A nationwide garden centre chain has been charged with breaching trading laws by opening for business on Good Friday.
No one appeared for Oderings when the case called at Christchurch District Court today.
But a judge said the Government's labour service should take stronger legal steps to stop businesses from
flagrantly flouting public holiday trading bans.
Judge Gary Macaskill said: "I noted some time ago that if the Department of Labour was serious about nurseries and other similar business opening on these days, then they should go to the High Court and ask for an injunction to stop them from doing so. But they don't, and one wonders why."
Oderings, whose head office is in Christchurch, faces 10 charges, brought by the then Department of Labour, that it opened five stores in Christchurch, as well as in Havelock North, Napier, Upper Hutt, Hamilton, and Palmerston North on April 6, Good Friday this year.
