Punjab Shops And Commercial Establishments Act

Are you planning to open a new shop or commercial establishment in the State of Punjab? Do you want to know all the statutory requirements and obligations that you must comply with in order to ensure that you are not penalized and that your business is running smoothly? Do you thus want to have a good standing in the eyes of the regulatory authorities and laws?

The Punjab Shops And Commercial Establishments Act, 1958 is applicable to all the shops and commercial establishments in the entire State of Punjab as notified by the Government of Punjab unless otherwise stated in the Act.

The main purpose of the Punjab Shops And Commercial Establishments Act is to protect the right of the employees and thus gives regulations regarding payment of wages, terms of service, rest intervals, work hours, opening and closing hours, overtime work, leave, holidays, maternity leave and benefits, working conditions, records maintenance, rules for employment of young persons, etc.

In order to be your complete guide about the Punjab Shops And Commercial Establishments Act, 1958, this article will cover the following topics:

• Punjab Shops And Commercial Establishments Act, 1958
• Important Definitions in the Punjab Shops And Commercial Establishments Act
• Registration under the Punjab Shops And Commercial Establishments Act
• Exemptions under the Punjab Shops And Commercial Establishments Act
• Power of Government to Extend the Provisions of this Act
• Employment Conditions for Young People
• Hours of Employment
• Intervals for Rest or Meals
• Opening and Closing Hours
• Close Day for the Employees
• Exempted Establishments from Provisions Related to Opening and Closing Hours and Close Day for the Employees
• Employees’ Off Day in a Week
• Holidays for the Employees
• Leave for the Employees
• Wages for Close Days and During Leave Periods
• Wage Period and Deductions from Wages
• Realization of Compensation
• Penalties Imposed on Employers
• Prohibition of Employment of Children
• Conditions of Employment of Women
• Notice of Removal
• Notice by Employee
• Records to be Showcased and Maintained by the Employers
• Inspection of Registers and Calling for Information
• Enforcement and Appointment of Inspectors
• Forms for Compliances
• How can Deskera Help?
• Key Takeaways
• Related Articles

Punjab Shops And Commercial Establishments Act, 1958

Punjab Shops And Commercial Establishments Act, 1958 was enacted with the main purpose of protecting the rights of the employees and therefore regulating their conditions of work and employment in the shops and commercial establishments. This Act is applicable to all the shops, and commercial establishments based in the areas notified accordingly by the Government of Punjab.

Some of the few aspects regulated by this Act in order to protect the employees are:

• Terms of service
• Payment of wages
• Opening and closing hours
• Work hours
• Leaves
• Holidays
• Overtime work
• Maternity leave and benefit
• Rest intervals
• Working conditions
• Records maintenance
• Rules of employment of young persons
• Close day and employees’ off day in a week
• Registration of establishment
• Conditions of employment of women

And so on. Thus, be it inter-state migrant workers or intra-state workers, or even the local workers, this Act aims to protect all the vulnerable workers when there are no other overarching acts to ensure that or when there are gaps in other acts designed to protect such workers.

Important Definitions in the Punjab Shops And Commercial Establishments Act

The important definitions in the Punjab Shops And Commercial Establishments Act are:

• Commercial Establishment: This refers to any premises wherein any trade, profession, or business is carried on for-profit and includes journalistic or printing establishments and premises in which business of insurance, stocks and shares, banking, brokerage, and produce exchange is carried on or which is used as a restaurant, hotel, boarding or eating house, cinema, theater, or other places of public entertainment or any other place which the Government may declare, by notification in the Official Gazette, to be a commercial establishment for the purposes of this Act.
• Establishment: This refers to a shop or a commercial establishment.
• Shop: This refers to any premises where any trade or business is carried on or where services are rendered to customers and includes store-rooms, offices, godowns, warehouses, sale depots, whether in the same premises or otherwise, used in connection with such business or trade, but does not include a commercial establishment or a shop attached to a factory where the persons employed in the shop are allowed the benefits provided for workers under the Factories Act, 1948.
• Employee: Here, employee refers to a person wholly or principally employed in, or in connection with, an establishment, whether working on permanent, periodical, contract, or piece-rate wages or on a commission basis, even though he receives no reward for his labour, but does not include a member of the employer’s family.
• Government: Here, Government means the Punjab Government.
• Register of Establishments: This means a register that is maintained for the registration of establishments under this Act.
• Registration Certificate: This refers to a certificate issued showing the registration of an establishment.

