The Act distributes specific duties to occupiers, employers and inspectors, and confers defensive rights on employees and procedural rights on applicants and interested parties. Key statutory duties and rights, with section references, follow.
Duties on occupiers of non-exempt shops. The occupier must ensure a non-exempt shop is closed outside its permitted hours (s 16B). Where a non-exempt shop is subject to subdivision 3 extended hours, s 16C modifies application of subdivision 2 and prescribes the shop’s closing time for 24 December where subdivision 3 applies (s 16C). Occupiers must also comply with orders relating to premises and conditions attached to special exhibitions orders where those provisions apply (ss 28, 29,note these sections are omitted or renumbered in later amendments but the duties appear in the Act’s structure).
Duty to assist inspectors. An occupier, agent or employee must provide reasonable assistance and information within the person’s capacity to an industrial inspector (s 11). Industrial inspectors may require production of time sheets, pay sheets and other records during hours when business may be conducted (s 8(1)(e)), and may require records relating to conferral of entitlements to occupy areas, identity of proprietors and financial arrangements (s 8(1)(f)).
Inspectors’ duty and powers. Inspectors have a duty to secure compliance with the Act and industrial commission orders (s 10). Their powers include entry and inspection of places used or suspected to be used as shops, questioning persons, requiring production of records, making copies, and instituting proceedings (s 8). Entry to private dwellings is limited: consent or a prescribed warrant is required (s 9). Inspectors are bound by confidentiality except where disclosure is for proper performance under the Act, with Ministerial approval or by court order (s 7).
Employee protections concerning extended hours. The Act protects employees when trading hours are extended. Depending on the amendment and timing, employers must not require employees to work extended hours unless the employee has agreed in writing (s 36A) or has freely elected to work extended hours (ss 36AA, 36B, 36BA). The sections define "agree", "elect" and "current employee" where relevant and prescribe maximum penalties for employer breaches (ss 36A(1), 36AA(1), 36B(1), 36BA(2)).
Anzac Day rights and duties. Employees in factories and shops must be given a holiday for the whole of Anzac Day (s 33(1)), subject to enumerated exceptions for guarding staff, licensed racing venues, liquor-licensed premises, exempt shops and specific continuous or essential activities (s 33(2)). Factories and shops must be closed for the whole of Anzac Day except where s 33(2) applies (s 36(1)-(2)). Places of public amusement must be closed until 1.30 p.m. unless the Minister gives written permission (s 35).
Regulatory and procedural rights. Applicants and interested parties may apply to the industrial commission for trading-area orders (s 23), be given notice and seek leave to appear (s 23), and appeal to the industrial court and then the Court of Appeal from industrial court decisions (s 43(1)-(2)). The president may refer matters to the full bench and the full bench may hear and decide matters referred (s 23A).
Prohibitions on solicitation and related offences. The Act prohibits publishing statements that promote business to be transacted outside allowable hours where those statements imply the factory or shop will be open, goods offered for sale, or persons in attendance for orders (s 37(1)). The publisher and the occupier whose business is promoted commit offences (s 37(1)). Special procedural protections restrict prosecution where a person has not been warned by an inspector and ministerial consent is required, except when the occupier is the person to be prosecuted (s 37(4)-(5)).
Conferral of exemptions and special orders. The industrial commission may make trading-area orders and special event declarations (ss 21, 31A). A special event declaration makes shops in the declared area exempt for the declared period (s 31A(3)) and explicitly triggers the employee-protection section s 36BA for particular shops (s 31A(2)(d)).
Penalties and liability. The Act sets maximum penalties for specific offences (for example, maximum of 40 penalty units for failing to keep a non-exempt shop closed outside permitted hours s 16B(2)) and prescribes general pecuniary penalties (s 42). Liability attends to occupiers, employers and body corporates; ss 44-45 extend liability to multiple occupiers and principals for offences committed by their agents or employees, subject to a defence where reasonable diligence could not have prevented the contravention (s 45(4)).
All duties and rights above derive from the sections cited. Parties must consult the specific subsections to determine precise thresholds, defences and procedural steps.