Section 22 National minimum wage: communities.

The following shall be inserted after section 44 of the M1National Minimum Wage Act 1998 (exclusions: voluntary workers)—

“ Religious and other communities: resident workers.

44A

(1)

A residential member of a community to which this section applies does not qualify for the national minimum wage in respect of employment by the community.

(2)

Subject to subsection (3), this section applies to a community if—

(a)

it is a charity or is established by a charity,

(b)

a purpose of the community is to practise or advance a belief of a religious or similar nature, and

(c)

all or some of its members live together for that purpose.

(3)

This section does not apply to a community which—

(a)

is an independent school, or

(b)

provides a course of further or higher education.

(4)

The residential members of a community are those who live together as mentioned in subsection (2)(c).

(5)

In this section—

(a)

“charity” has the same meaning as in section 44, and

(b)

“independent school” has the same meaning as in section 463 of the M2Education Act 1996 (in England and Wales), section 135 of the M3Education (Scotland) Act 1980 (in Scotland) and Article 2 of the M4Education and Libraries (Northern Ireland) Order 1986 (in Northern Ireland).

(6)

In this section “course of further or higher education” means—

(a)

in England and Wales, a course of a description referred to in Schedule 6 to the M5Education Reform Act 1988 or Schedule 2 to the M6Further and Higher Education Act 1992;

(b)

in Scotland, a course or programme of a description mentioned in or falling within section 6(1) or 38 of the M7Further and Higher Education (Scotland) Act 1992;

(c)

in Northern Ireland, a course of a description referred to in Schedule 1 to the M8Further Education (Northern Ireland) Order 1997 or a course providing further education within the meaning of Article 3 of that Order.”