The Agricultural Wages (Scotland) Act 1949 Amendment Regulations 2003

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations amend the Agricultural Wages (Scotland) Act 1949 (“the 1949 Act”).

Paragraph 13 of Schedule 2 to the National Minimum Wage Act 1998 (“the 1998 Act”) amended the 1949 Act by adding a section 3A to that Act, so as to apply the enforcement provisions of the 1998 Act for the purposes of the 1949 Act. One of these enforcement provisions is section 19 of the 1998 Act enabling the issue of an enforcement notice. The National Minimum Wage (Enforcement Notices) Act 2003 amends section 19 to provide that an enforcement notice under that section can be served (subject to a time limitation) even though the worker concerned is no longer employed by the employer on whom the notice is served. That amendment by that Act gives this additional protection to all workers, except those employed in Scotland as agricultural workers because regulation of the employment of such workers is devolved to the Scottish Parliament.

These Regulations make equivalent provision to protect such workers in Scotland, in consequence of the 1998 Act to modify the way in which section 19 operates, in the same way as the amendments made by the 2003 Act, in its application to agricultural workers in Scotland.