Page:Public General Statutes 1896.djvu/382

362 this Act, he shall be guilty of an offence against the and shall be liable to the penalties imposed by section nine of that Act as if the offence were an offence in that section mentioned.

5. Any workman or shop assistant may recover any sum deducted by or paid to his employer contrary to this Act, provided that proceedings for such recovery are commenced within six months from the date of the deduction or payment sought to be recovered, and that where he has consented to or acquiesced in any such deduction or payment, he shall only recover the excess which has been deducted or paid over the amount, if any, which the court may find to have been fair and reasonable, having regard to all the circumstances of the case.

6.— (1.) Every employer who has made any contract purporting or intending to operate as a contract under this Act, shall, on demand in writing by one of Her Majesty's inspectors of factories or of mines, produce the contract or a true copy thereof at any convenient time and place to be named by the inspector, and the inspector shall be at liberty to take a copy of the same or of any part thereof, and the employer of any workman or shop assistant who is party to any such contract shall at the time of making the contract give the workman or shop assistant a copy of the contract or of the notice containing its terms.

(2.) A workman or shop assistant who is party to any such contract shall be entitled, on request, to obtain from his employer free of charge a copy of the contract or of the notice containing its terms.

(3.) Every employer who has made any contract purporting or intending to operate as a contract under section one of this Act shall keep a register of deductions or payments, and shall enter therein every deduction or payment for or in respect of any fine purporting to be made under any such contract, specifying the amount and the nature of the act or omission in i espect of which the fine was imposed, and this register shall be at all times open to inspection by one of Her Majesty's Inspectors of Factories or of Mines.

(4.) If any person fails to comply with this section he shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding forty shillings.

7. A contract entered into under the provisions of this Act shall not be liable to stamp duty.

8. Nothing in this Act shall make lawful any contract or payment which is illegal under the Truck Acts, 1831 and 1887, or under the, or affect the provisions of the Coal Mines Regulation Act, 1887, or any amending Act, with respect to persons employed in mines and paid according to weight, or make lawful any deduction from payments made to those persons.

9.—(1.) The Secretary of State, if satisfied that the provisions of this Act are unnecessary for the protection of the workmen employed in any trade or business, or in any branch or department of any trade or business, either generally or within any specified