Interpretation

In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires or unless a more limited meaning is specifically indicated in respect of any Part, section or sub-section13 “advance” means any sum which an employer may advance to a worker or, in the case of goods, the value of such goods and shall include all sums due to an employer by the worker at the time when the worker enters into a contract with the employer; “child” means a person who is under the age of fourteen years; “collective agreement” means a written agreement between an employer, or an employers’ organization authorized by the employer, and a trade union concerning terms and conditions of employment and any other matter of mutual interest; “commercial undertaking” includes– (a) and including establishments engaging wholly or mainly in the sale, purchase, distribution, insurance, negotiation, loan or administration of goods or services of any kind; (b) hotels, restaurants, boarding houses, clubs, cafes and other refreshment houses; (c) theatres and places of public amusement; (d) newspaper undertakings; and (e) any establishment similar in character to those enumerated in sub-paragraphs (a) to (d); “commission agent” means an agent or employee who is remunerated by commission; “Commissioner” means the Labour Commissioner and shall include the person for the time being in charge of the Labour Department; 14 “common law union” as used in this Act shall have the meaning assigned to it in section 148D(1) of the Supreme Court of Judicature Act; “continuous employment” means an employee’s period of uninterrupted employment with the same employer or the successor employer under section 184; “contract of employment” or “contract of service” means any agreement between an employer and a worker, whether expressed or implied, oral or written, for a definite or indefinite period by which the worker works under the authority and directions of the employer even if not under his direct supervision, in return for remuneration fixed according to the hours of work or at piece or task rate, and includes a contract of apprenticeship or probation; “contract worker” means a person who performs work for another person pursuant to a contract of employment; “dependent” means wholly or substantially dependent on the employee; “disabled person” means an individual whose prospects of securing, retaining, and advancing in suitable employment are substantially reduced as a result of a duly recognized physical or mental impairment; “domestic servant” includes any house, garage or garden servant employed in or in connection with domestic services of any private dwelling-house but does not include any person employed in the service of establishments open to the public; “employer” means any person, firm, corporation, company or body of persons who or which has entered into an agreement or contract to employ any worker; “employment” includes part-time employment and employment under a contract of employment; 15 “employment agency” means any person who, whether for payment or not, assists persons to find employment or assists employers to find employees; “family responsibilities” in relation to an employee, means responsibilities of the employee to care for or support– (a) a dependent child of the worker; or (b) any other immediate family member who is in need of care and support; “gross misconduct” means misconduct that is such that the employer cannot reasonably be expected to take any course other than to terminate the employment of the worker; “health officer” has the same meaning as it has in the Public Health Act; CAP. 40. “immediate family member” includes spouse of the worker or child, parent, or grandparent; “indefinite period” means employment under a contract of employment where the period of service is not specified; “industrial undertaking” includes– (a) mines, quarries and other works for the extraction of minerals from the earth; (b) industries in which articles are manufactured, altered, cleaned, repaired, ornamented, finished, adapted for sale, broken up or demolished, or in which materials are transformed, including shipbuilding, and the generation, transformation and transmission of electricity and motive power of any kind; 16 (c) construction, reconstruction, maintenance, repair, alteration, or demolition of any building, railway, tramway, harbour, dock, pier, canal, inland waterway, road, tunnel, bridge, viaduct, sewer, drain, well, telegraphic or telephonic installation, electrical undertaking, gasworks, waterworks or other work of construction, as well as the preparation for or laying the foundation of any such work or structure; (d) transport of passengers or goods by road, rail or inland waterway, including the handling of goods at docks, quays, wharves, and warehouses, but excluding transport by hand, Provided that if, having regard to the nature of the work involved in any occupation which forms part of an agricultural undertaking, the Minister considers that such occupation should be included within the provisions of this Act, relating to industrial occupations, he may by Order declare that employment in such occupation shall be employment in an industrial undertaking for the purposes of this Act; “ionising radiations” means electromagnetic radiation, that is to say, X-ray or gamma ray photons or quanta, or corpuscular radiation, that is to say, alpha particles, beta particles, electrons, positrons, protons, neutrons, or heavy particles, being electromagnetic radiation or corpuscular radiation capable of producing ions and emitted from a radioactive substance or from a machine or apparatus which is intended to produce ionising radiations, or from a machine or apparatus in which electrons are accelerated by a voltage of not less than five kilovolts; “labour inspector” means any person appointed to carry out labour inspection duties under this Act; “labour officer” means the Commissioner or any labour 17 “lockout” means an employer’s– (a) closing of an enterprise or place of business; (b) suspension of work; or (c) refusal to continue to employ any number of workers, with a view toward inducing or compelling workers directly or indirectly, through their bargaining agent, to accept conditions of employment which have been offered to the workers, and which have been rejected by them and includes the employer’s action to induce or compel acceptance by the workers, or their bargaining agent, or another employer, of conditions of employment so offered and rejected; “manual labour” includes work ordinarily performed by all labourers, mechanics, artisans, handicraftsmen, seamen, boatmen, transport workers, and any other similar work associated therewith, but does not include clerical work or work performed by domestic servants; “marital status” means the status or condition of being– (a) single; (b) married; (c) married but living separately and apart from one’s spouse; (d) divorced; (e) widowed; or (f) the common law union spouse of another 18 “outworker” means a person to whom articles or materials are given to be made up, cleaned, washed, altered, ornamented, mended, finished or repaired or adapted for sale in his own home or on other premises not under the control or management of the person who gave out the articles or materials; “period” means the period not exceeding six months that may be designated as such by an employer pursuant to sections 29A(1); “principal” means– (a) in relation to a commission agent, a person for whom work is done by that commission agent; or (b) in relation to a contract worker, a person for whom a contract worker performs work otherwise than a of “probationary period” means the period not exceeding six months that may be designated as such by an employer pursuant to section 29A; “public holiday” has the same meaning as it has in the Holidays Act; CAP. 289. “redundancy” means the loss of employment as defined under “redundancy benefit” means the amount of money that an employee whose employment has been terminated on account of redundancy is entitled to receive from his employer pursuant to section 183; “strike” means a partial or total withdrawal of services from an employer by two or more workers, in concert or pursuant to a 19 common understanding, or at the request or upon the order of their bargaining agent, either– (a) as a protest against a condition of work or employer action related thereto; or (b) as a device to induce or compel the employer, or his bargaining agent, to accept conditions of employment which they have requested and which request has been refused, and includes an action designed to induce or compel the acceptance by another employer, or his bargaining of of his have requested and which request has been refused; “summary dismissal” means termination of the contract of employment by the employer without notice or other termination benefits payable under section 183; “Tribunal” means the Labour Complaints Tribunal established under section 200; and “worker” or “employee” means a person who has entered into or works under a contract with an employer under a contract of Provided that a person engaged in a programme of apprenticeship approved by the Minister shall not be deemed to be a “worker” within the meaning of this definition. 20 CAP. 4.