Note: “For the purposes of this Act, any employment in the service of the employer of an establishment upon any work, whether within the establishment or outside it, which related to or is connected with or is ancillary to the business carried on at the establishment shall be deemed to be employed about the business of the establishment.”

Registration under the Punjab Shops And Commercial Establishments Act

For all the shops and commercial establishments that exist in the areas to which this Act applies or where this Act is extended, they are obliged under the Punjab Shops And Commercial Establishments Act to register within thirty days from the date on which this Act comes into force or the date on which the Act is extended, as the case may be.

If yours is a new establishment in such an area, then you will have to register within thirty days from the date of which your establishment commenced work.

Within the period specified mentioned above, the employer of every establishment shall send to the prescribed authority concerned a statement in the prescribed form containing:

• The name of the employer and the manager, if any
• Postal address of the establishment
• The name, if any, of the establishment
• Number of persons employed

And such other particulars as may be prescribed.

Once the concerned authority has received your statement and they are satisfied with its correctness, they will register your establishment in the register of establishments in such a manner as may be prescribed and shall issue to you a registration certificate in the prescribed form. This registration certification, you will have to show the inspector if so demanded.

The registration certificate shall, however, be renewable by the 31st March every three years. A thirty days grace time is, however, allowed for the renewal of your registration certificate after the payment of prescribed fees.

Remember, you are obliged to notify the prescribed authority in the prescribed form if there is any change in respect of any information contained in your statement under this section within seven days after the change has taken place. On receiving such a notice, if the authority is satisfied with its correctness, then they will make the change in the register of establishments in accordance with such notice and, if necessary, even amend the registration certificate.

If you close your establishment at any point, then you are obliged to notify the same in writing to the prescribed authority within ten days of closing your establishment. On receiving such information and being satisfied with its correctness, the concerned authority will remove your establishment from the register of establishments and cancel the registration certificate.

Note: In case of any contravention of, or failure to comply with the provisions of this section of this Act, on conviction, you will be liable to a fine which shall not be less than one thousand rupees and which may extend to three thousand rupees alongside the prescribed registration or renewal fees- as the case may be.

(Provided that the amount of registration or renewal fee recovered from the employer shall be paid in the Government treasury or in any other mode as may be prescribed so as to enable the prescribed authority to issue or renew the registration certificate, as the case may be.)

Exemptions under the Punjab Shops And Commercial Establishments Act

The exemptions under the Punjab Shops And Commercial Establishments Act are:

• Offices of or under the Central or State Governments (except commercial undertakings), the Reserve Bank of India, any railway administration, or any local authority
• Any railway service, water transport service, air service, postal, tramway, telephone service or telegraph, any system of public conservancy or sanitation, or any industry business or undertaking which supplies power, light, or water to the public.
• Railway dining cars
• Offices of lawyers
• Any person employed about the business of any establishment mentioned above
• Any person whose hours of employment are regulated by or under the Factories Act, 1948, except the provisions of sub-sections (3), (4), and (5) of section 7 of this Act in so far as they relate to the employment in a factory
• Any person whose work is inherently intermittent
• Establishments of stamp vendors and petition writer

Note: Government or any officer empowered by the Government in this behalf may, by notification in the Official Gazette, exempt from the operation of all or any of the provisions of this Act for any period it considers desirable any establishment or any class thereof or any employer or employee or class of employers or employees to whom this Act applies on such condition as it may think fit.

Power of Government to Extend the Provisions of this Act

As per the Punjab Shops And Commercial Establishments Act, the Government, through a notification, has the power to declare any class of establishments or persons specified therein to no longer be exempted from those provisions of this Act that are specified in the notifications. The provisions of this Act specified in such notification shall apply to such class of establishments or persons as the case may be.

Note: For every such notification made, they will have to be laid before the House of State Legislature as soon as possible after it is made.

Employment Conditions for Young People

The conditions of employment under the Punjab Shops and Commercial Establishment Acts are:

• For each young person employed about the business of an establishment, the total number of hours worked by him, or her should not exceed thirty hours in any one week or five hours in any one day. This is exclusive of intervals for meals and rest.
• Additionally, each of the young persons employed about the business of an establishment shall not be employed continuously for more than three hours without an interval of at least half an hour for a meal or rest.
• The Government may prescribe further conditions in relation to the employment of young persons about the business of your establishment or any class of them, including, if it thinks fit, conditions with respect to the daily period of employment of those persons. Remember, no such person shall be employed except in accordance with these conditions.
• In case of any contravention of, or failure to comply with, the provisions of this section, the employer shall be liable, on conviction, to a fine that is a minimum of fifty rupees and a maximum of two hundred rupees.
• In case of proceedings for an offense under this section, the person in respect of whom the offense was committed was a young person, and he appears to the court to have been at the date of the commission of the offense of a young person, he shall, for the purposes of this Act, be presumed at that date to have been a young person, unless the contrary is proved.

