Navigating the Bombay Shop & Establishment Act: Are Physical Registers Still Necessary for Online Processes?

I work in an advertising firm, and the employee strength is currently 25. We have been instructed by the inspector to maintain certain registers as per the Shop & Establishment Act. Since our process is online, is it still compulsory to maintain these registers? Additionally, we do not pay any overtime salary to employees who stay back late because our industry often requires last-minute changes. So, is it mandatory to maintain registers even if our process is online? Please advise.

Required Forms and Registers

I have been asked to maintain Form J, Form M, Form N, Form II A, and the Shop Inspector Visit Book.

All records need to be maintained as per the respective act. However, understanding today's world, the law has provided some substitutes for the same, which are outlined below.

1) As you mentioned, you are processing many things online. Therefore, you may obtain an exemption certificate for electronic records from the labor department. In that case, you can maintain all records as per computerized records approved by the Labor Commissioner (generally approved on Form II under the Minimum Wages Act). Once you receive the Exemption Certificate, there is no need to maintain the manual register.

2) Alternatively, you may maintain the manual register of Form II, which contains all the necessary details in one register, eliminating the need to maintain other registers.

3) As you mentioned that you are not paying overtime or on a periodical basis, please note that if you are not paying overtime or not deducting fines, advances, etc., you still need to maintain records showing "NIL" for the respective month.

I hope you find the answers to all your queries satisfactory.

Regards,
Tushar Swar

The inspector who visited your establishment is an inspector under the Bombay Shops and Establishment Act. He has rightly asked you to maintain the registers as listed in your post. You mentioned you have an online process. If your online process output is as per the format prescribed in this Act or any other applicable laws to you, you need not maintain separate registers that are readily available in the market. However, you need to take permission to maintain such registers in electronic form.

Overtime Salary and Compliance

Regarding overtime salary, you are liable to pay overtime salary at double the rate and also maintain an overtime register. If another inspector visits you tomorrow under any other law, he will ask you to comply with the requirements applicable to you under his jurisdiction. It seems PF, ESI, MLW, PT, MW, Bonus, and Gratuity Acts are applicable to you.

Regards.

Please suggest and help me if I am wrong. I want to comply with the law, but as it is a startup firm, the management does not want to. For overtime wages, all employees get compensatory time off for working late but do not receive extra salary. The compensation is adjusted in their leaves.

Dear All,

I am also facing the same problem of maintaining registers under the Bombay Shop and Establishment Act. The inspector told me that I should inform the Labour office about our online system. However, when I visited the Labour office, they informed me that there is no longer a requirement to submit our details to them.

Thank you.

Dear All, I have come across the problem of not renewing the Shop & Establishment License for one of our offices, where no employee is currently working, but we had initially taken a license for it. Unfortunately, we missed renewing the license, and now the shop inspector has pointed this out and given us a letter regarding the issue. He also informed us that we will receive a notice from the court for not renewing the license for that office.

I just want to know what the consequences would be of such a notice from the court. We are prepared to pay the penalty, but I am concerned whether this offense is serious enough to require a court notice or appearance in court by the company's directors.

Looking forward to a reply.

Regards, Avinash K.

Can anyone let us know the procedure for applying the exemption from filing manual registers?

I also have an electronic form of attendance in the HRMS module.

Please share all the forms and registers maintained under the Shop and Establishment Act.

What is the name or number of the register under the Bombay Shops & Establishments Act?