Shops Act 1934
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1934 c. 42 |
| Year | 1934 |
Shops Act, 1934
(24 & 25 Geo. 5.) CHAPTER 42.
An Act to regulate the hours of employment of persons under the age of eighteen years who are employed about the business of wholesale or retail shops or employed elsewhere in connection with wholesale or retail trade or business, and to make provision as to the arrangements in shops and warehouses for the health and comfort of workers, and for purposes connected with the matters aforesaid.
[25th July 1934]
Be it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
Employment of Persons under the age of Eighteen Years.
1 Hours of employment.
(1) Subject to the provisions of this Act no young person shall be employed about the business of a shop for more than the normal maximum working hours, that is to say, forty-eight working hours in any week.
(2) On occasions of seasonal or exceptional pressure of work at any shop, young persons between the ages of sixteen and eighteen years may, subject as hereinafter provided, and subject to the provisions of any other enactment, be employed about the business of the shop overtime, that is to say, in excess of the normal maximum working hours:
Provided that in the case of any shop—
(a ) when in any year there have been six weeks (whether consecutive or not) in which young persons have been employed overtime about the business of the shop, no young person shall be so employed during the remainder of that year;
(b ) no young person shall be employed overtime about the business of the shop—
(ii) in any week after he has been employed overtime about the business of the shop for twelve working hours in that week.
(3) In determining for the purposes of this Act the number of working hours for which a young person has in any week or period of two or of three consecutive weeks been employed about the business of any shop, he shall be deemed to have been also employed about the business thereof during any time during which he was in that week or period employed about the business of any other shop or in a factory or workshop:
Provided that, if in any proceedings against the occupier of a shop in respect of a contravention of the provisions of this Act it is shown that the contravention occurred only by reason of time during which a young person was employed by another employer being deemed, in accordance with the provisions of this subsection, to be time during which he was employed about the business of that shop, it shall be a defence to prove that the occupier did not know and could not with reasonable diligence have ascertained that the young person was employed for that time by the other employer.
(4) No young person who has to the knowledge of the occupier of a shop been previously employed on any day in a factory or workshop shall be employed on that day about the business of the shop for a longer period than will, together with the time during which he has been previously employed on that day in the factory or workshop, complete the number of hours permitted by the Factory and Workshop Acts, 1901 to 1929.
(5) In the case of any contravention of the provisions of this section, the occupier of the shop shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding ten pounds for every person in respect of whom the contravention occurs.
2 Power to regulate employment in spells.
(1) If the Secretary of State is satisfied that it is necessary to make provision for preventing the hours of employment of young persons from being so divided into spells as to deprive them of reasonable opportunities for instruction and recreation, he may make regulations directing that, subject to such exceptions and modifications as may be provided by the regulations, the working hours of a young person employed shall (notwithstanding anything in the definition of the expression' working hours' contained in this Act) be deemed, for the purposes of this Act, to include the period from the time at which that person first begins on any day to be employed about the business of a shop until the time at which he last ceases on that day to be so employed, exclusive only—
(a ) of such intervals, whether for rest or meals or otherwise; and
(b ) of time allowed for attendance at such instructional courses,
as may be specified in the regulations.
(2) Any regulations made under this section shall be laid before Parliament as soon as may be alter they are made, and if either House of Parliament within the next subsequent twenty-eight days on which that House has sat after any such regulation has been laid before it resolves that the regulation shall be annulled, the regulation shall forthwith be void, but without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done thereunder or to the making of a new regulation.
3 Restrictions on night employment.
(1) A young person who is employed about the business of a shop shall in every period of twenty-four hours between midday on one day and midday on the next day be allowed an interval of at least eleven consecutive hours which shall include the hours from ten o'clock in the evening until six o'clock in the morning:
Provided that the said interval of eleven consecutive hours need not include the hour between five and six o'clock in the morning in the case of male persons between the ages of sixteen and eighteen years who are employed during that hour in connection with the collection or delivery of milk or bread or newspapers.
(2) In the case of any contravention of the provisions of this section, the occupier of the shop shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding ten pounds for every person in respect of whom the contravention occurs.
4 Extension of foregoing provisions to retail trading elsewhere than in shops.
4. The foregoing provisions of this Act and the provisions thereof relating to records and the supplementary provisions thereof shall extend to the employment of young persons in connection with any retail trade or business carried on in any place not being a shop, and, accordingly, in those provisions, references to employment about the business of a shop shall be deemed to include references to such employment as aforesaid, and, for the purposes of the application of the said provisions to such employment, references in this Act to a shop shall be deemed to include references to the place in or from which the retail trade or business is carried on, and references to the occupier of a shop shall be deemed to include references to the person by whom the retail trade or business is carried on.
5 Special provisions as to the catering trade.
(1) The occupier of any shop in which there is carried on the business of serving meals, intoxicating liquors, or refreshments to customers for consumption on the premises may, by exhibiting a notice to that effect, secure that the provisions of this subsection will, during a period of two consecutive weeks specified in the notice, be applicable to that shop, and when such a notice has been duly exhibited in the prescribed form and in the prescribed manner and at such time before the period therein specified as may be prescribed, then—
(a ) a young person between the ages of sixteen and eighteen years whose employment is wholly or mainly in connexion with the said business, shall be deemed, for the purposes of section one of this Act, not to be employed about the business of the shop in excess of the normal maximum working hours in either week of the period specified in the notice, if he is employed about the business thereof neither for more than sixty working hours in either week nor for more than ninety-six hours throughout the period; and
(b ) the provisions of the said section one permitting employment overtime shall not apply during the period specified in the notice in relation to young persons whose employment is such as aforesaid:
Provided that after the provisions of this subsection have been applicable to any shop during twelve such periods beginning in any calendar year, the said provisions shall not again be applicable to the shop in that year.
(2) If the occupier of any shop gives notice that he elects that the provisions of this subsection shall not be applicable to that shop, then, unless and until the notice is withdrawn, the said provisions shall not be applicable thereto, but as respects business carried on at any shop to which the said provisions are not so rendered inapplicable, proviso (a of section one of this Act shall not apply to the overtime employment of persons whose employment is wholly or mainly in connection with the business of serving meals, intoxicating liquors, or refreshments to customers for consumption on the premises, and, if other business is carried on in the shop, the overtime employment of persons in relation to whom this subsection applies shall not be taken into account for the purposes of the application of the said proviso in relation to other young persons:
Provided that, while the provisions of this subsection are applicable to a shop, section one of this Act shall, in relation to any young person so employed in connection with the business aforesaid, have effect as if in proviso (b ) to subsection (2) thereof there were inserted the following additional paragraph, that is to say—
(iii) in any period of two consecutive weeks so that he is employed overtime about the business of the shop for more than...
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