Page 167 - DMGT306_MERCANTILE_LAWS_II

Mercantile Laws – II

Notes Employer [Section 2(e)]

Employer means any person who employs, whether directly or through another person, or
whether on behalf of himself or any other person, one or more employees in any scheduled
employment in respect of which minimum rates of wages have been fixed under this Act, and
includes, except, in sub-section (3) of Section 26—
(i) in a factory where there is carried on any scheduled employment in respect of which minimum
rates of wages have been fixed under this Act, any person named under clause (f) of sub-section
(1) of Section 7 of the Factories Act, 1948, as manager of the factory;

(ii) in any scheduled employment under the control of any Government in India in respect of
which minimum rates of wages have been fixed under this Act, the person or authority appointed
by such Government for the supervision and control of employees or where no person of
authority is so appointed, the Head of the Department;
(iii) in any scheduled employment under any local authority in respect of which minimum rates
of wages have been fixed under this Act the person appointed by such authority for the supervision
and control of employees or where no person is so appointed, the Chief Executive Officer of the
local authority;
(iv) in any other case where there is carried on any scheduled employment in respect of which
minimum rates of wages have been fixed under this Act, any person responsible to the owner of
the supervision and control of the employees or for the payment of wages.
The definitions of employees and employer are quite wide. Person who engages workers through
another like a contractor would also be an employer (1998 LLJ I Bom. 629). It was held in Nathu
Ram Shukla v. State of Madhya Pradesh, AIR 1960 M.P. 174 that if minimum wages have not been
fixed for any branch of work of any scheduled employment, the person employing workers in
such branch is not an employer with the meaning of the Act. Similarly, in case of Loknath Nathu
Lal v. State of Madhya Pradesh, AIR 1960 M.P. 181 an out-worker who prepared goods at his
residence, and then supplied them to his employer was held as employee for the purpose of this
Act.

Scheduled Employment [Section 2(g)]

Scheduled employment means an employment specified in the Schedule or any process or
branch of work forming part of such employment.

Notes The schedule is divided into two parts namely, Part I and Part II. When originally
enacted Part I of Schedule had 12 entries. Part II relates to employment in agriculture. It
was realised that it would be necessary to fix minimum wages in many more employments
to be identified in course of time. Accordingly, powers were given to appropriate
Government to add employments to the Schedule by following the procedure laid down
in Section 21 of the Act. As a result, the State Government and Central Government have
made several additions to the Schedule and it differs from State to State.

Addition of New Employments

The State Governments and the Union Territories review the Scheduled Employments under
their jurisdiction from time to time and add new employments in respect of which these are of
the opinion that minimum rates of wages should be fixed statutorily in addition to the existing
ones.

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