The Attorney General V. Urquhart

1932 Present : Macdonell C.J., Garvin S.P.J., and
Dalton J.

THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL v. URQUHART.

372-P. C. Panadure, 12,113.

Minimum wage-Minimum rate for working day of eight hours-Estate Wages Board-Power to fix minimum wage-Employer's contract for working day of six hours-Proportional rate of pay-Rate less favourable than minimum rate-Indian Labour Ordinance, No. 27 of 1927, ss. 8 (1) and 11 (1).

Where, under the Indian Labour Ordinance, No. 27 of 1927, the Estate Wages Board has fixed a minimum rate of wages for a working day of eight hours to be paid for time work, the accused, the Superintendent of an estate, engaged labourers on a working day of six hours, to be paid at a proportional rate, computed according to the minimum rate of wages fixed.

Held, (by Macdonell C.J. and Dalton J., Garvin S.P.J. dissenting), that the accused had paid the labourer at a rate of wages less favourable than the minimum rate of wages fixed and that he had offended against the provisions of section 11 (1) of the Ordinance.

Per GARVIN S.P.J.-There is no provision in the Ordinance which requires payment at a higher rate for time work, whenever, by the terms of the agreement, the agreed hours per day are less than eight hours ; nor is it possible to interpret the rate of 50 cents per working day of eight hours fixed by the Estate Wages Board as meaning a wage of 50 cents for every working day of eight hours or less.

CASE referred by Garvin S.P.J. to a Bench of three Judges.

The accused was charged with having committed an offence under section 11 (1) of the Indian Labour Ordinance, No. 27 of 1927, in that, being the Superintendent of Perth estate, he paid three labourers, to whom the minimum rate of wages fixed under Chapter I. of the Ordinance was applicable, at a rate of wages less favourable to them than the prescribed minimum rate of wages applicable to each of them. In Notification No. 23, published in the Government Gazette, the rates fixed by the Estate Wages Board and approved by the Governor were set out as follows : " On all estates the rate fixed is the minimum rate to be paid for a working day of nine hours (including time not exceeding one hour taken for midday meal) .... The following minimum rate of wages have been fixed for the areas specified: Men 50 cents, women 40 cents." Since May, 1931, the working day, in the case of Perth estate, was limited to six hours for which the labourers were paid a wage computed at the rate of six-eighths of 50 cents or six-eighths of 40 cents according as the labourer was an adult male or female.

The defence to the charge was that the wages paid, worked out per hour, amounted to the same or a little more than the amount per hour computed at the minimum rate fixed by the Estate Wages Board and could not be said to be a less favourable rate.

The learned Police Magistrate upheld the defence and acquitted the accused.

Illangdkoon, Acting S.-G. (with him Basnayake, C.C.), for Crown, appellant -This is an appeal from an acquittal in a prosecution under section 11 (1) of Ordinance No. 27 of 1927. Whether a labourer works for eight hours or less a day the minimum daily wage fixed under the Ordinance must be paid. The Police Magistrate has held that the payment should be according to the time taker in the work at a rate proportional to the rate fixed for an eight-hour working day. The Ordinance contemplates payment for time work and work other than time work. Time work is work paid for on the basis of an eight-hour day. Beyond this period is reckoned as overtime. The Ordinance has to be read and construed with the previous Labour Ordinances, Nos. 11 of 1865, 13 of 1889, and 1 of 1923. The labourers were engaged on a monthly verbal contract of service. Section 4 of Ordinance No. 11 of 1865 draws a distinction between servants paid at daily and monthly rates. The wages have to be computed according to the number

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