Hours of Employment

Under the Punjab Shops And Commercial Establishments Act, the hours of employment are:

• As per the provisions of this Act, each person shall be employed about the business of an establishment for a maximum of forty-eight hours in any one week and nine hours in any one day.
• In cases of seasonal or exceptional pressure of work, a person employed in an establishment may be employed about the business of the establishment in excess of the working hours mentioned in the previous point. However, the conditions that need to be followed here are:

1. The total number of overtime hours worked by an employee should not exceed fifty hours within a period of any one quarter.
2. The person employed overtime shall be paid remuneration at twice the rate of his normal wages calculated by the hour.

• Additionally, you have to ensure that on any day or in any week, you should not employ about the business of your establishment any person who has been previously employed on that day or in that week in another establishment or a factory for a longer period than shall, together with the time during which he or she has been previously employed on that day or in that week in such other establishment or factory, exceed the number of hours permitted by this Act.
• In case there has been a contravention of the provisions of the rule mentioned immediately before, and proceedings are launched against the employer of the establishment regarding the same, in that case, the employer’s defense can be that he did not know and could not with reasonable diligence ascertain that the person was previously employed by the employer of the other establishment or factory.
• No person shall work about the business of an establishment or two or more establishments or an establishment and a factory in excess of the period during which he may be lawfully employed under this Act.

Intervals for Rest or Meals

Under the Punjab Shops And Commercial Establishments Act, no employee, except a guard, a watchman, or a chowkidar, should be allowed to work continuously in an establishment for more than five hours before he or she gets an interval for rest for at least half an hour.

Note: The Government may by notification fix such intervals for rest in respect of any class of establishments for the whole of the State or any part thereof as it may consider necessary.

Additionally, the provisions of this Act also require that an employee’s daily period of work, inclusive of his interval for rest, be fixed and spread in such a manner that it is for a maximum of twelve hours in a day.

Opening and Closing Hours

Through a notification, the Government will be fixing the opening and closing hours of all classes of establishments. However, different opening hours and closing hours may be fixed for different classes of establishments and for different areas, provided that the Government permits an establishment attached to a factory to observe such opening hours and closing hours as directed by the Government.

Close Day for the Employees

Unless mentioned otherwise in the Punjab Shops And Commercial Establishments Act, it is mandatory for each establishment to remain closed on every Sunday. However, if the establishment is attached to a factory, then the employer can substitute the close day of his establishment in such a way that it corresponds to the substituted close day of the factory in the same manner and subject to the same conditions as are laid down in this behalf in the Factories Act, 1948.

The Government may by notification fix any other day to be the close day in respect of any class of establishments for the whole of the State or any part thereof.

Remember, the provisions of the Punjab Shops And Commercial Establishments Act allows you to open your establishment on a close day if such a day happens to coincide with a festival. However, it is required by the provisions of this Act that all the employees who are required to work on that day are paid remuneration at double the rate of their normal wages, which are calculated on an hourly basis.

What you need to take care of as an employer of the establishment is that you inform the prescribed authority in the prescribed form the working hours, the day in a week which you will follow as the close day for the employees, and the period of interval of the employed persons within fifteen days of the date of the registration of your establishment.

Note: As an employer, you can change the working hours as well as the period of interval once in a quarter of the year by informing the prescribed authority in the prescribed form of the upcoming change fifteen days before the change is to take place.

Exempted Establishments from Provisions Related to Opening and Closing Hours and Close Day for the Employees

Under the Punjab Shops And Commercial Establishments Act, the provision of the section- ‘Opening and Closing Hours’ and the 1st provision of the section- ‘Close Day for the Employees’ is not applicable to:

