THE ROAD TRANSPORT WORKERS ORDINANCE
1961
(XXVIII of 1961)
C O N T E N
T S
Section Heading
1. Short
title and commencement.
2. Definitions.
3. Age
limit.
3A. Order
of appointment, etc.
4. Hours
of work and rest.
5. Restriction
on cumulative hours of work.
6. Leave.
6A. Festival holidays.
6B. Cacual Leave.
7. Ordinance
No.VI of 1968 to apply to road transport service.
8. Maintenance
of registers, etc..
9. Inspection
of registers and calling for information.
10. Power
to make rules.
11. Penalties.
12. Protection
of action taken under the Ordinance.
[1]THE ROAD TRANSPORT WORKERS ORDINANCE, 1961
(XXVIII of 1961)
[4 July 1961]
An
Ordinance to regulate the hours of work and other conditions
of employment of road transport workers in
Whereas,
it is expedient to regulate the hours of work and other conditions of
employment of road transport workers in
Now, Therefore,
in pursuance of the Proclamation of the seventh day of October, 1958, and in
exercise of all powers enabling him in that behalf the President is pleased to
make and promulgate the following Ordinance:-
1. Short title
and commencement.– (1) This Ordinance may be called the Road
Transport Workers Ordinance, 1961.
(2) It extends to [2][whole]
of [3][the
(3) It shall come into force at once.
2. Definitions.–
In this Ordinance, unless there is anything repugnant in the subject or
context,–
(1) “day”
means a period of 24 hours beginning at midnight;
(2) “employer” means the owner of any road
transport service in which workers are employed, and where the business of such
service, is not directly managed by the owner, means the Manager, Agent or
Representative of such owner in the said service, and where the owner is a
minor, the guardian of such minor, and in relation to any vehicle which is the
subject of hire-purchase agreement, the person in possession of the vehicle
under that agreement;
[4][(3) “Government” means Government of the
(4) “hours
of work” means the time during which the workers employed are at the disposal
of the employer excluding any interval allowed for rest and meals;
(5) “prescribed”
means prescribed by rules made under this Ordinance;
(6) “public
place” means a road, street, way or other place, whether a thoroughfare or not,
to which the public have a right of access, and includes any place or stand at
which passengers are packed up or set down by a vehicle;
(7) “road
transport service” means a service carrying passengers or goods or both by road
in vehicles for hire or reward;
(8) “vehicle”
means any mechanically propelled vehicle, used or capable of being used for the
purpose of road transport and includes a tramcar, a trolley-vehicle and a
trailer.
(9) “week”
means a period of seven days;
(10) “worker”
means a person engaged on mobile duty, and includes drivers, cleaners,
conductors and checkers employed by or in a road transport service;
(11) “year”
means a period of twelve months starting from the date a worker is employed in
a road transport service and ending on the date immediately preceding following
calendar year.
3. Age limit.– (1)
No person, other than a driver, shall be employed in any road transport service
unless he has attained the age of eighteen years.
(2) No person shall be
employed in any road transport service for the purpose driving a vehicle unless
he has attained the age of twenty-one years.
[5][3A. Order of appointment, etc.– An employer–
(a) who
has employed a worker before the [6]commencement
of the Road Transport Workers (Amendment) Act, 1975 (XII of 1975), shall within
the month of such commencement, and
(b) who employs, transfers or promotes a worker
after such commencement shall on the day of such employment, transfer or
promotion, furnish such worker with an order in writing in such form as may be
prescribed specifying the terms and conditions of his employment, transfer or
promotion, as the case may be.]
4. Hours of work and rest.– (1) No
worker shall be employed on a vehicle–
(a) for
more than five hours at a time before he has had an interval for rest of at
least half an hour nor for more than [7][seven]
hours before he has had at least two such intervals;
(b) for
more than [8][eight]
hours in a day; and
(c) for
more than [9][forty-eight]
hours in a week.
[10][Explanation.–
A worker who is required to wait for not less than 30 minutes to be
employed on a vehicle shall be deemed to be employed on a vehicle during the
time he is so required to wait.]
