7 & 8 GEORGE 5, CHAPTER 45. by order repeal those provisions, and thereupon the following provisions shall have effect in lieu thereof : (1) It shall not be lawful for a person without the consent of the Minister of Munitions to give employment to a workman who has, since the passing of this Act, been employed (a) on or in connection with munitions work of a class specified in paragraph (a) of subsection (1) of section nine of the Munitions of War (Amendment) Act 1916; or (b) on or in connection with munitions work of any other class which may be specified in an order of the Minister of Munitions where the work on which he is to be employed is not work on or in connection with munitions work. The consent of the Minister of Munitions for the purposes of this provision may be given either as respects an individual case or generally as respects work or workmen of any particular class or description: (2) If any person contravenes this provision he shall be guilty of an offence, triable by a munitions tribunal of the second class, under the Munitions of War Act 1915, unless he proves that he did not know that, and had taken all reasonable steps to ascertain whether, the workman had been so employed; but proceedings for such an offence shall not be instituted except by the Minister of Munitions or the Admiralty, or by a person acting on his or their behalf: (3) A person guilty of such an offence shall be liable to a fine not exceeding five pounds for each day or part of a day during which the contravention continues: (4) The purpose of ascertaining whether the provisions of this section have been contravened in any establishment shall be included amongst the purposes for which the powers of entry, examination, and enquiry conferred by section seventeen of the Munitions of War (Amendment) Act 1916 are exerciseable. 3. TERMINATION OF CONTRACTS.—(1) If the provisions of section seven of the Munitions of War Act 1915, as amended by any subsequent enactment, are repealed by an order under this Act a contract of service between an employer and a workman employed on or in connection with munitions work shall, notwithstanding any agreement to the contrary, not be determinable by either party except by a week's notice or on payment of a sum equal to an average week's wages under the contract: Provided that this section shall not apply (a) where under the contract a longer notice than one week is required; (c) in the case of the termination of a contract on the ground of such misconduct (2) Any sum payable in lieu of notice under this section by an employer or workman shall be recoverable before a munitions tribunal of the second class, and payment of a sum adjudged to be paid by such a tribunal in such proceedings shall be enforceable in like manner as payment of a fine imposed by the tribunal. Nothing in this section shall be construed as affecting the operation of any of the other provisions of the Munitions of War Acts 1915 to 1917. 4. AMENDMENT OF S. 6 OF THE ACT OF 1916.-If the provisions of section seven of the Munitions of War Act 1915, as amended by any subsequent enactment, are repealed by an order under this Act, section six of the Munitions of War (Amendment) Act 1916 shall apply to female workers employed on or in connection with munitions work in establishments of all classes, and accordingly in that section the words "of a class to which the provisions of section seven of the principal Act, as amended by this Act, are for the time being applied by an order made thereunder " shall be repealed. MUNITIONS OF WAR ACT 1917. 5. POWER TO MAKE CERTAIN AWARDS AS TO WAGES Binding on TRADES.(1) Where an award as to a change in the rate of wages payable to persons engaged on or in connection with munitions work, or as to hours of work or otherwise as to terms or conditions of, or affecting employment of, persons so engaged, has been made either under Part I. of the Munitions of War Act 1915, or in pursuance of an agreement between representatives of employers and workmen, and the Minister of Munitions is satisfied that the award is binding upon employers employing the majority of the persons engaged on or in connection with munitions work in any trade or branch of a trade either generally or in a particular district, the Minister of Munitions may by order direct that the award shall be binding on all or any other employers and persons so engaged, either without modifications or subject in any particular cases to such modifications contained in the direction as the Minister may consider necessary to adapt the award to the circumstances of such cases, and in particular in order that no such other employer shall be enabled to pay less wages than are payable in the like circumstances by employers who were originally bound by the award. (2) Where any such directions are given the award shall be binding not only on the employers and persons so engaged who are affected by the award as originally made, but also, subject to such modifications (if any) as aforesaid, on the other employers and persons so engaged to whom the directions relate, and any contravention thereof or non-compliance therewith shall be punishable in like manner as if the award and the order in which such directions are contained were an award made in settlement of a difference under Part I. of the Munitions of War Act 1915, and had been made in respect of a dispute affecting such employers and persons so engaged. 6. REPORTING OF DIFFERENCES.