Wakilii

Rex v Safi (Cr. Rev. Case No. 850-1935)

East African Court of Appeal · [1937] EACA 202 · 1937 Revision Allowed AI-generated summary ↓ Download Pin to watchlist Add to matter
Jurisdiction
Uganda
Case Type
Criminal revision from magistrate's decision under Employment of Natives Ordinance
Decision
Magistrate's decision affirmed

Observed later treatment

No later-treatment classification is recorded for this judgment.

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Holding

Held that wages of a servant under the Employment of Natives Ordinance must be paid in money, apart from food supplied under the contract of service, save as provided by section 27 of the Ordinance. The English Truck Acts do not apply to Kenya because the Employment of Natives Ordinance covers persons excluded from the Truck Acts and permits contracts providing for remuneration consisting of money and food. Payments in kind cannot be deducted from money wages.

Outcome

Magistrate's decision affirmed

Facts

A servant was engaged to work as a garden boy at Sh. 12 per month and posho (food ration). The employer made certain payments in kind amounting to Sh. 20/75, which were endorsed on the back of labour tickets. In adjusting claims between employer and servant under section 45 of the Employment of Natives Ordinance, the magistrate held that these payments in kind could not be regarded as payment in part satisfaction of the Sh. 12 per month money wages. The magistrate based his decision on the authority of the English Truck Act 1831.

Issues

  1. Whether wages under the Employment of Natives Ordinance can be paid in kind rather than in money.
  2. Whether the English Truck Acts apply to contracts under the Employment of Natives Ordinance in Kenya.

Orders

  • Magistrate's decision upheld that payments in kind should not be deducted from money wages of the servant.

Rules and key headnotes

Employment & Labour — Wages — Payment in Kind — Employment of Natives Ordinance
Apart from food supplied under the contract of service, the wages of a servant as defined by the Employment of Natives Ordinance must be paid in money, save as is provided by section 27 of the Ordinance.
Statutory Interpretation — Applicability of English Statutes — Truck Acts
The English Truck Acts do not apply to Kenya because the Employment of Natives Ordinance includes persons excluded from the Truck Acts (such as domestic servants, porters, messengers) and permits contracts providing for remuneration consisting of money and food, whereas the Truck Acts declare contracts providing for remuneration otherwise than in current coin to be illegal, null and void.
Employment & Labour — Deductions from Wages — Section 27 Employment of Natives Ordinance
Section 27 of the Employment of Natives Ordinance, which permits deduction of the cost of blankets and other specified articles from a servant's remuneration, implies that some part of the remuneration must be in money, for otherwise there would be no remuneration susceptible of a deduction.
Employment & Labour — Unequal Bargaining Power — Protection of Servants
The servant in contracts under the Employment of Natives Ordinance must be presumed to be less capable of looking after his own interests than the employer, and to permit the employer to value and supply food or goods and deduct the value from the servant's money wages might result in injustice to the servant, as the parties are in unequal positions of contracting.

Legislation cited (6)

  • Employment of Natives Ordinance (Cap. 139 Laws of Kenya) s.27
  • Employment of Natives Ordinance (Cap. 139 Laws of Kenya) s.45
  • Truck Act (England) 1831 s.19
  • Truck Act (England) 1831 s.20
  • Truck Amendment Act 1887
  • Employers and Workmen Act 1875 s.10

Full judgment

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The original judgment as reported. Read the original PDF before relying on any passage.

Rex v Safi (Cr. Rev. Case No. 850-1935) [1937] EACA 202 (1 January 1937)
Source: this page presents Wakilii’s issue analysis and metadata for a publicly reported Ugandan judgment. Any AI-generated summary is marked as such. Judgment text is sourced from the Uganda Legal Information Institute (ulii.org). Wakilii is not affiliated with ULII.