Rule 1: Short title
These rules may be called the Maharashtra payment of Wages Rules, 1963.
Rule 2: Definitions
In these rules, unless the context otherwise requires.
(a) “Act” means the Payment of Wages Act, 1963;
(b) “Authority” means the authority appointed under sub-section (1) of Section 15;
(c) “Chief Inspector of Factories” mean the Chief Inspector of Factories appointed under sub-section (2) of Section 8 of the Factories Act, 1948;
(d) “Chief Officer” means a Chief Officer of a municipality appointed under the Bombay Municipal Boroughs Act, 1925;
(e) “Court” means the Court mentioned in sub-section (1) of Section 17;
(f) “Deduction for breach of contract” means a deduction made in accordance with the provisions of the proviso to sub-section (2) of Section 9;
(g) “Deduction for damage or loss” means a deduction made in accordance with the provisions of clause ( c ) of sub-section (2) of Section 7;
(h) “Establishment” means, except in the expression “industrial establishment”, and establishment as defined by the Bombay Shops and Establishments Act, 1948, and in respect of which the provisions of Payment of Wages Act, 1936, have been or may be, applied by the State Government by notification under Section 38 of the first mentioned Act;
(i) “Executive Officer” means an Executive Officer appointed under Section 71 of the Hyderabad District Municipalities Act 1956;
(j) “Form” means a Form appended to these rules;
(k) “Industrial establishment” includes an establishment;
(l) “Inspector” means an Inspector authorize by or under Section 14;
(m) “Municipal Commissioner” means the Municipal Commissioner appointed under the Bombay Municipal Corporation Act or as the case may be, the City of Nagpur Corporation Act, 1948, the Bombay provincial Municipal Corporation Act, 1949.
(n) “Person employed” excludes all persons to the payment of whose wages the Act does not apply;
(o) “Secretary” means a secretary of Municipality governed by the provisions of the Bombay District Municipal Act, 1901 or the Central Provinces and Berar Municipalities Act, 1922;
(p) “Section” means a section of the Act;
(q) “Paymaster” means an employer or other persons responsible under Section 3 for the payment of wages.
Rule 3: ***
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Rule 4: ***
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Rule 5: ***
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Rule 6: Maintenance of Registers
the registers required by Rules 3,4,5 and 18 shall always be made available for inspection by the Inspector and be preserved by the employer for three years after the date of the last entry made in them.
Rule 7: Weights, Measures and Weighing Machines
All weights or measures or weighing or measuring instruments which are used in checking or ascertaining the wages of person employed in any factory or industrial establishment shall be examined in accordance with the provisions of the Bombay Weights and measures (Enforcement) Act 1958.If an Inspector considers that any action should be taken under the said Act, He may seize the article in question and shall report the matter with his opinion to the Inspector of Weights and Measures having jurisdiction under the said Act for necessary action.
Rule 8: Notice of dates of Payment
The paymaster shall display, in a conspicuous place at or near the main entrance of the factory or of the industrial establishment, as the case may be, a notice in English and in the language of the majority of the persons employed therein, showing the days on which wages are to be paid.
Rule 9: Manner of payment of excess bonus
The excess amount of the bonus payable to an employed person under the proviso to Section 6 shall be paid to him in the following manner, namely :
(a) As much as possible of the amount of excess bonus shall be paid in 10 – Year National Defence Deposit Certificates or in 12 – Year National Defence Certificates of rupees ten or higher denomination or in both or in any other certificates or bonds or securities issued by Government which the State Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, direct;
(b) If the balance remaining after such payment is five rupees or more but less than ten rupees, a 12-Year National Defence Certificate or any other certificate, bond or security referred to in clause (a) of rupees five denomination in addition shall be given to the employed person;
(c) Any balance thereafter remaining shall be paid in cash :
Provided that where an employed person is dead or ceases to reside in the Indian territory at the time of the payment of the bonus, the excess amount of the bonus may be paid in case to the legal representative of the person who is dead or, as the case may be, to the person who ceases to reside in the Indian territory :
Provided further that except with the previous permission of the Custodian of Evacuee Property, Bombay, no payment of the excess amount of the bonus shall be paid to any person residing in Pakistan.
