1. Short title, extent, commencement and application.- (1) This Act may be called the Motor
Transport Workers Act, 1961.
(2) It extends to the whole of India 2
[***].
(3) It shall come into force on such date, not being later than the 31st day of March, 1962, as the
central Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, appoint and different dates may be
appointed for different States:
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[Provided that it shall come into force in the state of Jammu and Kashmir on the commencement of
the Central Labour Laws (Extension to Jammu and Kashmir) Act 1970 (51 of 1970].
(4) It applies to every motor transport undertaking employing five or more motor transport workers :
Provided that the state Government may, after giving not less than two months’ notice of its intention
so to do, by notification in the Official Gazette, apply all or any of the provisions of this Act to any motor
transport undertaking employing less than five motor transport workers.
2. Definitions.-In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,-
(a) “adolescent” means a person who has completed his fifteenth year but has not completed his
eighteenth year:
(b) “adult” means a person who has completed his eighteenth year:
(c) “child” means a person who has not completed his fifteenth year
(d) “day” means a period of twenty-four hours beginning at midnight:
Provided that where a motor transport worker’s duty commences before midnight but extends beyond
midnight, the following day for him shall be deemed to be the period of twenty-four hours beginning when
such duty ends, and the hours he has worked after midnight shall be counted in the previous day.
(e) “employer” means, in relation to any motor transport undertaking, the person who, or the authority
which, has the ultimate control over the affairs of the motor transport undertaking, and where the said
affairs are entrusted to any other person whether called a manager, managing director, managing agent or
by any other name, such other person,
1
This Act has been extended to Dadra and Nagar Haveli by Regulation 6 of 1963, sec. 2 and Sch. I’
Pondicherry by Regulation 7 of 1963, sec. 3 and Goa, Daman and Diu by Regulation II of 1963, sec. 3 and
Sch
2 The words “except the State of Jammu and Kashmir” omitted by Act 51 of 1970, sec. 2 and Sch. (w.e.f.
1-9-1971)
3 Added by Act 51 of 1970, sec. 2 and Sch. (w.e.f. 1-9-1971)
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(f) “hours of work” means the time during which a motor transport worker is at the disposal of the
employer or of any other person entitled to claim his services and includes-
(i) The time spent in work done during the running time of the transport vehicle;
(ii) The time spent in subsidiary work; and
(iii) Periods of mere attendance at terminals of less than fifteen minutes.
Explanation. - For the purpose of this clause –
(1) “running time” in relation to a working day means the time from the moment a transport vehicle
starts functioning at the beginning of the working day until the moment when the transport vehicle
ceases to function at the end of the working day, excluding any time during which the running of
the transport vehicle is interrupted for a period exceeding such duration as may be prescribed
during which period the persons who drive, or perform any other work in connection with the
transport vehicle are free to dispose of their time as they please or are engaged in subsidiary work;
(2) “subsidiary work” means work in connection with a transport vehicle, its passengers or its load
which is done outside the running time of the transport vehicle, including in particular -
(i) work in connection with accounts, the paying in of cash, the signing of registers, the handling in of
service sheets, the checking of tickets and other similar work;
(ii) the taking over and garaging of the transport vehicles;
(iii) traveling from the place where a person signs on to the place where he takes over the transport
vehicle and from the place where he leaves the transport vehicle to the place where he signs off;
(iv) work in connection with the upkeep and repair of the transport vehicle; and
(v) the loading and unloading of the transport vehicle;
(3) “period of mere attendance” means the period during which a person remains at his post solely in
order to reply to possible calls or to resume action at the time fixed in the duty schedule;
(g) “motor transport undertaking” means a motor transport undertaking engaged in carrying
passengers or goods or both by road for hire or reward, and includes a private carrier;
(h) “motor transport worker” means a person who is employed in a motor transport undertaking
directly or through an agency, whether for wages or not, to work in a professional capacity on a
transport vehicle or to attend to duties in connection with the arrival, departure, loading or
unloading of such transport vehicle and includes a driver, conductor, cleaner, station staff, line
checking staff, booking clerk, cash clerk, depot clerk, time-keeper, watchman or attendant, but
except in section 8 does not include-
(i) any such person who is employed in a factory as defined in the Factories Act, 1948 (63 of 1948);
(ii) any such person to whom the provisions of any law for the time being in force regulating the
conditions of service of persons employed in shops or commercial establishments apply;
(i) “prescribed” means prescribed by rules made under this Act;
( j ) “qualified medical practitioner” means a person having a certificate granted by an authority
specified in the Schedule to the Indian Medical Degrees Act, 1916 (7 of 1916), or notified under
section 3 of that Act or specified in the schedules to the Indian medical council Act, 1956 (102 of
1956), and includes any person having a certificate granted under any Provincial or State Medical
Council Act;
(k) “spread-over” means the period between the commencement of duty on any day and the
termination of duty on that day;
(l) “wages” has the meaning assigned to it in clause (vi) of section 2 of the Payment of Wages Act,
1936 (4 of 1936);
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(m) “week” means the period between midnight on Saturday night and midnight on the succeeding
Saturday night;
(n) all other words and expressions used but not defined in this Act and defined in the Motor Vehicles
Act, 1939 (4 of 1939), shall have the meanings respectively assigned to them in that Act.