Chandigarh, June 5 -- The Punjab cabinet on Wednesday approved an amendment to the Punjab Shops and Commercial Establishments Act, 1958, aimed at reducing compliance burdens on 95% small businesses and enhancing the ease of doing business in the state. The decision was taken at a meeting of the council of ministers, chaired by Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann here. It was the third cabinet meeting held in a row. A spokesperson from the Chief Minister's Office disclosed that under this progressive amendment, all establishments employing up to 20 workers will be exempted from all provisions of the Act. "This move will benefit lakhs of shopkeepers across Punjab. However, such establishments will still be required to submit relevant information to the labour department within six months of the Act coming into force or the commencement of their business," informed the CM after the meeting. He was flanked by labour minister Tarunpreet Singh Sond. The labour minister said shops, offices, stores, godowns, warehouses, banks, entertainment centres, workshops, car mechanics etc are covered under the amendment. "To enhance employee earnings, the permissible overtime in a quarter has been increased from 50 hours to 144 hours. Additionally, the daily spread-over period of work has been extended from 10 hours to 12 hours, inclusive of rest intervals," informed the CM while talking to the media. Nevertheless, employees must be paid overtime at double the regular rate for work exceeding 9 hours per day or 48 hours per week, he said. The registration process has also been streamlined and the establishments with 20 or more employees will now receive deemed approval for registration within 24 hours of application submission. Under the amendment, establishments employing up to 20 workers are only required to provide basic information and are not obligated to register. Moreover, penalties under the different sections of the act have been rationalized - raising the minimum fine from Rs 25 to Rs 1,000 and the maximum from Rs 100 to Rs 30,000. To prevent harassment and allow businesses time to achieve compliance, a three-month grace period will be provided between the first and second offences, as well as subsequent ones. A new Section 26-A has also been introduced to allow for the compounding of offences, thereby decriminalising the Act and eliminating the need for shopkeepers to attend court. When asked about the amendment being anti-workers, Mann said as per the amendments they can work up to 12 hours and beyond nine hours of daily work schedule, they will be paid double remuneration. "Where would employees complain? If they go to the labour court, they can lodge a complaint with the inspectors. For the protection of their rights we have increased the penalty," said the CM. "In case of any violation, which also includes low payment, we have set in place a system of redressal of grievances at assistant labour commissioner (ALC) level," he added....