Section 21: Officers and their powers

(1) The Minister may appoint any public officer to act for the purposes of this Act; and every authorised labour officer within the meaning of the Labour Act shall be deemed to have been so appointed.
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(2)
Every appointed officer shall be furnished with a certificate of his appointment and when visiting an employer's premises for the purposes of this Act shall, if so required, produce the certificate to the employer or other person holding a responsible position of management at the said premises.
(3) An appointed officer may-
(a) require the production by an employer of wages sheets or other records of wages and records of conditions of employment, and inspect and examine them and copy any part thereof;
(b) at all reasonable times enter any premises at which any employer to whom an order made under section 10 of this Act applies carries on his business (including any premises which the officer has reasonable cause to believe to be used by or by arrangement with the employer to provide living accommodation for workers);
(c)
examine, either alone or in the presence of any other person, as he thinks fit, with respect to any matters under this Act, any person whom he has reasonable cause to believe to be or to have been a worker to whom an order made under section 10 of this Act applies or applied, or the employer of any person or a servant or agent of the employer, employed in the employer's business, and require every such person to be so examined and to sign a declaration of the truth of the matters in respect of which he is so examined, so however that no person shall be required to give any information tending to incriminate himself;
(d)
order any person or body of persons found to have contravened any of the provisions of this Act to take remedial action within a specified reasonable period of time; and
(e) subject generally to the powers of any Attorney-General, institute proceedings for any offence under this Act and, with the consent of the Minister, appear and have all necessary power for the conduct of the proceedings; and Attorney-General means Attorney-General of the Federation or, as appropriate, Attorney-General or Solicitor-General of a State, as the case may be.
(4) An appointed officer who is authorised in that behalf by general or special directions of the Minister may, if it appears to him that a sum is due from an employer to a worker to whom an order made under section 10 of this Act applies, or to a person who has been such a worker, on account of the payment to him of wages less than the statutory minimum wages, institute on behalf and in the name of that worker or person civil proceedings for the recovery of that sum, and in any such proceedings the court may make an order for the payment of costs by the appointed officer as if he were a party to the proceedings.
(5)
The power given by subsection (4) of this section for the recovery of a sum due from an employer to a worker or other person shall not be in derogation of any right of that worker or other person himself to recover that sum by civil proceedings.
(6) The Minister may by writing under his hand without prejudice to the foregoing subsection 1 of this section, delegate to any public officer the exercise of the power conferred on the Minister by subsection (3) (e) or (4) of this section:
Provided that the existence of such a delegation shall not prevent the continued exercise of the power by the Minister.