Shops and Establishments (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 2017 is now effective

The Government of Chhattisgarh, vide notification no. No. F-10-12/2017/16/434, dated 13^th February 2025, has announced the effective date of the Chhattisgarh Shops and Establishments (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 2017. As per the notification, the Government has officially announced to enforce the provisions of the Act, effective from 13^th February 2025.

This has repealed the Chhattisgarh Shops and Establishments Act, 1958.

The following are the Key highlights of the enactment of 2017:

• The enactment shall apply to the shops and establishments employing ten or more workers.
• A worker occupying a position of confidential, managerial or supervisory character in a shop or in an establishment is exempted from the provisions of the Act. A list of such workers shall be displayed on the website of the shop or establishment and, in the absence of a website, at a conspicuous place in the shop or establishment, and a copy thereof shall be sent to the Facilitator.
• Every shop and establishment employing ten or more workers, shall apply for registration within a period of six months from the date of such commencement or the date on which such shop or establishment comes into existence.
• Registered establishments shall be provided with a Labour Identification Number.
• The shops and establishments registered under the Employees’ State Insurance Act, 1948, or the Employees’ Provident Fund and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952, shall be deemed to be registered under the Chhattisgarh Shops and Establishments (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 2017, provided such shops and establishment shall, within a period of six months from the commencement of this Act, obtain a Labour Identification Number.
• No woman shall be required or allowed to work in a shop or establishment, except between 6 AM and 9 PM.
• Maximum overtime hours shall not exceed 125 hours in a period of three months.
• A shop or establishment may work on all days in a week, subject to the condition that every worker shall be allowed a weekly holiday of at least twenty-four consecutive hours.
• If a worker is denied weekly holiday, the compensatory leave in lieu thereof shall be given within two months of such weekly holiday.
• The period of work in a week for all classes of workers in a shift shall be informed to all workers in writing and shall be sent to the facilitator electronically or otherwise.
• Where a worker is required to work on a day of rest, he shall be entitled to wages at the rate of twice his ordinary rate of wages.
• Every worker shall be entitled to eight days’ casual leave with wages in every calendar year, which shall be credited into the account of the worker on a quarterly basis.
• Every worker who has worked for a period of two hundred and forty days or more in a shop or establishment during a calendar year, shall be allowed, during the subsequent calendar year, leave with wages for a number of days calculated at the rate of one day for every twenty days of work performed by him during the previous calendar year.
• Every worker shall be permitted to accumulate the earned leave up to a maximum of forty-five days.
• A worker shall be entitled to eight paid festival holidays in a calendar year.
• In every shop or establishment wherein thirty or more women workers are employed or fifty or more workers are ordinarily employed, the employer shall provide and maintain a crèche.

Furthermore, the monetary penalty for contravening any provision of the enactment shall range from 1 lakh to 5 lakh rupees.