agricultural work in the pay reference period and what he would have received if he had been paid at the minimum rate. The expression “pay reference period” is defined in the National Minimum Wage Regulations 1999, S.I. 1999/584.