This Act may be cited as the Shops and Offices Amendment Act, 1917, and shall form part of and be read together with the Shops and Offices Act, 1908.

No woman or girl shall be employed in or about a shop in which food and refreshments of any kind are provided and sold to the general public for consumption on the premises after the hour of half past ten o’clock in the evening of any day:

Provided that such woman or girl may, with the written permission of the Inspector obtained by the occupier of such shop before five o’clock in the evening on that day, be employed after the hour of half past ten o’clock aforesaid, but not more than thirty nights in any year, and in any case not later than midnight.

Before issuing such permission the Inspector shall be satisfied that reasonable provision has been made for the safe return of the woman or girl to her place of residence.

Every assistant employed during such extended hours shall, at the first regular pay-day thereafter, be paid for such employment, in addition to her ordinary wages, at the rate of one and a half times the ordinary rate of wages, computed by the hour, or the sum of ninepence an hour, whichever is the greater.

Subsection one of section three of the Shops and Offices Amendment Act, 1915, is hereby amended by inserting, after the words “subsection four of section three,” the words “or of subparagraph (iv) of paragraph (c) of section eighteen.”

The provisions of the principal Act relating to the closing of shops on the weekly half-holiday shall not apply to a shop exempted under section three of the Shops and Offices Amendment Act, 1915.