Coal Mines Act 1931

2 Calculation of wages.

(1) During the continuance of this Act, the minimum percentage additions to basis rates of wages and the subsistence wage rates in every district shall not be less than those in force in that district at the appointed day, and it shall be a term of every contract for the employment of a workman whose wages are determined by reference thereto that the wages of that workman shall be calculated accordingly :

Provided that, save as herein expressly provided, nothing in this section shall prejudice the operation of any agreement entered into or custom existing before the commencement of this Act.

(2) In this section the following expressions have the meanings hereby respectively assigned to them, that is to say:

• " Appointed day, " in relation to any district for which wages were regulated on the basis of a daily limit of seven-and-a-half hours work below ground on the day before the commencement of this Act, means that day, and, in relation to any district in which wages were not so regulated, means the first day after the commencement of this Act on which wages are so regulated :

• " District " has the same meaning as it had for the purposes of the arrangements for the regulation of wages in the coal mining industry in force on the appointed day, so, however, that in relation to any coal mine or group of coal mines for which wages were not on that day regulated by a district agreement this Act shall have effect as if for references to a district there were therein substituted references to that coal mine or group of coal mines :

• " Minimum percentage addition " and " subsistence wage rates " have respectively, in relation to any district, the same meanings as they had for the purposes of the arrangements for the regulation of wages in the coal mining industry in force on the day before the commencement of this Act, or, where no such arrangements were then in force, for the purposes of the arrangements last in force before that date.