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INTERNATIONAL LABOUR CONFERENCE
There are set out below the proposals of His Majesty's Government on a Convention and a Recommendation concerning the Protection of Wages and a Convention concerning Fee-Charging Employment Agencies adopted by the International Labour Conference at its 32nd Session in 1949, which it is proposed to communicate to the Director-General of the International Labour Office. The English and French texts of these Conventions and the Recom- mendation were presented to Parliament in Cmd. 7852.
Convention (No. 95) Concerning the Protection of Wages Recommendation (No. 85) Concerning the Protection of Wages
1. The Convention is designed to ensure that workers shall receive the full benefit of their wages and to protect them from certain abuses. It deals with such matters as: payment of wages in legal tender; regulation of payment in kind, including the prohibition of payment in the form of liquor of high alcoholic content or of noxious drugs; payment of wages direct to the worker; freedom of the worker to dispose of his wages; protection of the worker from coercion to use works' stores for the sale of commodities or other services provided by the undertaking; regulation of the conditions under which deductions may be made from wages; regulation of the attach- ment of wages and their protection in cases where the undertaking becomes bankrupt; regular payment of wages; and prohibition of payment in taverns. The Convention applies to all persons to whom wages are paid or payable but Article 2 (2) provides that the competent authority may, after consulta- tion with the organisations of employers and workers directly concerned, exclude from the application of any or all of the provisions of the Convention categories of workers in whose cases their application would not be appropriate and who are employed in non-manual or domestic service or work similar thereto. The law of the United Kingdom is in accordance with the provisions in Articles 3-11 inclusive and Article 13 (2) of the Conven- tion so far as workers other than non-manual and domestic workers are concerned, and the provisions of the other Articles of the Convention are of general application in the United Kingdom. His Majesty's Government propose to ratify this Convention but, having regard to the existing state of the law in the United Kingdom, it will be necessary, after ratification, to enter into consultation with the appropriate organisations of employers and workers as provided in Article 2 (2) of the Convention with a view to the exclusion of workers who are employed in non-manual work or domestic service or work similar thereto from the application of those Articles of the Convention whose provisions cannot be applied to them on the basis of the existing law.
2. The Recommendation contains proposals of a more detailed nature. As regards paragraphs 1-3 of the Recommendation, which deal with deduc- tions from wages, His Majesty's Government are satisfied that the general practice in the United Kingdom is in conformity with those provisions. The existing law, however, applies to manual workers only, and does not extend to non-manual and domestic workers. Paragraphs 4-8 of the Recommenda- tion deal in detail with the periodicity of payment, notification to workers of wages conditions, wages statements and pay-roll records. While the practice in the United Kingdom is in accordance with these conditions, His Majesty's
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