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Manpower Training Act, 1981 (Act No. 56 of 1981)

Chapter 6 : General Provisions

53. Liability of employer for acts or omissions of managers, agents or employees

 

1) If any manager, agent or employee of any employer has done or omitted to do any act which it would be an offence in terms of this Act for that employer to do or to omit to do, the employer shall be presumed himself to have done or omitted to do that act and shall be liable to be convicted and sentenced in respect of that act or omission unless it is proved that -
a) in doing or omitting to do that act, such manager, agent or employee was acting without the connivance or the permission of the employer;
b) all reasonable steps were taken by the employer to prevent any act or omission of the kind in question; and
c) it was not under any condition or in any circumstance within the scope of the authority or in the course of the employment of the manager, agent or employee concerned to do or to omit to do an act, whether lawful or unlawful, of the nature of the act or omission charged.

 

2) The fact that an employer issued instructions forbidding any act or omission of the kind in question, shall, for the purposes of subsection (1)(b), not by itself be regarded as sufficient proof that he took all reasonable steps to prevent such act or omission.

 

3) If any manager, agent or employee of any employer has done or omitted to do any act which would be an offence in terms of this Act for that employer to do or to omit to do, that manager, agent or employee shall be liable to be convicted and sentenced in respect of that act or omission as if he were the employer.

 

4) Any manager, agent or employee referred to in subsection (3) may be convicted and sentenced in terms of the said subsection, in addition to the employer concerned.

 

5) Whenever the manager, agent or employee of any employer is by virtue of the provisions of subsection (4) convicted of a contravention of the provisions of section 48(1) or of a failure referred to in section 51(1) or section 52(1), the court shall give an order under section 48(2), 51(4) or 52(1), as the case may be, against the employer, and the provisions of the said sections shall mutatis mutandis apply in respect of such order, and no such order shall be given against such manager, agent or employee.