• Hotels, clubs, stalls, boarding houses, and refreshment rooms at the railway stations
• Shops of hair-dressers and barbers
• Establishments dealing exclusively in fish, meat, eggs, confectionery, poultry, dairy produce (Except ghee), sweets, bread, chocolates, ice cream, ice, fresh fruit, cooked food, vegetables or flowers
• Shops deadline exclusively in medicines or medical or surgical requisites or appliances and establishments for the treatment or care of the sick, infirm, mentally unfit, or destitute.
• Shops dealing in articles required for burials, funerals, or cremation.
• Shops dealing exclusively in pans (betel leaves), cigarettes or birds, or liquid refreshments sold in retail for consumption on the premises
• Shops dealing exclusively in periodicals or newspapers, editing and dispatching sections of the newspaper offices and offices of the news agencies
• Places of public entertainment except for cinema houses
• Establishments for the retail sale of petrol and petroleum products used for transport
• Shops in regimental institutes, garrison shops, and troop canteens in cantonments
• Tanneries
• Establishments engaged in retail trade carried on at an exhibition or show if such retail trade is subsidiary or ancillary only to the main purpose of the exhibition or show.
• Oil mills not registered under the Factories Act, 1948
• Lime and brick kilns
• Cycle stands and cycle repair shops
• Establishments dealing exclusively in green and dry fodder and chaff-cutting
• Establishments of commercial colleges of short-hand or typewriting and other educational academies
• Booking offices of the passenger and goods transport companies
• Salpetre refineries
• Commercial establishments engaged in the manufacture of bronze and brass utensils so far as it is confined to the process of melting in furnaces

The 1st provision of the section- ‘Close Day for the Employees’ of this Act is not applicable to:

• establishments of cinema houses
• Establishments dealing in hides and skins
• Ice factories
• Establishments engaged exclusively in repairs of motor vehicles or cycles or the service of motor vehicles (not being an establishment dealing in cycles or motor vehicles or exclusively in spare parts thereof)
• Establishments dealing exclusively in providing on-hire tents, chhauldaries, and other articles such as furniture, crockery, loud speakers, fans, and gas lights required for ceremonial purposes.
• Establishments dealing exclusively in the retail sale of phullian, murmara, sugar-coated gram, reories, or other similar commodities.

Employees’ Off Day in a Week

As per the provisions of the Punjab Shops And Commercial Establishments Act, no employees shall be required to work on:

• On a close day, in any establishment, which is required to observe a close day.
• On one day in a week, in any other establishment.
• Before the opening hour of the establishment and after the closing hour of the establishment.

Note: A watchman may be allowed or even required to work on an off day under this section, however, only if he is allowed another off day in the week.

Holidays for the Employees

Under the Punjab Shops And Commercial Establishments Act, each of your employees will be allowed:

• A holiday with wages on the Republic Day, Independence Day, and Mahatma Gandhi’s Birthday
• Other than these three days, the employees should also get five other holidays with wages. These should be in connection with the festivals that the Government declares to give a holiday on from time to time by the notification.

Note: If you require your employee or employees to work on any of these holidays, then as per the provisions of this Act, you will have to pay them remuneration at double the rate of your normal wages, calculated on an hourly basis.

Leave for the Employees

The provisions for the leave for the employees under the Punjab Shops And Commercial Establishments Act are:

• For each of your employees who have been under your employment for at least twenty days in a year is entitled to one day’s earned leave for every such twenty days. In the case of a young person employed by you, he or she will be entitled to one day’s earned leave for every fifteen days of employment during the year.
• If you discharge or dismiss an employee from your employment, or he or she leaves during the course of the year, then he or she will be entitled to leave with wages or wages in lieu of unavailed leave at the rates laid down in the clause related to the same.
• While calculating the leaves as per the provisions of this section of this Act, a fraction of half a day or more will be counted as a one day’s leave, and a fraction of less than half a day shall be ignored.
• If any of your employees does not avail all of the leaves allowed to him or her in a year, then any of the leaves not availed by him or her will be allowed to him or her in the succeeding year. However, as per the specific agreement between you and your employees, the total number of days of leave that may be carried forward to a succeeding year shall not exceed forty in the case of a young person and thirty in any other case. If there is an agreement, award, or contract of service which provides for a longer leave with wages or weekly holidays other than those provided under this section, then your employee shall be entitled to only such weekly holidays or longer leave as the case may be.
• When your employee applies for his or her leave, it must be granted within fifteen days of the application unless, as an employer, you have a valid reason not to grant it, in which case, the reason has to be communicated to the employee in writing. However, remember, the leave so refused shall, if applied for again, be allowed during the year.
• Notwithstanding anything discussed above, every employee in your establishment is to be allowed with wages seven days sick leave and seven days casual leave in a year.

Note: When calculating the period during which the employee was under your employment, the period during which he was on leave, as well as the off days in a week, referred to earlier as “close day for the employees,” will be included. Here, the unavailed leave of the employee shall not be taken into account while calculating the period of any notice that is required to be given before discharge, removal, or dismissal.

