The Cabinet approval has been granted to amend the Shop and Office Employees (Regulation of Employment and Remuneration) Act No. 19 of 1954 to allow women to work after 6.00 p.m.
The decision was reached after taking into account the requests made by a number of business institutions in various sectors including knowledge process outsourcing, business process outsourcing, ICT enabling services.
Due to the nature of those institutions, the employees of such institutions are required to work with organizations across different time zones.
However, pursuant to the provisions of the said Act, women can be employed after 6.00 p.m. only in a limited number of employments.
The government says it has identified the need to amend the existing restrictive legal provisions to allow of women to be employed at night.
Accordingly, the Cabinet of Ministers has approved the proposal presented by the Minister of Labour and Foreign Employment to take necessary steps to amend the Shop and Office Employees (Regulation of Employment and Remuneration) Act No.19 of 1954.
