The Payment of Wages Act, 1936 is a central legislation which has been enacted to regulate the payment of wages to workers employed in certain specified industries and to ensure a speedy and effective remedy to them against illegal deductions and/or unjustified delay caused in paying wages to them. It applies to the persons employed in a factory, industrial or other establishment or in a railway, whether directly or indirectly, through a sub-contractor. Further, the Act is applicable to employees drawing wages upto Rs. 1600/- a month.

The Central Government is responsible for enforcement of the Act in railways, mines, oilfields and air transport services, while the State Governments are responsible for it in factories and other industrial establishments.

The basic provisions of the Act are as follows:-

• The person responsible for payment of wages shall fix the wage period upto which wage payment is to be made. No wage-period shall exceed one month.
  



• All wages shall be paid in current legal tender, that is, in current coin or currency notes or both. However, the employer may, after obtaining written authorisation of workers, pay wages either by cheque or by crediting the wages in their bank accounts.



• All payment of wages shall be made on a working day. In railways, factories or industrial establishments employing less than 1000 persons, wages must be paid before the expiry of the seventh day after the last date of the wage period. In all other cases, wages must be paid before the expiry of the tenth day after the last day of the wage period. However, the wages of a worker whose services have been terminated shall be paid on the next day after such termination.
  



• Although the wages of an employed person shall be paid to him without deductions of any kind, the Act allows deductions from the wages of an employee on the account of the following:- (i) fines; (ii) absence from duty; (iii) damage to or loss of goods expressly entrusted to the employee; (iv) housing accommodation and amenities provided by the employer; (v) recovery of advances or adjustment of over-payments of wages; (vi) recovery of loans made from any fund constituted for the welfare of labour in accordance with the rules approved by the State Government, and the interest due in respect thereof; (vii) subscriptions to and for repayment of advances from any provident fund;(viii) income-tax; (ix) payments to co-operative societies approved by the State Government or to a scheme of insurance maintained by the Indian Post Office; (x) deductions made with the written authorisation of the employee for payment of any premium on his life insurance policy or purchase of securities.



• The Act prescribes following rules for fines:-
  
  
  • Fines shall be imposed for approved list of acts and omissions.
  
  
  
  • A notice specifying such list shall be exhibited in the prescribed manner on the premises in which the employment is carried on or at the prescribed places in case a person is employed in railways.
  
  
  
  • No fine shall be imposed on any employed person until he has been given an opportunity of showing cause against the fine, or other-wise, than in accordance with such procedure as may be prescribed for the imposition of fines.
  
  
  
  • The total amount of fine which may be imposed in any one wage period on any employed person shall not exceed an amount equal to three per cent of the wages payable to him in respect of that wage-period.
  
  
  
  • No fine shall be imposed on any employed person who is under the age of fifteen years.
  
  
  
  • No fine imposed on any employed person shall be recovered from him by installments or after the expiry of sixty days from the day on which it was imposed.
  
  
  
  • All fines and all realisations thereof shall be recorded in a register to be kept by the person responsible for the payment of wages.

Hence, the main object of the Act is to eliminate all malpractices by laying down the time and mode of payment of wages as well as securing that the workers are paid their wages at regular intervals, without any unauthorised deductions. The Act was amended by the Payment of Wages (Amendment) Act, 2005Rs. in order to enlarge its scope and provide for more effective enforcement. The main amended provision is the enhancement of wage ceiling from 1600/-per month to Rs. 6500/-per month for the applicability of the Act as well as empowering the Government to enhance the ceiling by notification in future.

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