Section 4: Interpretation

4. Interpretation (1) In this Act— “Minister” means the Minister to whom responsibility for the subject of labour is assigned; “outworker” means a person to whom articles or materials are given out to be made up, cleaned, washed, altered, ornamented, finished or repaired or adapted for sale in his home or on other premises not under the control or management of the person who gave out the articles or materials; W9 – 3 [Issue 1] Workmen’s Compensation Act “workman”— (a) means, subject to subsection (2), a person who has entered into or works under a contract of service or apprenticeship with an employer, whether by way of manual labour, clerical work or otherwise, whether the contract is expressed or implied, is oral or in writing, and whether the remuneration is calculated by time or by work done; and (b) does not include— (i) a person, not being employed to perform manual labour, whose earnings are at a rate in excess of 72,000 rupees a year; (ii) a person employed to perform work of a casual nature not connected with the employer’s trade or business, not being a person employed for the purposes of any game or recreation, and engaged and paid by a club; (iii) an outworker; (iv) a member of the employer’s family dwelling in his house; (v) a member of the Police Force; (vi) a person who contracts or sub-contracts for the carrying out of work and himself engages other persons, independently of the employer, to perform the work; (vii) a person engaged in plying for hire with a vehicle or vessel, the use of which is obtained from the owner under a contract of deposit, agency, loan or hire, in consideration of the payment of a fixed sum or a share in the earnings or otherwise; and (viii) a member of the Armed Forces of the State. (2) Where, in any proceedings for the recovery of compensation under this Act, it appears to the Court by which the claim to compensation is to be settled that the contract of service or apprenticeship, under which the injured person was working at the time when the accident causing the injury happened, was illegal, the Court may, if having regard to all the circumstances of the case it thinks proper to do so, deal with the matter as if the injured person had at the time been a person working under a valid contract of service or apprenticeship. [S. 4 amended by Act 10 of 1994.]