Section 53
Liability of principals and contractors for salary
(1)
Where a principal in the course of his trade or business —
(a)
contracts with a contractor for —
(i)
the supply of labour; or
(ii)
the execution by or under the contractor, of the whole or any part of any work undertaken by the principal;
and
(b)
any salary is due to any workman by the contractor or any sub-contractor under the contractor, for labour supplied or for work done in the course of the execution of such work,
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the principal, the contractor and any such sub-contractor, not being the employer, shall be jointly and severally liable with the employer to pay the workman as if the workman had been immediately employed by him.
(2)
Where salary is claimed from the principal, this Act, with the exception of section 51, applies as if a reference to the principal were substituted for the reference to the employer, except that salary claimed shall be calculated with reference to the salary of the workman under the employer by whom he was immediately employed.
(3)
No principal, contractor or sub-contractor, not being the employer, shall be jointly and severally liable to any workman under subsection (1) or (2) for more than the salary earned in one month for the work done by the employer.
(4)
In the case of a contract of service for constructional work, the principal is not liable for the payment of salary under subsection (1) or (2)
unless he is also a constructional contractor.
(5)
The workman shall institute proceedings for the recovery of his salary within 60 days or such longer period as the Commissioner may allow from the date on which the salary became due for payment in accordance with the provisions for the payment of salary in Part 4.
(6)
A claim for salary under this section shall be made in the manner provided for in Part 16.
(7)
Nothing in this section shall prevent any principal, contractor or sub-contractor, not being the employer, who, as the result of a claim made under this section, has paid any salary to a workman from instituting civil proceedings for the recovery of the amount of that salary so paid from the employer of that workman.
(8)
Nothing in this section shall be construed so as to prevent a workman from recovering salary under this Act from his employer instead of the principal, contractor or sub-contractor.
(9)
The reference to principal in this section shall include the
Government and a statutory body.
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