: The government has issued notice to 40 textile retail shops across the State after a day-long raid on the outlets on Saturday revealed large-scale violation of labour laws.
Conducted on directives from Labour Minister T.P.Ramakrishnan, the crackdown focussed on shops with more than 100 employees. As many as 673 violations, mostly relating to the Shops and Commercial Establishments Act, were detected by officials of the Labour Department.
The raids revealed that many employees were not issued appointment orders or provided with identity cards. They were often not given wage slips and denied experience certificates. Many outlets had no facility for employees to take rest during work break and crèches were not provided for their children. Other violations included failure to provide wages on time, denial of overtime allowance and maternity benefit and breach of off-day norms. A press note said the highest number of violations was reported from Thiruvananthapuram.