Rule 10: Prescribed Authority
In respect of employed person who are dock workers, the` Regional Labour Commissioner (Central), Bombay and in any other case the Commissioner of Labour shall be authority competent to approve under sub-section (1) of Section 8, acts and omissions in respect of which fines may be imposed and, under sub-section (8) of Section 8, the purposes on which the proceeds of fines shall be applied.
Rule 11: Application in respect of fines
Every employer requiring the power to impose fines in respect of any acts and omissions on the part of employed person shall send to the Authority appointed under Rule 10 –
(a) a list, in English, in duplicate, clearly defining such acts and omissions;
(b) in cases where the employer himself does not intend to be the sole person empowered to impose fines, a list, in duplicate, showing those appointments in his factory or industrial establishment, as the case may be, of which the incumbents may pass order imposing fines and the class of establishment on which the incumbent of each such appointment may impose fine.
Rule 12: Approval of lists
The Authority appointed under Rule 10 on receipt of the lists prescribed in the preceding rule may, after such enquiry as he considers necessary, pass orders either –
(a) disapproving the lists, or
(b) approving the lists either in their original or as amended by him, in which case such lists shall be considered to be approved lists:
Provided that no order disapproving or amending any lists shall be passed unless the employer shall have been given an opportunity of showing cause orally or in writing as to why the lists as submitted by him should be approved.
Rule 13: Posting of list
The employer shall display at or near the main entrance of the factory or the industrial establishment, as the case may be, a copy in English together with a literal translation thereof, in the language of the majority of the persons employed therein, of the list of acts and omissions approved under Rule 12.
Rule 14: Persons authorised to impose fines
No fine may be imposed by any person other than an employer, or a person holding an appointment named in the list submitted under Rule 11.
Rule 15: Procedure in imposing fines and deductions
Any person desiring to impose a fine on an employed person or to make a deduction for damage or loss shall explain personally or in writing to the said person the act or omission, or damage or loss in respect of which the fine or deduction is proposed to be imposed, and the amount of the fine or deduction, which it is proposed to impose, and shall hear his explanation in the presence of at least one other person, or obtain it in writing.
Rule 16: Information to paymaster
The person imposing a fine or directing the making of deduction for damage or loss shall at once inform the paymaster of all particulars, so that the register described in Rule 3 or Rule 4 or Rule 5 may be duly completed.
Rule 17: Deductions for absence from duty
(1) No deduction for absence from duty shall be made from the wages of an employed person who is under the age of fifteen years or is a woman.
(2) No deduction for absence from duty shall be made from the wages of any employed person unless-
(a) there is provision in writing forming part of the terms of the contract of employment requiring him to give notice of the termination of his employment and –
(i) the period of such notice does not exceed fifteen days or the wage period, whichever is less; and
(ii) the period of such notice does not exceed the period of notice which the employer is required to give of the termination of that employment;
(b) this rule has been displayed in English, in the language of the majority of the employed persons at or near the main entrance of the factory or of industrial establishment, as the case may be, and has been so displayed for not less than one month before the commencement of the absence in respect of which the deduction is made;
(c) a notice has been displaced at or near the main entrance of the factory or of the industrial establishment; as the case may be, giving the names of the persons from whom the deduction is proposed to be made, the number of days wages to be deducted and the conditions (if any) on which the deduction shall be remitted:
Provided that where the deduction is proposed to be made from all the persons employed in any department or section of the factory or of the industrial establishment, as the case may be, it shall be sufficient, in lieu of giving the names of the persons in such department or section, to specify the department or section affected.
(3) No deduction for absence from duty shall exceed the wages of the persons employed for the period by which the notice of termination of service given falls short of the period of such notice required by the contract of employment.
(4) If any conditions have been specified in the notice displayed under clause (c) of sub-rule (2), no deduction for absence from duty shall be made from any person who has complied with these conditions.