Wages for Close Days and During Leave Periods

As per the Punjab Shops And Commercial Establishments Act, the provisions for wages for close days and during leave periods are as follows:

• For any employee who has been employed in or about your establishment for a period of at least fifteen days or more, shall receive for every off day in a week as referred to in the section-’Close Day for the Employees’, wages at the rate of not less than the average daily wages earned by him for the days on which he worked during the week immediately preceding every such off day.
• In case of the leaves allowed to him or her as discussed in the section-’Leave for the Employees’, you would have to pay your employee at the rate of equal to the daily average of his total full-time earnings for the days on which he worked during the month immediately preceding his leave, exclusive of any overtime and bonus but not inclusive of dearness allowance and the cash equivalent of the advantage accruing through the concessional sale to the employee of food grains and other articles.
• Remember, if you have allowed your employee leave for not less than five days in case of the young person, and four days in other cases, shall be paid the wages due for the period of leave allowed, if so demanded by him or her.

Wage Period and Deductions from Wages

As per the Punjab Shops and Commercial Establishment, the provisions in regards to the wage period are:

• As an employer and therefore someone who is responsible for paying the wages to your employees, you are obligated under this Act to fix a period during which these wages will become payable.
• As per the provisions of this Act, you will have to ensure that the wage periods of your employees do not exceed a period of one month.
• Additionally, you are also obligated to make sure that your employees are paid their due wages before the expiry of the seventh date from the date on which the payment of wages became due.
• In case of the termination of the employment of your employee, either by you or by someone on behalf of you, will make you liable to pay the wages that are earned by that employee along with the remuneration in lieu of the unused period of due leave, before the expiry of the second working day after the date of the termination of their employment. This same set of rules is also applicable when your employee quits on or before the next payday.

Note: No claim under this section shall be entertained as per this Act unless it is preferred within six months from the date of its accruing except under special circumstances at the discretion of the Chief Inspector of Shops and Commercial Establishments Punjab.

As per the Punjab Shops And Commercial Establishments Act, the provisions in regards to the deductions from wages are:

• You are obligated to pay wages to your employees without any deductions, except those that are authorized by or under the Payment of Wages Act, 1936. If this Act is applicable, then the deduction has to be made only to the extent that it is applicable to your employee, and in such a manner, to such an extent, and subject to such conditions as specified in the Payment of Wages Act, 1936.

Realization of Compensation

Under the Punjab Shops And Commercial Establishments Act, if a judicial magistrate is satisfied that you have not paid the due wages to your employees, then they will direct you to pay the due wages, along with the compensation for not doing so earlier. This compensation cannot, however, exceed eight times the amount of wages withheld.

Thus, for the purposes of the recovery of the due wages, the amount of wages withheld and the compensation payable with them will be considered as a fine imposed under the Punjab Shops And Commercial Establishments Act. This will be in addition to the penalty that will be imposed and realized, and as will be discussed in detail in the section- “Penalties Imposed on Employers.’

Penalties Imposed on Employers

Under the provisions of the Punjab Shops And Commercial Establishments Act, if you contravene to any of the provisions of this Act or the rules made thereunder, and if no penalty has been provided for such contravention in this Act, then once convicted, you would become liable to pay a fine of a maximum of one hundred rupees for the first offense, and then three-hundred rupees, for every subsequent offense.

Note: The fine for the subsequent offenses within the same year should not be less than one hundred rupees in any case.

Power to Compound Offenses

Notwithstanding anything contained in the Punjab Shops And Commercial Establishments Act or the rules covered within, if the compounding authority is notified by the Government in the Official Gazette, then he or she will compound the offense committed under this Act and its rules.

This means that in such cases, the compounding authority will discharge you (here, an offender) by recovering a sum of money that is equal to at least fifty percent of the maximum amount of fine prescribed under this Act or in the rules framed thereunder.

However, if your violations are related to the registration of shops and commercial establishments, then the compounding authority will recover the prescribed fee in addition to the full amount of the fine. What you need to remember here, however is that no offense of the same nature will be compoundable if it is committed more than twice in a year.

If you want to appeal against the order of the compounding authority, then you will have to ensure that you do it within thirty days from the date of the order of the compounding authority. To appeal, you will have to do it in front of the appellate authority, which will be notified to you by the Government. Remember, the decisions of the appellate authority will be final and binding.

Note: No appeal shall be maintainable unless you have deposited the amount of the fine with the said authority.

However, unless you are given a notice in writing which informs you of the grounds on which you are being penalized, no penalty can be imposed on you.

