 The authorities responded to the chaos with emergency legislation ; the Ordinance of Labourers was passed in 1349 , and the Statute of Labourers in 1351 . These attempted to fix wages at pre @-@ plague levels , making it a crime to refuse work or to break an existing contract , imposing fines on those who transgressed . The system was initially enforced through special Justices of Labourers and then , from the 1360s onwards , through the normal Justices of the Peace , typically members of the local gentry . Although in theory these laws applied to both labourers seeking higher wages and to employers tempted to outbid their competitors for workers , they were in practice applied only to labourers , and then in a rather arbitrary fashion . The legislation was strengthened in 1361 , with the penalties increased to include branding and imprisonment . The royal government had not intervened in this way before , nor allied itself with the local landowners in quite such an obvious or unpopular way . 
