PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
Release from in-
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XVII. The following employers are hereby empowered to release any new im. dustrial residence. migrant from the whole or any unexpired residue of the term of industrial residence:-
1st. Any one of the employers mentioned in Article 10.
:
Exemption from
industrial resi.
dence.
Contracts with infirm immigrants, prematurely
terminated.
Magistrate may refuse to pass con- tract in certain cases.
Magistrate maY caure fictitious
contract.
Duration of day's labour.
Task work.
Labourers' dwellings.
2nd. Any other employer who shall have entered into a contract of service with such immigrant for the unexpired residue of his industrial residence.
Provided that such release can only be effected during the currency of the contract of service with the employer desirous of effecting the release, or upon the expiration or other determination of such contract, and before the immigrant shall have engaged with any other employer.
XVIII. The Governor may, upon the certificate of the Protector of Immigrants or of a stipendiary magistrate, exempt, wholly or in part, from the obligation of industrial residence, any new immigrant incapacitated from labour by infirmity, accident, sickness, or other cause, and not being at the time of such exemption under contract of service with any employer.
The Governor may further grant to any such immigrant a free passage back to India.
Every such exemption shall be registered in the Protector's Office.
XIX. In case any immigrant engaged under written contract of service shall, through infirmity, accident, sickness, or other cause, become permanently incapacitated from the performance of his contract, it shall be lawful for his employer, upon a certificate to that effect being given by a duly qualified medical practitioner, to send such immigrant to the Protector of Immigrants; and the contract of such immigrant shall thereupon be deemed and taken as cancelled.
The expenses attending the care and maintenance of such immigrant up to the time of his being so sent, together with the cost of sending him to the Immigration Depôt, shall be defrayed by the employer.
XX. Whenever any party shall appear before a Stipendiary Magistrate for the purpose of passing a contract of service with a labourer, and the said Magistrate shall have good grounds for believing that the said proposed contract is a fictitious contract, and that the parties thereto have no bond fide intention of executing the conditions thereof, or that the intended employer has not the means of paying the wages of the labourer, if engaged to him, it shall be in the discretion of the Magistrate either to refuse to pass the contract, or to postpone passing the same until the intended employer shall have proved to his satisfaction the bona fides of the proposed contract, or that he shall be able to pay the labourer's wages as they become due, as the case may be.
XXI. Whenever any Stipendiary Magistrate shall have reason to suspect that any written contract of service between an old immigrant and an alleged employer is a fictitious contract, and that the same is not being bond fide carried out, he shall have power to summon the parties before him, and if, after due inquiry, it shall appear to him that the employer and immigrant named in the said contract had at the time of passing the same no bond fide intention of carrying out the same, and that the relation- ship of master and servant does not de facto exist between the parties,-in any such case, the Magistrate shall have power to cancel and annul such contract.
XXII. No labourer engaged for field labour shall be bound to work more than nine hours per day, exclusive of the hour for breakfast. Whether he be employed at day-work or task-work, he shall be entitled to have one full hour for breakfast, before 10 A.M.
XXIII. It shall be optional with the employer of any labourer engaged for field labour, to require the latter to work by task-work, giving him such daily tasks as can reasonably be required of him. If any question arise as to the reasonableness of any task, the same shall be decided by the Stipendiary Magistrate, who may, if he think fit, take the advice of one or two competent appraisers, who shall, in such case, take an oath before him to execute such duty truly and faithfully.
The cost of appraisement, which shall not exceed 11. per appraiser, shall be borne by the losing party.
XXIV. Every person employing labourers upon a country estate, shall provide them with sufficient and wholesome lodging, according to the usage of the Colony; and whenever it shall be proved to the satisfaction of the Stipendiary Magistrate of the district that the lodging of any labourer is insufficient, unhealthy, or otherwise unfit to be inhabited by such labourer, the said Magistrate shall order that, within a certain period to be by him fixed, the employer shall cause such dwelling to be altered or repaired, so as to render it wholesome and sufficient, or another dwelling to be supplied to the labourer; and he may require the employer to make the labourer an allowance
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or indemnity of three pence for each day from the date of his order until the labourer be properly lodged, to the satisfaction of the said Magistrate; and any master failing to comply with any such order of the Magistrate, shall be liable to a fine not exceeding 57., and the labourer shall be entitled to demand cancellation of his contract.
wages.
