Agriculture (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1944

3Minimum time rates of wages for agricultural workers employed on piece work

(1)The power conferred by subsection (1) of section two of the [14 & 15 Geo. 5. c. 37.] Agricultural Wages (Regulation) Act, 1924, as amended by or under any subsequent enactment (hereafter in this section referred to as " the Act of 1924 "), to fix minimum rates of wages for workers employed in agriculture for piece work shall include power to fix minimum time rates to apply in the case of workers employed on piece work for the purpose of securing to such workers a minimum rate of remuneration on a time work basis :

Provided that the minimum time rate for piece work shall not in any case be higher than the minimum rate which, if the work were time work, would be applicable thereto by virtue of the Act of 1924.

(2)Any minimum time rate for piece work may (without prejudice to the powers of fixing special rates conferred by subsection (2) of the said section two) be fixed so as to provide for a differential rate for work done in such circumstances that, if it were time work, it would be treated as overtime for the purposes of the minimum rate applicable thereto by virtue of the Act of 1924.

(3)In subsection (3) of the said section two (which empowers an agricultural Wages committee to fix an individual rate of wages lower than the minimum for a worker employed on time work who is affected by injury or other infirmity) after the words "employed on time work to. which a minimum rate fixed under this Act is applicable " there shall be inserted the words " or on piece work to which a minimum time rate so fixed is applicable. "

(4)Section four of the Act of 1924 (which empowers an agricultural wages committee to require the payment of extra wages to a worker who is employed on piece work for which no minimum piece rate has been fixed and who complains that his wages are too little by comparison with the minimum rate for time work) shall not apply in the case of a worker employed on piece work for which a minimum time rate has been fixed under this section.

(5)In relation to any workers for whom a special minimum rate for time work is fixed under any Defence Regulation in substitution for the minimum rate fixed under the Act of 1924, the references in subsections (1) and (2) of this section to the minimum rate for time work applicable by virtue of the said Act shall be construed as references to the minimum rate applicable, by virtue of the Regulation.