An Act To Allow Certain Businesses To Be Open on Easter Day, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1. 17 MRSA §3204, sub-§2, ¶HH, as enacted by PL 2003, c. 452, Pt. I, §55 and affected by Pt. X, §2, is amended to read:
HH. Stores with more than 5,000 square feet of interior customer selling space that engage in retail sales and that do not require, as a condition of employment, that their employees work on Sundays. If an employer decreases the average weekly work hours of an employee who has declined to work on Sundays, it is prima facie evidence that the employer has required Sunday work as a condition of employment in violation of this section, unless the employer and employee agreed that the employee would work on Sundays when the employee was initially hired. In no event, however, may any store having more than 5,000 10,000 square feet of interior customer selling space be open on Easter Day, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day unless that store is operated and staffed only by the owner or a member of the owner's immediate family on those days. As used in this paragraph, "immediate family" means the owner's spouse, parent, grandparent, child, grandchild, sister, half-sister, brother, half-brother, stepparent, stepgrandparent, stepchild, stepgrandchild, stepsister, stepbrother, mother-in-law, father-in-law, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, guardian, former guardian, domestic partner, the half-brother or half-sister of the owner's spouse or the spouse of the owner's half-brother or half-sister.
SUMMARY
Current law prohibits stores with more than 5,000 square feet of interior customer selling space from being open on Easter Day, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day. This bill prohibits stores with more than 10,000 square feet of interior customer selling space from being open on Easter Day, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day but allows such a store to be open on those holidays if the store is operated and staffed only by the owner or an immediate family member of the owner.