(2) Every worker shall be entitled to have at
least twenty-four hours of consecutive rest in a week.
(3) The Government may,
by rules made under Section 10, grant such exemptions from the provisions of
sub-section (1) and sub-section (2) as it thinks fit, to meet cases of
emergency or of delay by reason of circumstances which could not be foreseen:
Provided
that–
(a) no
worker shall be employed overtime in any year in excess of one hundred and
fifty working hours; and
(b) the
worker employed overtime shall be paid remuneration at twice the rate of his
normal wages calculated by the hour.
(4) Where as a result of the making of a rule
exempting any worker from the provisions of sub-section (2), a worker is
deprived of any of the weekly hours of rest for which provision is made in the
sub-section he shall be allowed, as soon as circumstances permit, compensating
hours of rest of equal number so lost:
Provided
that no worker shall be caused or allowed to work for more than ten consecutive
days without a compensating rest for at least twenty-four hours at one time.
(5) The Government or, if authorised
in this behalf by the Government by rules made under Section 10, the competent
authority, may require an employer to fix before hand
the hours of work of the workers so as to conform with the provisions of
subsection (1) and may provide for the recording of the hours so fixed.
(6) No worker shall work or cause or allow any
other worker to work outside the hours fixed or recorded for the work of the
said worker in compliance with any rule under sub-section (5).
5. Restriction
on cumulative hours of work.– No worker shall work or be
allowed to work on a vehicle or two or more vehicles in excess of the period
during which he may be lawfully employed under this Ordinance.
6. Leave.– (1)
In addition to the period of daily and weekly rest, every worker, who has been
in continuous employment for a period of one year, shall be entitled to not
less than 14 days, leave with full pay or, if he has been continuously employed
for a period of six months, he shall be entitled to not less than seven days
leave with full pay.
(2) For the purpose of
computing the period during which a worker has been in continuous employment
within the meaning of sub-section (1), the period during which he was on leave
under this section shall be included.
[11][6A. Festival holidays.– (1)
Every worker shall be entitled to festival holidays with full wages for twelve
days in a year and the employer shall notify the days and dates for such
holidays to workers within a week.
(a) in
the case of a road transport service operating immediately before the
commencement of the Road Transport Workers (Amendment) Act, 1975(XII of 1975),–
(i) for the year 1975, of the commencement of the
said Act; and
(ii) for subsequent years, of the beginning of each calendar year; and
(b) in
the case of a road transport service which starts operating after the
commencement of the said Act,–
(i) for the year in which it starts operating, of the starting of its
operation; and
(ii) for subsequent years, of the beginning of each
calendar year.
(2) A worker may be required to work on any
festival holiday but a substitute holiday shall be allowed to him within ten
days of the festival holiday, or, at his option, he shall be paid wages in
respect of such work at double the ordinary rate of wages payable to him.]
[12][6B. Casual Leave.– Every
worker shall be entitled in a year to ten days casual leave on full wages:
Provided
that casual leave admissible under this section shall not be accumulated and
carried forward to the succeeding year.]
[13][7. [14][*
* *]Ordinance No. VI of 1968 to apply to road transport service.– The provisions of Standing Orders 10B, 10C, 12, other
than those contained in clause (2) thereof, 13, 14, other than the provisos
thereto, and 15 of the [15][* * *] Industrial
and Commercial Employment (Standing Orders) Ordinance, 1968 ([16][* * *] Ordinance No. VI of 1968), as in force for the
time being, shall apply to every road transport service as if such road
transport service were an industrial establishment to which the aforesaid
Ordinance had been applied by a notification under clause (c) of sub section
(4) of Section 1 thereof, and as if a worker was a workman or permanent
workman, as the case may be, within the meaning of that. Ordinance:
Provided
that for the purpose of calculating the period for which gratuity is due under
Standing Order 12, no period of service preceding the commencement of the Road
Transport Workers (Amendment) Act, 1975 (XII of 1975), shall be taken into
account:
Provided
further that Standing Order 10B, or 10C, or Standing Order 12, in so far as it
relates to gratuity, shall apply only to a road transport service wherein the
workers and the other persons employed on any day within the twelve months
immediately preceding the commencement of the said Act were, or on the day of
commencement of the said Act or on any day thereafter are,–
(a) in the case of Standing Order 10B, more than
forty-nine; or
(b) in the case of Standing Orders 10C, and 12,
more than nineteen.]
