The new Section 25 of the Amended Act, titled ‘ Regulation of Employment of Women during Night ,’ lays down certain conditions to be followed by employers having women employees willing to work at night in a shop or commercial establishment situated in the State of Karnataka. Failure by employers to comply with the stipulated regulations will result in the cancellation of their registration certificate under the Act. The conditions set forth in the new Section 25 are as follows:
- The labour regulations stipulated under Sections 7 (Daily And Weekly Hours), 8 (Extra Wages for Overtime Work), 9 (Interval for Rest), 10 (Spread Over) and 12 (Weekly Holidays), of the Act shall continue to apply for women employees willing to work during night shift;
- Willingness of women employees to work at night must be obtained by the employer in writing.
- The establishment shall provide transport facilities from the residence of the woman employee to the workplace and back free of cost and with adequate security. Such transport facility must have GPS for tracking and monitoring;
- Employment of women employees shall be on rotation basis;
- Adequate number of security guards shall be posted during the night shift;
- Sufficient rest rooms, electricity, latrines lockers, dispensary facility and washing facilities with adequate water supply shall be provided separately for women employees so as to secure their privacy;
- The establishment shall bear the cost of crèche obtained by the women employees from voluntary or other organisations;
- The establishment shall obtain the bio-data of each driver and conduct pre-employment screening of the antecedents of all drivers employed on their own;
- Further, with respect to any driver employed through outsourcing/ service provider, the establishment shall ensure to its satisfaction that the collection of biodata and conduct pre-employment screening of the antecedents of the drivers is carried out by the service provider;
- The schedule of route of pick-up and drop shall be decided by the supervisory office of the company/ establishment only. In case of exigencies, change of drivers/routes/shifts shall be allowed only with the prior knowledge of supervisory officers/employees;
- The telephone number, particularly mobile phone numbers, email ID and address of the women employees shall not be disclosed to any unauthorised persons;
- Careful selection of routes shall be made in such a way that no women employees shall be picked up first and dropped last;
- The employer shall provide security guards at the workplace and night shift vehicles when women employees are being picked up first or dropped last;
- The designated supervisors of the company or service provider shall randomly check the vehicles on various routes;
- The establishment shall have a control room/travel desk for monitoring movement of vehicles;
- A mobile app may be developed and adopted by the establishment through which the women employee can contact the concerned at the time of emergency by giving signal; and
- Any other condition that may be prescribed from time to time.