Wages Councils Act 1979

16 Permits to infirm and incapacitated persons

(1) If, as respects any worker employed or desiring to be employed in such circumstances that an order under section 14 above applies or will apply to him, the council which made the order is satisfied, on application being made to it for a permit under this section either by the worker or the employer or a prospective employer, that the worker is affected by infirmity or physical incapacity which renders him incapable of earning the statutory minimum remuneration or makes it inappropriate for other terms and conditions fixed by the order to apply to him, it may, if it thinks fit, grant, subject to any conditions it may determine, a permit authorising his employment at less than the statutory minimum remuneration or dispensing with a term or condition specified in the permit; and while the permit is in force the remuneration authorised by the permit shall, if the conditions specified in the permit are complied with, be deemed to be the statutory minimum remuneration or, as the case may be, the terms and conditions fixed by the order shall be deemed to be observed.

(2) Where an employer employs any worker in reliance on any document purporting to be a permit granted under subsection (1) above authorising the employment of that worker at less than the statutory minimum remuneration, or dispensing with a term or condition specified in the permit, then, if the employer has notified the council in question that, relying on that document, he is employing or proposing to employ that worker at a specified remuneration or without compliance with any such term or condition, the document shall, notwithstanding that it is not or is no longer a valid permit relating to that worker, be deemed, subject to the terms thereof and as respects only any period after the notification, to be such a permit until notice to the contrary is received by the employer from the council.