-(1) The Minister of Labour may make regulations with respect to the reporting of differences under section one of the Munitions of War Act 1915, and with a view to preventing undue delay in negotiations for settling such differences may by those regulations prescribe the time within which any such difference is to be reported to him. (2) A difference may be reported under subsection (1) of section one of the Munitions of War Act 1915, by or on behalf of any Government department; and accordingly in that subsection after the words "by or on behalf of either party to the difference" there shall be inserted the words "or by or on behalf of any Government department." 7. AMENDMENT OF FIRST SCHEDULE OF PRINCIPAL ACT.-At the end of the First Schedule to the Munitions of War Act 1915 the following paragraph shall be inserted: (4) The tribunal shall make its award without delay, and where practicable within fourteen days from the date of reference. 8. RESTRICTIONS ON ALTERATION OF PIECE PRICES, &C., IN CONTROLLED ESTABLISHMENTS.-(1) The undertaking which the owner of a controlled establishment is by virtue of subsection (4) of section four of the Munitions of War Act 1915 deemed to have entered into shall include an undertaking that piece prices, time allowances, or bonuses on output, or the rates or prices payable under any other system of payments by results, once fixed in the establishment may not be altered except in accordance with any procedure which has been adopted by agreement between the owner of the establishment and the workmen or their representatives and is in force in the establishment at the passing of this Act or by the direction of the Minister of Munitions, which direction shall not be given except in accordance with an agreement between the owner of the establishment and the trade unions representing the workmen affected by the alteration, or failing agreement after consultation with the parties concerned : Provided that this provision shall not apply where the alteration is made in accordance with the directions as to the rates of wages of female workers given by the Minister of Munitions under section six of the Munitions of War (Amendment) Act 1916, nor shall this provision apply to shipbuilding yards or ship-repairing yards, but as respects such yards the Minister of Munitions or the Admiralty may make rules regulating the alteration of the rates or prices payable under systems of payments by results therein. (2) Where an alteration of the rates or prices payable under a system of payment 7 & 8 GEORGE 5, CHAPTER 45. by results is made in accordance with the provisions of this section, paragraph seven of the Second Schedule to the Munitions of War Act 1915 shall not apply. 9. PENALTY ON DISMISSAL OF WORKMAN ON GROUND OF MEMBERSHIP OF TRADE UNION.-No workman employed on or in connection with munitions work shall be discharged on the ground that he has joined or is a member of a trade union, or that he has taken part in any trade dispute, and if any employer discharges & workman on any such ground he shall be guilty of an offence triable by a munitions tribunal of the second class under the Munitions of War Act 1915, and shall be liable to a fine not exceeding ten pounds, and the tribunal may order that the whole or any part of the fine imposed shall be paid as compensation to the workman: Provided that nothing in this section shall prejudice any right of action for wrongful dismissal that the workman may have against his employer. 10. PROCEEDINGS UNDER S. 4 (5) OF PRINCIPAL ACT.-Proceedings against a person for contravening or failing to comply with regulations made by the Minister of Munitions under subsection (5) of section four of the Munitions of War Act 1915 shall not be instituted except by the Minister of Munitions or the Admiralty, or by a person acting on his or their behalf. 11. APPLICATION OF S. 17 OF PRINCIPAL ACT.-Section seventeen of the Munitions of War Act 1915, and section twenty-five of the Munitions of War (Amendment) Act 1916, shall apply to any order or regulation made under this Act. 12. SHORT TITLE AND CITATION.-This Act may be cited as the Munitions of War Act 1917, and shall be construed as one with the Munitions of War Acts 1915 and 1916, and this Act and those Acts may be cited together as the Munitions of War Acts 1915 to 1917. Section. CHAPTER XLVI. CORN PRODUCTION ACT 1917. ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS. PART I.-MINIMUM PRICE OF WHEAT AND OATS. 1. Payments to growers where average price of wheat or oats is less than minimum. 2. Minimum price and average price. 3. Claims for payment. PART II.-AGRICULTURAL WORKMEN (MINIMUM WAGE). 4. Minimum rate for agricultural wages. 5. Establishment of Wages Board. 6. Complaints as to inadequate payment for piece-work where no minimum piece-rate has been fixed. 7. Complaints as to infraction of minimum rates of wages. PART III.-RESTRICTION ON RAISING OF AGRICULTURAL RENTS. 8. Rents not to be raised in consequence of Act. An Act for encouraging the production of Corn, and for purposes connected therewith (including provision as to Agricultural Wages and Rents). [21st August 1917.] BE it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows: PART I.-MINIMUM PRICE OF WHEAT AND OATS. 1. PAYMENTS TO GROWERS WHERE AVERAGE PRICE OF WHEAT OR OATS IS LESS THAN MINIMUM.