An Act to Amend Act No. 2549

March 16, 1923

ACT NO. 3085

AN ACT TO AMEND ACT NUMBERED TWENTY-FIVE HUNDRED AND FORTY-NINE, ENTITLED "AN ACT PROHIBITING IN THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS THE FORCING, COMPELLING, OR OBLIGING OF ANY LABORER OR OTHER EMPLOYEE TO PURCHASE MERCHANDISE, COMMODITIES, OR PERSONAL PROPERTY UNDER CERTAIN CONDITIONS, AND THE PAYMENT OF THE WAGES OF A LABORER OR EMPLOYEE BY MEANS OF TOKENS OR OBJECTS OTHER THAN LEGAL TENDER CURRENCY OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS"

SECTION 1. Section one of Act Numbered Twenty-five hundred and forty-nine is hereby amended to read as follows:

"SECTION 1. It shall be unlawful for any person, firm, or corporation engaged in any business or enterprise in the Philippine Islands in any manner to force, compel, or oblige any laborer or other employee employed by him to purchase merchandise, commodities, or personal property of any kind or nature from such person, firm, or corporation, or from any other person, firm, or corporation, or pay or cause to be paid the wages due a laborer or employee, or any part of said wages, by means of tokens, tickets, chits, or objects other than legal tender currency of the Philippine Islands: Provided, That any contract between employer and laborer by which the latter binds himself to accept payment of his wages or any part thereof in tokens, tickets, chits, or other objects, and any other contract between them the direct or indirect purpose of which shall be to defeat the purposes of this Act shall be null and void."

SECTION 2. A new section, to be known as section 1-a, is hereby inserted after section one of Act Numbered Twenty-five hundred and forty-nine, which section shall read as follows:

"SEC. 1-a. It shall be the duty of the Director of Labor to investigate and inspect personally or through his delegates the manner in which laborers' wages are paid not only in the cities and other industrial centers; but also on the plantations in the various parts of the Islands, and to denounce any direct or indirect violation of this Act observed in the course of such investigation or inspection." EcDTIH

SECTION 3. Section two of Act Numbered Twenty-five hundred and forty-nine is hereby amended to read as follows:

"SEC. 2. Every person violating the provisions of this Act and every member of a firm, and every director or officer of a corporation, who knowingly consents to any violation of this Act or directs the same, shall, for each offense, be punished by a fine of not less than one hundred pesos nor more than one thousand pesos, or by imprisonment for a period of not less than one month nor more than one year, or by both such fine and imprisonment, in the discretion of the court." acHDTE

SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect on its approval.

Approved, March 16, 1923.