Note: The compounding and the appellate authority will have all the powers of a civil court under the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908. This means that while exercising the powers under that Act, they will be able to:

• Summon and enforce the attendance of witnesses.
• Require the discovery and production of any document.
• Requisition any public record or copy thereof from any office or court.
• Receive evidence on affidavit.
• Issue commissions for the examination of documents or witnesses.

Note: No prosecution, suit, or other legal proceedings can be undertaken against any public servant or any other person in the service of the State or Central Government, acting under the direction of any such public servant, for anything in good faith done or intended to be done in pursuance of the provisions of this Act or of any rule made thereunder.

Cognizance of Offenses

Remember, no court will take cognizance of any offense punishable under this Act or any rules made thereunder, or of the abetment of or attempt to commit such an offense, save on a complaint made by the concerned employee or by an officer who is authorized to do so in writing by the Government.

Prohibition of Employment of Children

As per the provisions and rules of the Punjab Shops And Commercial Establishments Act, children who are not at least 14 years old cannot be employed in any establishment.

Conditions of Employment of Women

As per the provisions of the Punjab Shops And Commercial Establishments Act, the conditions of employment of women are:

• You have to ensure that none of your women employees are required or even allowed to work, whether as an employee or otherwise, in any establishment during the night. However, this is not applicable to any establishment which is engaged in the treatment or care of the sick, the destitute, the infirm, or the mentally unfit.
• As an employer, you should not knowingly employ a woman, and neither should women engage in employment in any establishment during six weeks following the day of her miscarriage or confinement.
• In regards to the same, Government may prescribe further conditions in respect of employment of women employed about the business of establishments or any class of them, including, if it thinks fit, conditions with respect to the daily period of employment, leave, and other matters and no women shall be employed otherwise than in accordance with these conditions.

Maternity Benefits

As per the Punjab Shops And Commercial Establishments Act, the provisions related to maternity benefits are:

• For every woman who is employed in your establishment and who is continuously employed in that particular establishment or in other establishments belonging to you for a period of at least six months preceding the date of her delivery shall be entitled to receive, and you, as the employer shall be liable to make to her, a payment of a maternity benefit which shall be prescribed by the Government for every day during the six weeks immediately preceding and including the day of her delivery and for each day of the six weeks following her delivery.
• The manner in which you will have to pay the maternity benefit may be prescribed by the Government.

Note: if on any day during the six weeks during her delivery, she attends work and receives payment for the same, then the above-mentioned provision regarding the payment as part of the maternity benefit will not be applicable for that day.

Notice of Removal

As per the Punjab Shops And Commercial Establishments Act, the provisions related to notice of removal are:

• As an employer, you would not be allowed to remove any employee from service in your establishment until and unless you have given him or her one month’s prior notice or pay in lieu of thereof has been given to him or her.
• The one-month notice period, however, is not applicable if you are removing an employee due to their misconduct. The misconduct, however, has to be established on record as well. This will thus also remove your obligation to give pay in lieu of notice thereof.
• One of the main conditions to keep in mind in regards to the one-month notice period or pay in lieu thereof for removing an employee is that it is applicable only if the employee has been working continuously for you for a period of at least three months.
• If any contravention to the provisions of this Act has been observed, and if the Judicial Magistrate is satisfied that you have removed an employee from employment in your establishment without a reasonable cause, then the Judicial Magistrate, with reasons recorded in writing, may ask you to give compensation to that particular employee equivalent to their two months’ salary. However, such a claim of contravention must be made by your affected employee within six months from the date of his or her removal.

Note: The amount that you will pay as compensation to your employee under this section of this Act will be in addition to the fine payable, as discussed in the section - ‘Penalties Imposed on Employers.’ Additionally, none of your employees who have already been awarded compensation as per the provisions of this section of this Act shall be entitled to bring a civil suit in respect of the same claim.

Notice by Employee

As per the provisions of the Punjab Shops And Commercial Establishments Act,

• None of your employees, who have been in your service continuously for a period of more than three months, can terminate their employment unless he or she has given you a notice regarding the same thirty days in prior or pay in lieu thereof.
• If any of your employees contravenes the above-mentioned provision, then you can forfeit that employee’s unpaid wages for a period that should not exceed thirty days.

