§ (The Lord Macnaghten.)
§ Amendments reported (according to order).
§
Moved to insert the following New Clause:—
Whenever, by agreement, custom, or otherwise, a workman is entitled to receive in anticipation of the regular period of the payment of his wages an advance as part or on account thereof, it shall not be lawful for the employer to make any deduction in respect of such advance, on account of poundage, discount, or interest, or any similar charge."—(The Lord Macnaghten.)
§ LORD BRAMWELLsaid, that he interpreted the Amendment to mean that no such deduction would be lawful unless it had been specially agreed to. It would be open to the master to say that if he advanced wages the servant must agree to a reasonable abatement, and this would make an agreement between the parties in the absence of an agreement to the contrary. On that understanding he saw no objection to it. He might be wrong in the construction he put upon the Amendment; but he was pretty sure he was not.
§ THE LORD CHANCELLOR (Lord HALSBURY)said, the clause was intended to do the very thing that the noble and learned Lord deprecated—namely, to render unlawful anything which would be contrary to the general policy of the Act. He had no objection to the clause as it stood; but he could not sit there and hear it recommended on grounds that he could not agree to.
§ LORD BRAMWELLsaid, it seemed to him that the ascertainment of the 226 true meaning of the Amendment was a pleasure that would have to be reserved until such time as his noble and learned Friend and he were sitting judiciously to interpret it.
§ Amendment agreed to.
§
On the Motion of The Lord MACNAGHTEN, the following paragraph was added at the end of Clause 6, which deals with deductions for education:—
In this section State-inspected school means any elementary school inspected under the direction of the Education Department in England or Scotland, or the Board of National Education in Ireland.
§ Bill to be printed, as amended; and to be read 3ª on Monday next. (No. 232.)