Patrolling for Rest Day privileges

We used to parade the streets of the City on Sundays to ensure employees got their weekly day of rest. Those were days where it was difficult to recruit labour and workers were denied basic benefits like rest days because of the shortage of labour. Wages of employees were low too, hence workers could easily be persuaded to work extra hours. It used to be a cat and mouse game in the City.

When we commenced our visits, the doors of the establishments would be shut - indicating that the workers had gone on weekly days of rest. Once we moved away from the area, it would be business as usual. Workers usually cooperated with their employers, as the additional income would come in useful.

This practice was made possible by an archaic law that required shops to close shop on one day of the week even if the shop had no employees but only family members.The option of rotating weekly days of rest was only available if the place of employment had 5 workers or more.

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