Records to be Showcased and Maintained by the Employers

Under the Punjab Shops And Commercial Establishments Act, the provisions related to record maintenance are:

• As an employer, you are obligated to exhibit a notice in your establishment in the prescribed format which mentions all the essential details like the working hours, the close day, the period of the interval of employed persons, if any, and any such other particulars as may be prescribed.
• You are also obligated to keep a record in the prescribed format and manner of the working hours, leaves availed by your employees, rest intervals, and overtime working hours of your employees, which will have to be recorded separately in your records.
• You will also have to maintain a register that is dedicated to marking the attendance of your employees within one hour of the start of their duty. In cases of entries for your employees working overtime, it should mention the time at which the overtime commenced as well as the time at which it ended.
• To maintain your records as per the provisions of this Act, you will be required to keep a photograph of all your employees who have completed three continuous months in your establishment. If, however, your employee fails to supply such a photograph within fifteen days of the completion of such service, then you should record their failure to do so under their signature.
• As prescribed, you will have to maintain such other records and register and display such other notices for the purposes of this Act.
• If you have done anything that has contravened with the provisions of this section of this Act, then on conviction, you will be liable to a fine of a maximum of five rupees for every day on which the contravention continues or occurs.
• If you, with an intent to deceive makes, or causes or allows to be made in any such register, record, or notice as aforesaid any entry which is to your knowledge false in any material particular, or you willfully omit or causes or allowed to be omitted from any such register, record, or notice, an entry that is required to be made therein, on conviction, you would become liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months, or to a fine of at least twenty-five rupees, and can be extended up to two hundred rupees, or both.

Inspection of Registers and Calling for Information

Under the provisions of the Punjab Shops And Commercial Establishments Act,

• As an employer, it is your duty to make available for inspection of such officer, as may be prescribed, all accounts or other records required to be kept for the purposes of this Act and to give such officer any other information in connection therewith as may be required.
• If you contravene this provision of this section of this Act, or if you willfully obstruct the inspecting authority in the exercise of the powers under this Act, or if you conceal or prevent any employee of your establishment from appearing before or being examined by the authority, then on conviction, you would be liable to a fine which is at least of twenty-five rupees and may extend to two hundred rupees as well.

Enforcement and Appointment of Inspectors

Under the Punjab Shops And Commercial Establishments Act, the provisions related to the enforcement and appointment of inspectors are:

• Through a notification, the Government may appoint such persons or class of persons that it finds fit to be inspecting officers for the purposes of this Act within such local limits as it may respectively assign to them.
• Subject to the rules made by the Government on this behalf, the inspecting officer within the local limits for which he or she is appointed,

1. Enter at all reasonable times and with such assistants, if any, being persons in the service of Government or of any local authority as he thinks fit, any place, which is or which he has reasons to believe to be an establishment.
2. He or she will then make such examination of the premises and of any prescribed records, notices, and registers and take on the spot or otherwise evidence of any persons as he or she may deem necessary for carrying out the purposes of this Act. This, however, is applicable only as long as no one is required to answer any question or give any evidence tending to incriminate him.

Note: Every inspection officer appointed as per the provisions of this section of this Act will be considered a public servant within the meaning of Section 21 of the Indian Penal Code.

Forms for Compliances

Under the Punjab Shops And Commercial Establishments Act, the forms for compliances are:

Form A: Intimation of Working Hours and Intervals

INTIMATION UNDER SECTION 10(1)(1) OF THE PUNJAB SHOPS AND COMMERCIAL ESTABLISHMENT ACT 1959

(Rule 3 of the Punjab Shops and Commercial Establishment rules 1958)

To

The Inspector of Shops and Commercial

Establishment Circle___________

I hereby furnish the following information, which is correct to the best of my knowledge.

The working hours and the periods of interval of  the persons employed in  my  establishment are  fixed below shall  take effect from dated___________

(Sd.)_________________

Name and Percentage of employer

with full address

Form B: Display of Notices

NOTICE TO BE EXHIBITED UNDERSECTION 20(1) OF THE SHOPSAND COMMERCIAL ESTABLISHMENT ACT 1958

(Rule 4 of the Punjab Shops and Commercial Establishments Rules 1958)

1. Close day if any                                                                                                  Year                                                                                                                                  

2. Opening hours of the Establishment                                Closing hours of the Establishment                                                                                  

3. Name and parentage of the Employer                                                                                                                                                                    

4. Name of the Manager if any,                                                                                                                                                                    

5. Name of the Establishment                                                                                                                                                                    

6. Name of Business                                                                                                                                                                    

7. Full address                                                                                                                                                                    

8.

9. Date of declaration__________________

10. Inspections by authorities________________________

Signature of the employer (Name and full Address)

_____________________

_____________________

_____________________

_____________________

Form C: Register of Employees

REGISTER OF EMPLOYEES

(Rules 5 of Punjab Shops and Commercial Establishments Rules 1958)

Name of Establishment                                                            Year and Month                                                                                                                                                             Name of employee                                                                                                                                                                                                                 Father’s/Husbands name

Age                              Nature of work                                     whether employed on daily monthly contract or piece-rate.

