THE TRUCK ACT.

Evening Star, Issue 8719, 11 January 1892, Page 1

THE TRUCK ACT.

The Truck Act, 1891, an Act to prohibit the payment o£ wages in goods or otherwise than in money, came-into operation on November 1 ult. . The Bill was introduced exactly in the form in which, having been brought in by the late Ministry, it passed the House of Representatives in 1890, A few not very significant alterations were made in committee, which, if anything, arc improvements. Heretofore there has been no statutory prohibition of truck in New Zealand ; nor, as a matter of fact, has it been necessary, since the system has never prevailed to any appreciable extent, public opinion having been decidedly against it, in view of the evils known to arise from it in other countries. In England legislation against truck has been in force since 1464, and nearly all the provisions of the New Zealand Act are adapted from the present English statute, passed in 1887. The measure may be considered essentially of a preventive character, the object being to prevent the system striking root in this Colony, when eradication might be difficult. Although, therefore, the Bill could hardly be considered necessary, the late and the present Governments were justified in promoting it, on the principle that “ prevention is better than cure.” It is to be noted that the Act does not apply to seamen or to persons employed in agricultural or pastoral pursuits. In any contract to be made with a workman, the wages are to be made payable in money only ; and if by agreement, custom, or otherwise a workman is entitled to receive, in anticipation of the regular period of payment, an advance, it is declared not to be lawful for the employer to make any deduction on account of “poundage, discount, or interest, or any similar charge.” No employer is directly or indirectly to impose as a condition, express or implied, any terms as to the place or«the manner in which, or the person with whom, any wages or portion of wages is to be expended. The entire amount of the wages earned by or payable to any workman is required to be “ actually paid ” in money at intervals of not more than one month, if demanded; and every payment made in respect to wages by the delivering of goods or otherwise than in money is, subject to certain exceptions to be hereafter noted, declared “illegal and void,” and the workman so paid may recover the whole of his wages in any Court of competent jurisdiction. In any action brought by a workman against his employer no set-off for goods supplied is to be allowed, nor has an employer any right of action in respect to goods supplied at any “shop, store, house, or “premises kept by or belonging to “such employer, or in the profits “of which such employer shall “ have any share or interest.” No deduction is to be made from wages for sharpening or repairing tools, except by agreement. Payment of wages may be made by cheque, draft, or order in writing for the payment of money to the bearer on demand, but no such cheque must be crossed. If any cheque, draft, or order, thus given for wages be dishonored, the workman is entitled to recover such reasonable damages as he may have sustained in consequence, to be recoverable in any court of competent jurisdiction. The penalties for breaches of the Act are draconic in their severity. The employer who, directly or indirectly, enters into any contract to make a payment declared in the Act to be illegal, or fails to comply with the provisions of the Act in respect to wages, is liable for the first offence to a penalty not exceeding £lO ; for the second offence to a penalty not exceeding £25; and for a third or subsequent offence to a penalty not exceeding £SO, Where the offence is committed by some agent of the employer or other person, such agent or other person is liable to the same penalty as if he were the employer; and if the employer can prove that the offence was committed without his knowledge, consent, or connivance, “and the said other person shall be convicted,” he is to be exempt from liability, AH penalties may be recovered in a summary way before a resident magistrate or two justices of the peace. No person is to be proceeded against or punished “ as for a second or as for a “ third or subsequent offence at the “distance of more than six months “ from the commission of the next pre- “ ceding offence.” Section 19 is very important, providing the Act is not to extend or apply in certain cases where an employer supplies or contracts to oupply modioino or medical atlcudiuicu or any fuel, materials, tools, appliances, or implements to be employed by the workmap, or, in case of felling or clearing bush land, with the necessary, outfit and means of support to any amount not exceeding two months’ wages; where the employer supplies, or contracts to supply, hay, corn, or other provender to be consumed by any horse or other beast of burden employed by the workman in his labor or occupation ; where the employer demises to any workman the whole or any part of a tenement, at a rent to be reserved, or allows the use of a tenement as part of or in addition to the wages, or “ any other allowance “or privilege in addition to money “wages as a remuneration for his “ services.” Where the employer supplies victuals dressed or prepared under his own roof, or any drink not being of an intoxicating nature, to be there consumed by the workman, the employer is authorised to make a de-

duction or stoppage from the wages of a workman “ for or in respect to any “ such rent, medicine, medical attendance, fuel, materials, tools, imple- “ ments, hay, com, provender, victuals, “or drink as aforesaid.” The employer, further, is not debarred from advancing to a workman any money to be by him contributed to a friendly society, life assurance company or association, savings bank, or other society or association whatever, or from advancing money for the relief of the workman or his wife and family in sickness, or to any member of his family by his order; nor from “deducting or contracting to deduct “ any such sum or sums of money as “aforesaid from the wages of such “ workman.” The exemptions noted do not apply to “ any contractor or “ sub-contractor for any work executed “ under the General Government of “the Colony or any local authority, “ or to any contractor or sub-contractor “ for any railway or road-making “work,” except in respect to money paid or advanced for medicine and medical attendance. It will be seen that there are two great principles in the Act, The first is to secure to the workman the payment of his wages in coin of the realm; the second, that he shall be perfectly free and untrammelled as to how, when, and where he shall spend his money. These, we conceive, are fully carried out, ad vantage havingbeen taken of the most recent legislation on the subject in the Home Country, where the evils arising from the truck system defied, we may say, for centuries, all the efforts of the Legislature at suppression. Things had, indeed, come to such a pass in certain industries previous to the passing of the drastic Act of 1887 that the workmen were little better than slaves, not receiving their wages in coin at all They had not infrequently to take their wages out in goods that they did not require, and had to sell these goods for what they would fetch to maintain themselves and their families. What happens, however, under the truck system is so well known that we need not enter into further particulars. It is gratifying to be assured, and this Act is an assurance, that it will never be tolerated in New Zealand.