PART IV.

Officers and Servants of the Board.

39. —(1) The Board shall appoint such and so many persons to be officers and servants of the Board as the Board, subject to the consent of the Minister, from time to time think proper and every person so appointed shall be selected by the Board in such manner (if any) as the Minister may direct or approve.

(2) Every officer of the Board shall perform the duties required by the Board or this Act to be performed by him and the Board may suspend him from duty but the Minister, and no other person, may remove him from office.

(3) Every servant of the Board shall perform the duties required by the Board or this Act to be performed by him and shall be removable at the pleasure of the Board.

(4) The Board shall pay to their officers and servants such remuneration and allowances as the Board, with the consent of the Minister, from time to time determine.

(5) Where any doubt, dispute, or question arises or, in the opinion of the Minister is likely to arise as to whether any particular person is or is not an officer or whether persons of any particular class are or are not officers for the purposes of this Act, such doubt, dispute, or question shall be decided by the Minister and such decision shall be final.

40. —(1) In this section the expression “the former Board” has the same meaning as it has in the Act of 1944.

(2) The Board may prepare and submit to the Minister a scheme (in this section referred to as a pension scheme) to provide pensions or gratuities or pensions and gratuities for or in respect of such officers and servants of the Board as the Minister approves and (subject to confirmation by the Minister) may carry such scheme into execution.

(3) A pension scheme—

(a) may provide that, in the case of a person who, having been an officer of a dissolved body, becomes by virtue of this Act an officer of the Board, service under the dissolved body and service under the former Board may be reckoned in whole or in part for the purposes of such scheme, as service under the Board;

(b) may provide that, in the case of a person who having been a servant of a dissolved body, becomes an officer or servant of the Board, service under the dissolved body and service under the former Board may be reckoned in whole or in part for the purpose of such scheme, as service under the Board;

(c) shall provide for the payment to or in respect of officers and servants of the Board to whom such scheme applies of pensions or gratuities or pensions and gratuities at such times and subject to such conditions and restrictions as may be set out in such scheme, and for the calculation of the amounts of such pensions and gratuities;

(d) shall provide for the payment of contributions towards the financing of such scheme by officers and servants of the Board to whom such scheme applies other than persons who were, immediately prior to the establishment date, pensionable officers or servants of a dissolved body.

(4) The Board may at any time by a subsequent pension scheme (in this subsection and in subsequent subsections of this section referred to as an amending scheme) amend a pension scheme or a previous amending scheme and any such amending scheme may be expressed to operate retrospectively.

(5) Where an amending scheme amends a pension scheme an officer or servant to whom such pension scheme applies or applied may, within six months after the coming into operation of the amending scheme, elect not to have the amending scheme apply to him and, if he does so elect, the amending scheme shall not apply to him.

(6) An amending scheme shall not terminate or reduce any pension which was, immediately before the coming into force of such amending scheme, payable under the scheme thereby amended.

(7) A pension scheme or an amending scheme shall not come into force unless and until it is has been confirmed by order of the Minister.

(8) An order of the Minister confirming a pension scheme or an amending scheme shall appoint the date on which such scheme is to come into force and, as on and from the date so appointed, such scheme shall have statutory effect.