Gujarat Shops & Establishments Act, 2019 governs employment, conditions of service, operating days, working hours and women employment. The amendment is introduced to raise the applicability threshold and extend permissible work-hour limits, including night-shift work for women with mandatory safety safeguards.

The principal Act is temporarily amended during the Ordinance period. The mandatory applicability threshold is raised from ten to twenty employees under section 1(3) and across section 7, reducing regulatory applicability for smaller establishments.

Work-hours framework is modified by substituting “nine hours” to “ten hours” and “five hours” to “six hours” in section 12. Section 15 is amended to increase quarterly overtime cap from one hundred and twenty-five hours to one hundred and forty-four hours.

Section 13 is revised to allow women workers to work between 9:00 p.m. – 6:00 a.m. subject to — rest room, night crèche, ladies’ toilets, dignity & safety protection, prevention of sexual harassment, and employer-provided safe transportation to doorstep. A new enabling power under section 13(3) authorises the State Government to prohibit or regulate night-work for women by notification where required in public interest.