Shops Act 1950

18 Modifications in application of s. 17 to young persons

(1) For the purposes of the last foregoing section every young person who is wholly or mainly employed about the business of a shop shall be deemed to be a " shop assistant":

Provided that this subsection shall not apply to any person employed in a residential hotel.

(2) The last foregoing section shall not apply to any young person in any week unless he is employed as a shop assistant for more than twenty-five hours in that week and shall not apply to the employment of any young person in a theatre in any week (notwithstanding that he may be employed as a shop assistant for more than twenty-five hours in that week) if he is not employed in the theatre before midday on any day in that week.

(3) If in any proceedings against any person in respect of a contravention of the last foregoing section in relation to any young person it is shown that the young person was not so employed by him in the week in which the contravention occurred so as to render that section applicable to the young person, it shall be a defence to prove that he did not know, and could not with reasonable diligence have ascertained, that the young person was also employed in that week as a shop assistant by some other employer.

(4) For the purposes of the last foregoing section, every young person who is wholly or mainly' employed in connection with any retail trade or business carried on in any place not being a shop shall be deemed to be a " shop assistant" and in the application of that section to persons employed in connection with such a retail trade or business—

(a) subsection (2) shall not apply;

(b) references to " employment about the business of a shop" shall be deemed to include references to employment in connection with any retail trade or business carried on in any place not being a shop;

(c) references to " a shop" shall be deemed to include references to the place in or from which the retail trade or business is carried on ; and

(d) references to " the occupier of a shop " shall be deemed to include references to the person by whom the retail trade or business is carried on.

(5) Nothing in this section shall apply with respect to the employment of persons whose hours of employment are regulated by or under the Factories Acts, 1937 and 1948.

For the purposes of this subsection, employment wholly or mainly outside a factory in collecting, carrying or delivering goods, carrying messages or running errands, being employment for the purposes of retail trade or business carried on from the factory, shall be deemed not to be employment in the business of the factory.

(6) For the purposes of this section, a person who works about the business of a shop for the occupier thereof or in connection with any retail trade or business for the person by whom it is carried on shall be deemed to be employed, notwithstanding that he receives no reward for his labour.

(7) In the application of the last foregoing section to young persons, and in this section, the expression " shop " includes any wholesale shop and any warehouse occupied for the purposes of his trade by any person carrying on any retail trade or business or by any wholesale dealer or merchant.

(8) For the purposes of this section, employment in connection with a wholesale shop or a warehouse occupied by a wholesale dealer or merchant which is neither—

(a) employment within the premises; nor

(b) employment in the collection or delivery of goods or in attendance upon customers or in carrying messages or running errands,

shall not be deemed to be employment about the business of a shop; but, save as aforesaid, any employment in the service of the occupier of the shop upon any work, whether within the shop or outside it, which is ancillary to the business carried on at the shop shall be deemed to be employment about the business of the shop, and that expression shall be construed accordingly.