-If the average price for the wheat or oats of any year for which a minimum price is fixed under this Act, as ascertained for the purpose of this Part of this Act, is less than the minimum price as fixed by this Act, the occupier of any land on which wheat or oats have been produced in that year shall be entitled to be paid by the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries in respect of each acre on which he proves to the satisfaction of the Board that wheat or oats have been so produced, a sum equal in the case of wheat to four times, and in the case of oats to five times, the difference between the average price and the minimum price per quarter: Provided that (a) if it appears to the Board in respect of any land on which wheat or oats have been produced that the wheat or oats were intermixed with any other crop, the amount payable in respect of that land shall be adjusted accordingly in such manner as the Board think proper; or () if it appears to the Board that any such land has been negligently cultivated, the Board may either withhold altogether the payments to which the occupier would otherwise have been entitled or may diminish the amount of those payments to such extent as the Board think proper to meet the circumstances of the case. 2. MINIMUM PRICE AND AVERAGE PRICE-(1) The following minimum prices shall be fixed for the wheat and oats of the following years : (2) The average price for the wheat or cats of any year shall for the purposes of this Part of this Act be taken to be the average price for the seven months beginning on the first day of September in that year ascertained by adding together the weekly averages of the weeks included in those seven months, and dividing the total by the number of weeks. For the purposes of this provision the weekly averages for any week shall be taken to be the average price per quarter for that week of wheat or oats, as the case may be, ascertained in accordance with the Corn Returns Act 1882 (45 & 46 Vict. c. 37). (3) The Board of Agriculture and Fisheries shall, as soon as may be after the end 7 & 8 GEORGE 5, CHAPTER 46. of March in any year, cause the average price of wheat and oats for the preceding year, as ascertained under this section, to be published in the London Gazette. 3. CLAIMS FOR PAYMENT.-(1) The person who was, on the first day of September in the year in which the wheat or oats were produced, the occupier of the land on which they were produced shall be deemed to be the occupier entitled to receive any payments under this Part of this Act: Provided that when there has been any change in the occupation of the land on which the wheat or oats were produced, then (a) if the outgoing tenant is under any custom or otherwise entitled to harvest any wheat or oats grown on the land, the outgoing tenant shall in lieu of the incoming tenant or the landlord be entitled to receive any payments under this Part of this Act in respect of the wheat or oats; and (b) if the outgoing tenant is under any custom or otherwise entitled to receive compensation from his landlord or the incoming tenant in respect of the wheat or oats as for an away-going crop or otherwise, the right of the landlord or incoming tenant to receive payments under this Part of this Act in respect of the wheat or oats shall be taken into account in the assessment of the compensation so payable. (2) All claims for payments under this Part of this Act shall be made to and determined by the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries in accordance with regulations made under this Act, and the decision of the Board shall be final and conclusive for all purposes: Provided that if at any time it is found that a payment has been obtained, or payment in excess of the amount properly payable has been obtained, by means of any false statement or false representation, the person to whom the payment was made shall, without prejudice to any criminal liability in respect of any false statement or false representation, be liable to pay the Board the amount of such payment or excess, and any such amount may, without prejudice to the recovery thereof as a debt due to the Crown, be recovered by the Board summarily as a civil debt. (3) If for the purpose of obtaining a payment under this Part of this Act, either for himself or for any other person, any person makes any false statement or false representation, he shall be liable on summary conviction to imprisonment with or without hard labour for a term not exceeding six months, or to a fine not exceeding fifty pounds, unless he proves that he did not know and could not with reasonable diligence have ascertained that the statement or representation was false. PART II.—AGRICULTURAL WORKMEN (MINIMUM WAGE). 4. MINIMUM RATE FOR AGRICULTURAL WAGES.-(1) Any person who employs a workman in agriculture shall pay wages to the workman at a rate not less than the minimum rate as fixed under this Act and applicable to the case, and if he fails to do so, shall be liable on summary conviction in respect of each offence to a fine not exceeding twenty pounds, and to a fine not exceeding one pound for each day on which the offence is continued after conviction therefor: Provided that such a person shall not be liable to be so convicted if he proves that he did not know and could not with reasonable diligence have ascertained that the wages paid were less than the wages required under this Act to be paid. (2) In any proceedings against an employer under this section the court may, whether there is a conviction or not, order the employer to pay, in addition to the fine, if any, such sum as appears to the court to be due to the workman employed on account of wages, the wages being calculated at the minimum rate; but the power to order the payment of wages under this provision shall not be in derogation of any right of the workman to recover wages by any other proceedings. (3) Any agreement for the payment of wages in contravention of this section, or for abstaining to exercise any right of enforcing the payment of wages in accordance with this section, shall be void. (4) The provisions of this section as to payment of wages at a minimum rate shall operate as respects able-bodied men as from the commencement of this Act (although a minimum rate of wages may not have been fixed), but only so as to enable any sum |