Date of appointment__________________

1. Total hours of overtime employment during the month_____________________

2. Leave availed during the month______________________

Note. – If an employee has worked with previous employer the hours worked with him may be shown in the Remarks column.

Form D: Register of Wages of Employees

REGISTER OF WAGES OF EMPLOYEES

(Rule 5 of the Punjab Shops and Commercial Establishments Rules 1958)

Name of employee and Father’s name or Husband’s name                                                                                                                                             Month                                                               Year                                                                         Wages Fixed______________________________

Form E: Register of Deductions

Form E - REGISTER OF DEDUCTIONS

(Rules 5 of the Punjab Shops and Commercial Establishment Rules 1958)

Name of the establishment                                                                                                                               Year                                                                                                                                     Acts and omissions approved by the authorities_________________

Form F: Statement for Registration of Establishments

STATEMENT FOR REGISTRATION OF ESTABLISHMENT UNDER SECTION 13 OF THE PUNJAB SHOPS AND COMMERCIAL ESTABLISHMENTS ACT, 1958

(Rule 13 of the Punjab Shops and Commercial Establishments Rules, 1958)

To

The Inspector of Shops and Commercial Establishment                                  Circle

I hereby submit this statement for the Registration / renewal of my establishment for the year                                                                                                                                                                         The information furnished hereunder is correct to the best of my knowledge.

1. Name and parentage of employer__________________

2. Name of Manager,if any___________________

3. Name of the establishment___________________

4. Full Postal address of the establishment____________________

5. Nature of Business________________________

6. No. of employees if any:

Young Persons                                                                                                                                                                 Other Persons________________________

7. No. and date of previous registration certificate surrendered______________

8. Date___________________

Signature of employer___________________

(To be filled in by the authority)

R. No.                                  The establishment mentioned above is hereby registered till 21^st March,19

Inspector,

Shops and Commercial Establishments.

                                                  Circle

Form G: Form of Change of Information

Form G - FORM OF CHANGE IN RESPECT OF INFORMATION CONTAINED IN STATEMENT REQUIRED BY SUB-SECTION 13 OF THE PUNJAB SHOPS AND COMMERCIAL ESTABLISHMENTS ACT, 1958

(Rule 13 of the Punjab Shops and Commercial establishments rules, 1958)

To

The Inspector of Shops and Commercial Establishment                         Circle

I hereby  notify that the following change has  with effect from                                                (date) taken place in respect of the information relating to the establishment as supplied by me in my statement dated                                                .

My registration certificate number is_________________________

Date________________

(Here mention the change)

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Dated____________________

(Signature of the employer) __________________

Note. -- The change is required under sub-section (4) of Section 13 of the Punjab Shops and Commercial Establishments Act, 1958, to be notified by the employer within seven days after the change has taken place.

Form H: Registration of Establishment

REGISTRATION OF ESTABLISHMENT REQUIRED UNDER SECTION 13(2)(1)OF THE PUNJAB SHOPS AND COMMERCIAL ESTABLISHMENT ACT, 1958

(Rule 13 of the Punjab Shops and Commercial Establishments Rules 1958)

Name of the Circle                                                                      

Name of Town________________

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Additionally, you will also be able to set up a custom pay package with custom components like overtime remuneration, employee bonuses, voluntary deductions, etc. These components will be automatically identified by Deskera People, post which your employees’ wages will be calculated accordingly.

To be able to send your employees’ salaries directly to their bank accounts as soon as their payroll is processed, Deskera People Direct Deposit Service would be at your disposal. Lastly, through Deskera People, you would be able to easily maintain detailed records of each of your employees, including their personal details and as required by the provisions of the Punjab Shops And Commercial Establishments Act.

Key Takeaways

The main aim behind enacting the Punjab Shops And Commercial Establishments Act is to protect the rights of the employees, as well as regulate their working conditions, thereby safeguarding their well-being. This Act and its provisions are applicable to all the shops and commercial establishments in the areas that are notified by the Government of Punjab.

This Act covers all the aspects related to your employees’ well-being and safety, including the payment of wages and overtime wages, the number of working hours, rest hours, leaves, close days, holidays, rules for employment of children, conditions for employment of women and young persons, maternity benefit and leave, rules regarding notice period for dismissal or removal of employees, maintenance of records, registration of your establishments, and penalties in cases of non-compliances being some of the areas covered.

Your best assistant in being compliant to the provisions of this Act, including filling up of the required compliance forms, is Deskera People.

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