Workmen’S Compensation Act · 1984 Revised Edition · Part I · Preliminary
Section 2
In plain English
Not legal advice
A workman is anyone working under a contract of employment, manual or not, written or oral. The definition leaves out, among others, non-manual workers earning over $750 a month, local armed forces members, outworkers and family members living with the employer. If the contract is illegal, the commissioner, an arbitrator or a court may treat it as valid.
Summary · Drafted with AI, checked against the official text on 30 Sep 2026.
Official textFrom Attorney General's Chambers, unchanged
In this Act-
"workman", subject to the proviso to this subsec-tion, means any person who has, either before or after the commencement of this Act, entered into or works under a contract of employment whether by way of manual labour or otherwise, whether the contract is expressed or implied, or is oral or in writing, whether the remuneration is calculated by time or by work done, and whether by the day, week, month or longer period or otherwise:
contract of employment
"contract of employment" means a contract of ser-vice or of apprenticeship or a contract for the ex-ecution or performance of any work undertaken at the premises of an employer, which forms part of any trade or business carried on by such employer or of the domestic service of his household;
Provided that the following persons are ex-cepted from the definition of "workman" -
any person employed otherwise than by way of manual labour whose earnings calculated in accordance with the provisions of section 9, exceed
$750 a month;
any person whose employment is of a casual nature and who is employed otherwise than for the
Meaning of
''workman"
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Workmen's Compensation purposes of the employer's trade or business, not being a person employed for the purposes of any gain or recreation and engaged or paid through a club;
any person who is a member of any local armed forces established under any written law;
any person employed, or selected for em-ployment, in a civil capacity by the Government or by any statutory body or authority before the date upon which this Act comes into force where, in consequence of injury received by any such person in the discharge of his duties, a pension or gratuity which would not be payable if such injury were received otherwise is paid to him or, in the case of his death, to any of his dependants as defined in this Act, under any written law for the time being in .force in Brunei or any part thereof providing for the grant of such pension or gratuity;
an outworker;
any member of the family of the employer who dwells with him in his house;
any class of person whom His Majesty the
Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan in Council may by order signified in the Gazette declare not to be
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workmen for the purposes of this Enactment.
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If in any proceedings for the recovery of com-pensation under this Act it appears to the Commissioner or an arbitrator or the Court that the contract of employment under which the injured person was working at the time when the accident causing the injury happened was illegal, the Commissioner, the arbitrator or the Court may, if hav-ing regard to all the circumstances of the case he or it thinks proper so to do, deal with the matter as if the injured person
arbitrator
"arbitrator" means a person appointed by His Majesty by notification in the Gazette to be an arbitrator for workmen's compensation; the "Commissioner'' means the Commissioner of Labour appointed under section 3 of the Labour Act…
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Workmen's Compensation had at such time been a person working under a valid con-tract of employment.
Any reference to a workman who has been in-jured shall, unless the context otherwise requires, where the workman is dead, include a reference to his legal personal representative or to his dependants or any of them or to any public officer whom the Minister may appoint to act on behalf of the dependants of the workman.
Terms defined in s 3
arbitrator
Defined · s 3"arbitrator" means a person appointed by His Majesty by notification in the Gazette to be an arbitrator for workmen's compensation; the "Commissioner'' means the Commissioner of Labour appointed under section 3 of the Labour Act…
contract of employment
Defined · s 3"contract of employment" means a contract of ser-vice or of apprenticeship or a contract for the ex-ecution or performance of any work undertaken at the premises of an employer, which forms part of any trade or business carried on by such employer or of the domestic service of his household;
earnings
Defined · s 3"earnings" means any remuneration paid in cash to a workman by his employer in consideration of work done in respect of his contract of employ-ment and any privilege or benefit which is capable of being estimated in money and includes the value of any food, fuel or quarters supplied to the work-man by the employer if as a result of the accident the workman or any of his dependant& is deprived of such food, fuel or quarters; and includes any overtime payments or other special remuneration for work done, whether by way of bonus, allo-wance or otherwise, if of constant character or for work habitually performed and including tips if the employment be of such nature that the habitual giving and receiving thereof is open and notorious and is recognised by the employer; but shall not include- (a) casual payments of a non-recurrent nature; (b) a travelling allowance or the value of any travelling concession; (c) a contribution paid by the employer towards any pension or provident fund; Workmen's Compensation (d) a sum or concession received by the work- - man in consideration of any special expenses incur-red by him by reason of the nature of his employ-ment;
employer
Defined · s 3"employer" includes - (a) the Government; (b) any statutory body or authority; (c) any person or body of person whether in-corporate or not; (d) the legal personal representative of a de-ceased employer; and (e) in relation to a person employed for the pur-pose of any game or recreation and engaged or paid through a club, the manager or members of the managing committee of such club; and where the services of a workman are tempor-arily lent or let on hire to another person by the person with whom the workman has entered into a contract of employment, the latter shall, for the purposes of this Act, be deemed to continue to be the employer of the workman whilst he is working for that other person;
member of the family
Defined · s 3"member of the family" means a wife, husband, father, mother, grandfather, grandmother, step- - - Workmen's Compensation father, stepmother, son, daughter, grandson, granddaughter, stepson, stepdaughter, brother, sister, half-brother, half-sister, daughter-in-law or sister-in-law and any such person is included whether the relationship is created by blood or by any adoption recognised as valid by the law of Brunei;
outworker
Defined · s 3"outworker" means a person to whom articles or materials are given out to be made up, cleaned, washed, altered, ornamented, finished or repaired or adapted for sale in his home or on other premis-es not under the control or management of the person who gave out the materials or articles;