One of the most important State level Acts governing retail trade is the Shops & Establishment Act. In many States the Acts in force today were enacted over 50 years ago:
Mumbai / Maharashtra 1948
Tamil Nadu 1947
Delhi 1954
Madhya Pradesh 1954
These State laws have different provisions on opening and closing hours and on the working hours for women. All of them require the shops and offices to be closed for at least one day a week on a mandatory basis. Constraints on opening and closing hours limit the operations of retail outlets and inconvenience the clientele. Restrictive limitation on the working hours of women is anomalous when in the IT sector the limitations have been removed on the condition that transport would have to be provided by the employer to enable women to return home in the night. Compulsory closure of stores and offices for a day in the week is also not warranted because if worker’s welfare is the aim it can be accomplished by requiring that employees should be given weekly off day on any fixed day by rotation.
In more ways than one the Shops & Establishment Act is outdated and the High Level Group recommends that the Government of India should set up a Committee consisting of representatives of Government, Trade Associations and the Unions to review the provisions and propose changes that take into account today’s realities in terms of workplace practices, use of technology etc.
