The Shop and Establishment Act
The Shop and Establishment Act has been implemented to regulate conditions of work and employment in shops and commercial establishments and further to provide statutory obligation and rights to employees and employers working in the unorganized sector of employment or wherein any trade, business or profession is carried out.
The Act regulates areas such as working hours, rest interval for employees, opening and closing hours, closed days, national and religious holidays, overtime work, rules for employment of children, annual leave, maternity leave, sickness and casual leave, rules for employment and termination of service, etc.
Regulation
The Shop and Establishment Act is regulated by the state government legislation and each state has framed its own rules for the Act and therefore all shops and commercial establishments operating within each state are covered by the respective Shop & Establishments Act.
Applicability
The Shop and Establishment Act applies to all commercial establishments which include commercial, trading, banking or insurance establishment, an establishment or administrative service in which persons employed are mainly engaged in office work, a hotel, restaurant, boarding or eating house, a cafe or any other refreshment house, a theatre or any other place of public amusement or entertainment and includes such establishments as the State Government may by notification declare to be a commercial establishment for the purposes of this Act.
Shops include any premises where any trade or business is carried on or where services are rendered to customers, and includes offices, storerooms or warehouses, whether in the same premises or otherwise, used in connection with such trade or business, but does not include a commercial establishment or a shop attached to a factory where the persons employed in the shop fall within the scope of the Factories Act, 1948.
Acquiring License
Every shop and establishment need to register itself compulsorily under this Act within 30 days of commencement of work. As this is such a basic license, many other licenses require this as proof of a commercial business.
An application should be made to the Chief Inspector for a Shop and Establishment Act License within 30 days of the commencement of the establishment. The application for obtaining License must contain the name of employer or manager if any, the postal address of the establishment, the category of the establishment, any other particulars as may be prescribed. The establishment may then be registered if the Inspector is satisfied with the correctness of the statement and the Certificate of Registration is issued.
The employer shall, within fifteen days of his closing the establishment, notify to the Inspector in writing the date of such closure and return the registration certificate. The Inspector shall, on receiving the information and being satisfied with its correctness, remove such establishment from the register of establishments and cancel the registration certificate.
