Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe RICHMOND, Va., July 1 (UPI) -- While trying to modernize a labor law dating back 350 years, Virginia state lawmakers have created a legal glitch that gives everyone Sunday off. Sunday-closing and day-of-rest laws have been on the books in the state since shortly after Virginia was colonized in the early 1600s. In the 1970s, exemptions began to be added for such businesses as grocery stores and malls. Advertisement When lawmakers threw out the obsolete provisions of the Sunday laws, they inadvertently removed the scores of exemptions from the day-of-rest law that allow businesses to require their employees to work on Sunday, or another day the employees consider the Sabbath. An employer who violates the law could be fined as much as $500, the Richmond Times-Dispatch said. If an employer compels a non-managerial employee to work on his chosen day of rest, the boss would have to pay the employee three times the typical wages. The law took effect Thursday, and nothing legally can be done about it until the General Assembly convenes in 2005 and corrects its error. Public employees were not covered by the day-of-rest law and were not included in the exemptions. Advertisement
