Compliance Requirements Under the Rules in Accordance with the Act

1. Minimum Rate of wages (Section 4)

Minimum rate of wages fixed or revised w.r.t scheduled employments may consists of a:-

(i) basic rate of wages and a special allowance at a rate to be adjusted, at such intervals and in such manner as the appropriate Government may direct, to accord as nearly as practicable with the variation in the cost of living index number applicable to such workers (referred to as the “cost of living allowance”) or

(ii) a basic rate of wages with or without the cost of living allowance, and the cash value of the concessions in respect of supplies of essential commodities at concession rates, where so authorised; or

(iii) an all-inclusive rate allowing for the basic rate, the cost of living allowance and the cash value of the concessions, if any

The cost of living allowance and the cash value of the concessions in respect of supplies of essential commodities at concession rates shall be computed by the competent authority at such intervals and in accordance with such directions as may be specified or given by the appropriate Government.

2. Mode of computation of the cash value of wages (Section 4(2) and Rule 20)

(i) The cost of living allowance and the cash value of the concessions in respect of supplies of essential commodities at concession rates shall be computed by the competent authority at such intervals and in accordance with such directions as may be specified or given by the appropriate Government.

(ii) The retail prices at the nearest market shall be taken into account in computing the cash value of wages paid in kind and of essential commodities supplied at concessional rates. This computation shall be made in accordance with such directions as may be issued by the Central Government from time to time.

3. Mode of computation of the cash value of wages (Section 4(2) and Rule 20)

The cost of living allowance and the cash value of the concessions in respect of supplies of essential commodities at concession rates shall be computed by the competent authority at such intervals and in accordance with such directions as may be specified or given by the appropriate Government.

The retail prices at the nearest market shall be taken into account in computing the cash value of uwages paid in kind and of essential commodities supplied at concessional rates. This computation shall be made in accordance with such directions as may be issued by the Central Government from time to time.

4. Wages in Kind (Section 11)

Minimum wages payable under this A0ct shall be paid in cash. Where it has been the custom to pay wages wholly or partly in kind, the appropriate Government being of the opinion that it is necessary in the circumstances of the case may, by notification in the Official Gazette, authorise the payment of minimum wages either wholly or partly in kind.

5. Time and conditions of payment of wages and the deductions permissible from wages (Section 12 and Rule 21(1)(i))

Where in respect of any scheduled employment a notification under section 5 is in force, the employer shall pay to every employee engaged in a scheduled employment under him wages at a rate not less than the minimum rate of wages fixed by such notification for that class of employees in that employment without any deductions except as may be authorised within such time and subject to such conditions as may be prescribed.

The wages of a worker in any scheduled employment shall be paid on a working day. [Rule 21(1) (i)]

The wage period with respect to any scheduled for which wages are liable to be fixed shall not exceed one month, and the wages of an employee employed in any such employment in which an employer has employed less than one thousand persons, shall be paid before the expiry of the seventh day. [Rule 21(1) (i) (a)]

The wages of a worker where the employer has employed one thousand or more than one thousand shall be paid before the expiry of the tenth day after the last day of the wage period in respect of which the wages are payable. [Rule 21(1) (i) (b)]

Deduction from the wages of a person employed in a scheduled employment shall be of one or more of the following kinds as mentioned in Rule 21(2) of Maharashtra Minimum Wages Rules 1963 [Rule 21(2)]

6. Wages for two or more classes of work (Section 16)

Where an employee does two or more classes of work to each of which a different minimum rate of wages is applicable, the employer shall pay to such employee in respect of the time respectively occupied in each such class of work, wages at not less than the minimum rate in force in respect of each such class.

7. Payment of undisbursed amounts due to employees (Section 22D)

All amounts payable by an employer to an employee as the amount of minimum wages of the employee under this Act or otherwise due to the employee under this Act or any rule or order made thereunder shall, if such amounts could not or cannot be paid to the employee on account of his death before payment or on account of his whereabouts not being known, be deposited with the prescribed authority who shall deal with the money so deposited in such manner as may be prescribed.

8. Contracting out (Section 25)

Any contract or agreement, whether made before or after the commencement of this Act, whereby an employee either relinquishes or reduces his right to a minimum rate of wages or any privilege or concession accruing to him under this Act shall be null and void in so far as it purports to reduce the minimum rate of wages fixed under this Act.

9. Weekly day of rest (Rule 23)

An employee in a scheduled employment in respect of which minimum rates of wages have been fixed under the Act, shall be allowed a day of rest every week which shall ordinarily be Sunday, but the employer may fix any other day of the week as the rest day for any employee or class of employees in that scheduled employment. [Rule 23(1)]

Any employee shall not be required or allowed to work in a scheduled employment on the rest day unless he has or will have a substituted rest day for a whole day on one of the five days immediately before or after the rest day. [Rule 23(2), (3), (5)] 

An employee shall be granted for the rest day wages calculated at the rate applicable to the next preceding day and in case he works on the rest day and has been given a substituted rest day, he shall be paid wages for the rest day on which he worked, at the overtime rate and wages for the substituted rest day at the rate applicable to the next preceding day. [Rule 23(4)]

10. Number of hours of work that shall constitute a working day (Rule 24)

(1) The number of hours which shall constitute a normal working day shall be-

1. a) In the case of an adult, 9 hours;
2. b) In the case of an adolescent, 7 hours;
3. c) In the case of a child, 4 1/2 hours.