XXV. Whenever any employer shall have been summoned before a Stipendiary Master, though a
demned to pay Magistrate upon the complainant of any manager, employé, or labourer in his service, minor, may be con- the plea of infancy, if set up and established by such employer, shall be no valid or sufficient defence to such complaint. If it be proved to the satisfaction of the Magistrate that the complaint has been actually employed in the service of the minor, he shall deal with the complaint in the same manner as if the employer were of full age.
XXVI. The word "Labourer" in Article 17 of Ordinance No. 15 of 1852, extends Definition of to all persons working for any employer as domestic servants, field labourers, handi- "Labourer." craftsmen, or overseers of labour, whether of Indian or other extraction, whose wages, irrespective of allowances, shall not exceed 41. per month.
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XXVII. The term " gens de service," as used in Article 2101 of the Civil Code, Definition of
gens de service." extends and applies to the several classes of persons mentioned in the preceding Article.
XXVIII. The privilege for arrears of wages conferred upon the several above- Privilege for wages mentioned classes of persons as "gens de service" under the said Article 2101 of the limited to one year
preceding judg- Civil Code, is hereby limited to arrears of wages due for any period not exceeding one ment. year next preceding the judgment of the Stipendiary Magistrate condemning the employer to the payment of such arrears.
XXIX. The said privilege shall be admitted in its proper rank as established by Claim for wages the Civil Code, in any distribution by way of contribution of moneys belonging to the admitted to privi-
produced. employer, or in any distribution by way of order of the sale-price of the inmovcable leg though tardily property of the employer, at whatever date subsequent to the judgment such distribution
of either kind shall take place: provided the parties producing such privileged claim justify that they have used due diligence to enforce payment of their claim, and that they have been unavoidably prevented from obtaining payment at an earlier period.
Provided also that several Judgments, in favour of the same party, shall in no case entitle him to claim payment of wages by way of privilege for more than the period to which such privilege is limited as above, which period shall be computed backwards from the date of the last of such judgments.
"
Privilege of em-
gens de service XXX. The manager and employés upon an estate other than the " as hereinbefore defined, have a privilege for arrears of salary taking rank immediately ployés salary. after the privilege of the said "gens de service," and limited to six months next preceding the judgment condemning the employer to the payment of such salaries.
The privilege of the several parties abovementioned shall be admitted in its rank, as hereby established, in the same manner and subject to the same conditions as is herein before provided for the privilege of the "gons de service."
XXXI. The said claims for salary are recognizable by the Stipendary Magistrate in the same manner, to all intents and purposes, as claims for wages due to labourers.
&c., within jurisdic- Salary of employés, tion of stipendiary magistrate.
XXXII. The provisions of Article 1781 of the Civil Code are not applicable to Article 1971 Civil any proceedings before a Stipendiary Magistrate for the recovery of any arrears of Code not applicable wages or salary claimed by any person from his employer.
to claims for wages.
XXXIII. Any judgment of a Stipendiary Magistrate condemning an employer to Tierce opposition the payment of wages or salary, may, at any time before such judgment shall have been in judgments ob- satisfied, be attacked by " Tierce opposition on the ground that such judgment has tained by fraud, been obtained by fraud or collusion.
The said Stipendiary Magistrate shall have jurisdiction, and shall be bound to hear and determine such "Tierce opposition."
The party forming the same, if he fail therein, shall be condemned to pay all costs
&c.
of suit.
XXXIV. No opposition or attachment lodged in the hands of any Stipendiary Oppositions to Magistrate or district cashier against any moneys payable to labourers for arrears of wages deposited wages, shall be valid or effectual. The sums so payable shall be paid to the labourers entitled to receive the same, any such opposition or attachment notwithstanding.
not valid.
from seizure for
wages.
XXXV. In case any domestic servant, shall have obtained judgment against his When the wife's employer for arrears of ages, no seizure of moveables made in the house or premises goods will be free of the employer shall be set aside or invalidated on the ground that such moveables are the property of the wife of the employer, unless she be living, apart from her husband under judicial authority.
XXXVI. When a certificate of discharge, sent or produced to a Magistrate under Recovery of wages
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