Inspectors check trading transgressors

Labour Department investigators yesterday visited 41 retailers and markets around the country, following 26 visits on Good Friday, to check shop trading law compliance.

Principal labour inspector Muriel Kelly said places visited covered a range of operations including record stores and bookshops.

That contrasted with Friday when most visits were to garden centres, which are not allowed to trade on Good Friday but have an exemption for Easter Sunday.

Inspectors checked on various retailers at four large markets in Auckland yesterday, part of a total of 13 places visited in the region. Other visits included one in Whitianga, six in Wellington, one in Palmerston North, one in Hastings, one in Dunedin and 12 in the Wanaka area.

The Shop Trading Hours Act Repeal Act 1990 specifies 3 days each year on which most shops must close - Good Friday, Easter Sunday, Christmas Day, and until 1pm on Anzac Day.

Retailers prosecuted under the law face a maximum fine of $1000.

Ms Kelly said it would take several weeks to decide which of the shops visited yesterday and on Friday were in breach of the legislation before decisions were made on who would be prosecuted. "We were pleased that a number of retailers had decided not to open as a result of earlier warnings from the department.

"Rotorua and Whitianga were areas where the level of compliance was especially pleasing."

Since 1990 five attempts have been made to introduce bills to amend shop trading legislation. The only one to become law was a 2001 amendment which allowed garden centres to trade on Easter Sunday.

Two bills aimed at amending shop trading laws, drafted by Rotorua Labour MP Steve Chadwick and Otago National MP Jacqui Dean, have yet to be drawn in a parliamentary ballot.

In Wanaka, defiant retailers enjoyed a successful Easter weekend of trading, despite receiving visits from the Department of Labour.

Businesses that opened their doors illegally yesterday greeted labour inspectors with mixed emotions.

Brian Kreft of Paper Plus said he told the two inspectors they were not welcome in his shop, "and could they please do their job and then get out".

"They said they knew how I felt, and I said, 'You have no idea how I feel'." He planned to fight the charges, if prosecuted again.

"Wanaka has got to stand up for itself, because there is no question that we are the focus of the Labour Department's attention."

Customers were fully supportive of the battle with the law, Mr Kreft said.

The act prohibits retailers from trading on Good Friday and Easter Sunday, except in "tourist towns" such as Queenstown and Taupo.

- OTAGO DAILY TIMES and NZPA