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Offences and legal proceedings.
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19.—(1) Where an order fixing any minimum rate of wages has been made by the Board under this Act and is in force, every person who, being an agricultural employer, employs any other person who is by virtue of such employment an agricultural worker shall, in cases to which such minimum rate is applicable, pay to such other person wages at a rate not less than the appropriate minimum rate under such order.
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(2) If any person acts in contravention of this section such person shall be guilty of an offence under this section and shall be liable on summary conviction thereof to a fine not exceeding twenty pounds and, in the case of a continuing offence, a fine not exceeding one pound for each day during which the offence is continued.
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(3) In any proceedings against a person under this section it shall lie with such person to prove that he has paid wages at not less than the minimum rate.
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(4) In any proceedings against a person under this section the court may, whether there is a conviction or not, if satisfied that such person has failed in relation to any other person employed by him as an agricultural worker to comply with sub-section (1) of this section, order such person to pay to such other person such sum as may be found by the court to represent the difference between the amount which ought at the minimum rate to have been paid to such agricultural worker and the amount actually paid.
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(5) An officer of the Board may, in the name and on behalf of an agricultural worker, institute civil proceedings against the agricultural employer employing such agricultural worker for the recovery of sums due from such agricultural employer to such agricultural worker on account of the payment of wages to such agricultural worker at less than the minimum rate applicable, but nothing in this sub-section shall be in derogation of the right of such agricultural worker to recover such sum by civil proceedings.
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(6) Any agreement for the payment of wages in contravention of this section or for abstaining to exercise any right of enforcing the payment of wages in accordance with this section shall be void.
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