Statutory Alert ! The Karnataka Shops And Commercial Establishments (Amendment) Act, 2020

The Government of Karnataka vide notification No.40 Of 2020 has amended provision under Section 25 of The Karnataka Shops and Commercial Establishments Act, 1961 towards the regulation of employment of women at night. As per the Amendment, the conditions for the regulation of employment of women during the night in a shop or commercial establishment shall be as follows::- (a) The regulation stipulated under sections 7 (Daily and weekly hours), 8 (Extra wages for overtime work), 9 (Interval for rest), 10 (Spread over) and 12 (Weekly Holidays) of the Act shall continue to apply to the women employee working during night shift (b) Willingness of women employees shall be obtained in writing (c) The establishment shall provide transport facilities from the residence of the woman employee to the workplace and back free of cost and with adequate security. Such transport facility shall have GPS for tracking and monitoring (d) Employment of women employee shall be on a rotation basis (e) An adequate number of security guards shall be posted during the night shift (f) Sufficient restrooms, electricity, latrines lockers, dispensary facility and washing facilities with adequate water supply shall be provided separately for women employees so as to secure privacy (g) The establishment shall bear the cost of crèche obtained by the women employees from voluntary or other organisations (h) The establishment shall obtain Bio-data of each driver and conduct pre-employment screening of the antecedents of all drivers employed on their own. As regards the driver employed through outsourcing, the company shall ensure to its satisfaction that the collection of Bio-data and conduct pre-employment screening of the antecedents of the drivers is carried out by the service provider. Please refer to the notification for more details

The Karnataka Shops And Commercial Establishments (Amendment) Act, 2020