Rule 18: Advances
(1) An advance of wages, not already earned shall not, without the previous permission of an Inspector, exceed an amount equivalent to the wages earned by the employed person during the preceding four calendar months, or if he has not been employed for that period, the wages he is likely to earn during the four subsequent calendar months.
(2) The advance may be recovered in instalments by deductions from wages spread over not more than eighteen months. No instalment shall exceed one-third of where the wages of any wage-period are not more than twenty rupees, one-fourth of the wages for the wage-period in respect of which the deduction is made.
(3) The amounts of all advances sanctioned and the payments thereof shall be entered in a register in Form IV.
(4) The rate of interest charged for advances granted under sub-rule (1) shall not exceed 6 ¼% per annum.
Provided that if the employer is maintaining muster roll cum wage register in Form II prescribed by sub-rule (1) of Rule 27 of the Maharashtra Minimum Wages Rules, 1963, he may not maintain the register under this sub-rule.
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Rule 20: Display of rates of wages
(1) In every cotton spinning and weaving factory and in every artificial silk factory, a notice shall be displayed by the paymaster in each department of the factory specifying the rates of wages payable to all persons employed in such factory other than those who are employed in positions of supervision or management or those who are employed in a confidential position or in accordance with the provisions of the Maharasthra Factories Rules 1963.
(2) In every industrial establishment, a notice shall be displayed by the paymaster, specifying the rates of wages payable to all persons employed in such establishment other than those who are employed in position of supervision or management.
Rule 21: Costs
(1) Where the Authority or the Court, as the case may be, directs that any costs shall not follow the events, it or he shall state the reasons for so doing the writing.
(2) The costs which may be awarded shall include –
(a) the charges necessarily incurred on account of court-fees;
(b) the charges necessarily incurred on subsistence money to witness; and
(c) pleaders fee which shall ordinarily be rupees ten provided that the Authority or the Court, as the case may be, in any proceedings may reduce the fee to a sum not less than rupees five or increase it to a sum not exceeding rupees thirty.
(3) When a party engages more pleaders than one to defend a case, he shall be allowed one set of costs only.
Rule 22: The Authority or the Court to fix fees
The Authority or the Court, as the case may be, may fix fees on the payment of which any person entitled to do so may obtain copies of any documents filled with the Authority or the Court as the case may be:
Provided that the Authority or the Court, as the case may be, may, in consideration of the poverty of the applicant, grant copies free of costs.
Rule 23: Court fees
The court-fees payable in respect of proceedings under the Act specified in Column 1 of the Table below shall be at the rate specified against each of them in Column 2 thereof:-
TABLE
(i) An application to summon a witness: Rs 20 in respect of each witness.
(ii) An application made to the Authority under Section 15:
The same rate of ad valorem fees as is chargeable in respect of a plaint under Article 1 of Schedule 1 to the Bombay Court-Fees Act, 1959, calculated on the amount claimed under the application or on the amount directed to be paid by the Authority appointed under Section 15, whichever is less.
(iii) An appeal preferred before the Court or Small Causes or District Court under Section 17:
The same rate of ad valorem fees as is chargeable in respect of a memorandum of appeal under Article 1 of Schedule 1 to the Bombay Court-Fees Act 1959, calculated on the amount of the subject matter in dispute in appeal except that when an appeal is preferred by a person making an application under Section 15, the fees payable shall, subject to the provision of Section 17-B, be calculated on the amount directed to be paid by the Appellate Court under Section 17.
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Rule 25: Penalties
Any contravention of Rules 3, 4, 5,6,8,13,16, 19 and 20 shall be punishable with fine which may extend to two hundred rupees
Rule 26: Repeal and Saving
On the commencement of these rules, the Bombay Payment of Wages Rules, 1937 the Central Provinces and Berar Payment of Wages Rules, 1936 and the Hydedrabad Payment of Wages Rules 1352-F shall stand repealed, except as respects things done or omitted to be done before such repeal