The Immigration Ordinance enacted in 1891 regulated labour conditions on the sugar plantations. It was signed into law by the Governor after approval from the Court of Policy.

The Ordinance provided for employment of indentured Indians by the task and by the day. Except for Sundays and holidays, a field worker was obliged to work for 7 hours a day, while a factory worker's work day lasted for 10 hours. Despite these new specifications, many sugar plantation owners kept their workers on the job for even longer hours but were not prosecuted for breaching the law.

The minimum wage was 24 cents per day for able bodied men, and less than 16 cents for other workers who were not "able bodied". This latter group included boys and women.

The payment for task work was supposed to be equivalent to that paid for day-work, but this did not generally occur. As such, some workers from time to time expressed their dissatisfaction to the plantation managers and to the Immigration agents.

The Ordinance also directed that if the task of a worker was not properly performed he could be punished by being fined or jailed. The punishment was a fine of 5 dollars or 14 days imprisonment on the first conviction; this penalty was doubled for a second conviction. Absence from work was punished with a fine of 10 dollars or one month in jail. Persons who were ill were excused.

Other offences included drunkenness, wilful deceit in the performance of work, and using insulting words or gestures to employers or anyone in authority. Serious offences included encouraging other indentured workers to refuse to work, and damaging employers' property. Punishment for these more serious acts was a fine of 24 dollars or two months imprisonment.

The indentured labourer was also restricted to the plantation. It was also illegal for him to work for anyone else. Actually, he could not leave the plantation unless he obtained permission from the owner. He was entitled to a pass for one day and night if he worked for two consecutive weeks. If he was absent without leave for more than seven days from the plantation, he was declared a deserter and a warrant was issued for his arrest.

There was an important exception to this rule. A pass was not required by worker if he was leaving the plantation to make a complaint to a magistrate or the office of the Immigration Agent General. However, in doing so, he could not leave in the company of more than four other indentured persons. But this requirement was not always enforced and on many occasions larger groups left the plantations to lodge complaints about their treatment at the office of the Immigration Agent General in Georgetown.

Based on the regulations of the 1891 Ordinance, the Immigration Agent General had to investigate the complaints of indentured workers and make rulings without any lengthy delays.

The Ordinance of 1891 also instructed the employers to provide suitable housing for the workers and could be fined if they did not comply. However, no plantation owner was ever convicted even though their workers were housed in insanitary and dilapidated living quarters which also offered them no privacy.

Indentured workers complained that the Ordinance imposed harsh penalties on them, and that it was imposed for the benefit of the plantation owners. For over 26 years their demands for the Ordinance to be amended fell on deaf ears, and it was not until 1917 that the Court of Policy finally decided to amend this law. The Court of Policy no doubt was sensitive to the representations of the Indian Government which expressed concerns over the treatment of indentured Indians in Guyana. In addition, the influential role of the anti-emigration movement in India, which was supported by Mohandas Gandhi, was instrumental in pressuring the colonial authorities to amend the Ordinance

The amended Ordinance stipulated that criminal actions against indentured workers were abolished. Civil measures including repatriation to India, in extreme cases, were now to be applied. Penalties were drastically reduced and fines could not exceed one-third of the weekly wage. Imprisonment for labour offences