(2) The period of work of an adult or an adolescent employee each day shall be so fixed that no periods shall exceed five hours and that no employee shall work for more than five hours before he has had an interval for rest of at least half an hour:

(3) The period of work of an adult or an adolescent employee shall be so arranged that inclusive of his intervals for rest under sub-rule (2), they shall not spread over more than twelve hours in any day in respect of employment in public motor transport or employment in a tramway undertaking of a local authority and ten and a half hour in any day in respect of any other scheduled employment notes being employment under a local authority as lamp-lighters, gully flushing staff of the Conservancy Department and octroi inspector

(4) The periods of work in the case of a child employee shall be so arranged that it shall not spread-over more than five hours in any day.

11. Proportionate wages for working less than normal working day (Rule 24A)

An employee working in an agricultural employment, whose minimum rate of wages has been fixed by the day, shall, if he works for a period of less than the requisite number of hours, constituting a normal working day, be entitled to receive wages proportionate to the hours of work for which he is employed on such day.

12. Night Shift (Rule 25)

Where an employee in a scheduled employment works on shift which extends beyond midnight-

(a) a holiday for the whole day for the purposes of rule 23 shall in his case mean a period of twenty-four consecutive hours beginning from the time when his shift ends; and

(b) the following day in such a case shall be deemed to be the period of twenty- four hours beginning from the time when such shift ends, and the hours after midnight during which such employee was engaged in work, shall be counted towards previous day

13. Extra wages for over-time (Rule 26)

Where an employee in any scheduled employment [not being employment in public motor transport or employment in agriculture] works for more than nine hours on any day or forty-eight hours in any week or for more than the hours of work notified under sub-rule (7) of rule 24, as the case may be, he shall in respect of overtime work, be entitled to wages at double the ordinary rate of wages. (Rule 26(1))

Where an employee in the case of employment in public motor transport works for more than eight hours on any day in any case referred to in the second proviso to section 13 of the Motor Transport Workers Act, 1961, he shall be entitled to the rate of wages in respect of overtime work at one and half times the rate of his ordinary wages, subject to a maximum of one-half of his ordinary wages and in all other cases at double the ordinary rate of wages. (Rule 26(2))

Where an employee in employment in agriculture works for more than seven hours on any day he shall in respect of overtime works, be entitled to wages at one and half times the ordinary rate of wages. (Rule 26(2A))

14. Form of registers and records (Rule 27)

A muster-roll-cum-wage register shall be maintained by every employer in respect of his employee in Form II unless registers in Forms 17 and 19 appended to the Maharashtra Factories Rules, 1963 and a register in Form 11, appended to the Maharashtra Payment of Wages Rules, 1963, are maintained in respect of such employees. (Rule 27(1))

An extract of entry pertaining to every employee in the muster-roll-cum-wages register shall be used as attendance card- cum-wages, slip, which shall be supplied by the employer. The card shall be in the possession of the employee and entries thereon shale be made by the employer or any person authorised by him in this behalf on each day and also at the end of the month, and the employee shall preserve it for three years. (Rule 27(2))

Maintenance of combined register of wages and muster roll in Form III in respect of employees employed on daily wages and in Form-MA in respect of employees employed on monthly or annual wages in lieu of the muster-roll-cum-wage register referred to in sub-rule (1). (Rule 27(3), (4))

15. Maintenance of inspection book (Rule 28)

Every employer shall maintain a bound inspection book and shall produce it when so required by the Inspector.

16. Preservation and production of registers and records (Rule 30)

 The registers and records prescribed under sub-rules (1), (2) and (3) of rule 27, and under rule 28 shall be preserved for a period of three years after the last entry is made therein and shall be produced when so required by an Inspector.

17. Certain muster-rolls or registers, etc., to be treated as muster-rolls or registers under these rules (Rule 31)

Any, form, register, wage slip, muster-roll-cum-wage register, cards or any other register or record, whether in a combined form or otherwise, maintained by an employer gives, in respect of any or all of the employees in the scheduled employment, of the Act and these Rules, then the Commissioner of Labour or any other officer authorised by him in this behalf, may, by order in writing direct that such form, register, wage-slip, muster-roll-cum-wage register, cards or any other register or record as to the corresponding extend and subject to such conditions as he may specify, be maintained in place of and be treated as the wage- slip, muster- roll-cum-wage register, cards or any other records required under these rules in respect of such employee or employees in that scheduled employment.

18. Maintenance of false register, etc. prohibited (Rule 31A)

No employer shall wilfully,-

(i) maintain or cause to be maintained any register or record which he knows to be false, or

(ii) make or causes to be made any entry which he knows to be false in any register or record required to be maintained under the Act, or

(iii) omit or cause to be omitted any entry which is required to be made under the Act in any such register or record, or

(iv) furnish any information which he knows to be false to the Inspector.