8. Maintenance
of registers, etc.– (1)Every employer shall, in the prescribed form
and in the prescribed manner, keep in the office of the road transport service
a record of the hours worked and the amount of leave taken by, and of the
intervals allowed for rest and meals to, every worker in accordance with the
provisions of this Ordinance and particulars of all employment overtime shall
be separately entered in the record.
(2) Every employer shall, for the purposes of this
Ordinance, maintain such other records and registers and display such notices
or other documents as may be prescribed.
9. Inspection
of registers and calling for information.– It shall be the duty
of every employer to produce for inspection of such inspectors as may be
appointed by the Government all accounts or other records required to be kept
for the purposes of this Ordinance and to give such officer any other
information in connection therewith as may be required.
10. Power to make
rules.– The Government may make rules for the purpose of
carrying into effect the provisions of this Ordinance.
11. Penalties.– Whoever
contravenes any of the provisions of this Ordinance, or any of the rules made
thereunder, shall be [17][punishable–
[18][(a) for the first offence, with fine not exceeding
five thousand rupees but not less than two thousand rupees; and]
(b) for every subsequent offence, with
imprisonment for a term which may extend to six months, and fine not exceeding [19][ten] thousand rupees.]
Provided
that–
(a) in
the case of any contravention of the provisions of Section 8, the employer
shall be liable, on conviction, to a fine not exceeding [20][one
hundred] rupees for every day on which the contravention occurs or continues,
and
(b) if
any employer, with intent to deceive, makes or causes or allows to be made, in
any record, register, notice or other document as provided under Section 8 an
entry which is to his knowledge false in any material particular, or willfully
omits or causes or allows to be omitted from any such record, register, notice
or document an entry required to be made therein, shall be liable on conviction
to simple imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or to a fine not
exceeding five [21][thousand]
rupees or both.
12. Protection of
action taken under the Ordinance.– No suit, prosecution or
other proceedings shall lie against any person for anything which is in good
faith done or intended to be done in pursuance of this Ordinance or rules made
thereunder.
[1]Published in the Gazette of
Pakistan Extraordinary, dated 4 July, 1961. This Ordinance had been applied to
the Provincially Administered Tribal Areas to the Parts of those areas to which
it did not already apply see Regulation No.1 of 1972, s.2
and Sch.
This Act was originally in the Federal
ambit, however, the subject on which this law was enacted devolved to the provinces
by virtue of 18th Amendment in the Constitution, hence it was adapted, with
amendments, for the province of the Punjab by the Road Transport Workers
(Amendment) Act 2012 (XX of 2012).
[2]Substituted
for the words “the whole” by the Road Transport Workers (Amendment) Act 2012
(XX of 2012).
[3]Ibid.,
for the word “
[4]Substituted
ibid.
[5]Inserted
by the Road Transports Workers (Amendment) Act, 1975 (XII of 1975), s.2.
[6]Commencement
date; January 25, 1975.
[7]Substituted
by the Road Transports Workers (Amendment) Act, 1975 (XII of 1975), s.3 for
“eight”.
[8]Substituted
by the Road Transports Workers (Amendment) Act, 1975 (XII of 1975), s.3 for
“nine”.
[9]Ibid, s.3
for “fifty-four”.
[10]Inserted
ibid.
[11]Added
by the Road Transports Workers (Amendment.) Act, 1975 (XII of 1975) s.4.
[12]Ibid.
[13]Section
7 substituted ibid.
[14]The
words “
[15]The
words “
[16]Ibid.
[17]Substituted
by the Road Transports Workers (Amendment) Act, 1975 (XII of 1975), s.6. for
original words.
[18]Substituted
by the Road Transport Workers (Amendment) Act 2012 (XX of 2012).
[19]Ibid.,
for the word “one”.
[20]Ibid.,
for the word “ten”.
[21]Ibid.,
for the word “hundred”.