Cap. 585 чл. 20Powers of the Secretariat.

(1) Any officer of the Secretariat may give an order, verbally or in writing, and every person shall obey such order forthwith until such time as it is revoked by the Secretariat or the Appeals Tribunal:

Provided that the person who receives the order, whether such person is a worker or an undertaking, may defend himself from the charge of having disobeyed the order if he proves that compliance with the order would have constituted a violation under this Act:

Provided further that any order given verbally shall be confirmed in writing and served upon the person to whom it was given within three working days.

(2) Any officer of the Secretariat may affix seals or use other means in order to ensure that any equipment cannot be operated, if ordered as such, until such a time that the order is revoked.

(3) Any officer of the Secretariat may order that a workplace or part of a workplace be condemned, and ordered to cease its operations therefrom, and may revoke any such order. When a workplace or part thereof is condemned according to the provisions of this sub-article, no person shall enter the condemned area without the Secretariat’s written authorization.

(4) Any officer of the Secretariat when making an order in writing under this article, may affix in the workplace, or on any equipment, machine, apparatus, article or thing, a copy thereof, and no person except an officer authorized by the Secretariat shall remove such copy.

(5) Where any officer of the Secretariat makes an order in writing under this article, or issues a report of inspection to an undertaking or to a person in charge of work, the undertaking or person in charge of work shall forthwith cause a copy or copies thereof to be posted in a conspicuous place or places at the practice or activity where it is most likely to come to the attention of workers:

Provided that it shall also be at the discretion of the Secretariat, with the concurrence of the Commission, to publish such order in the Gazette, if it is such to safeguard the public interest.

(6) No pleas of breach of the right to a fair hearing shall be raised by the investigated party before the issuance of an order.