Some Northlands Shopping Centre retail workers believe the mall should have been evacuated after Sunday's magnitude 5.7 earthquake.

Retail staff in a Christchurch mall have criticised management for creating confusion after the Valentines Day earthquake.

They say Northlands Shopping Centre should have been evacuated, like other city malls.

Instead, some stores were told they could be financially penalised for closing.

Shopping centre bosses have defended the way it was handled.

They blamed police for confusing the situation. Officers told retailers to leave if they felt unsafe.

Two store employees say they have lodged formal complaints.

Hanafins senior salesman Craig Bullock is one of them.

He said retailers assumed they would evacuate after the magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck at 1.13pm on Sunday.

Evacuation alarms never sounded. There was no contact from mall management, leaving many wondering what to do, he said.

"It wasn't handled at all. It was just left to people who were working in the mall on Sunday to find out what were supposed to do.

"A quake that size, shops had stock tumbling over the place. I think that the mall needed to be evacuated and assessed and stores should have been allowed time to clean up before customers were allowed back in."

Eastgate Shopping Centre, The Palms Shopping Centre and Westfield Riccarton closed after the earthquake. They re-opened the next day after safety checks.

Bullock said Hanafins decided to close their store, but staff were called back because "the mall said we had to continue to trade".

He was told nearly 50 shops that closed could be penalised financially for shutting while the mall was open.

Liam Johnson, who worked his last day at Paper Plus on Sunday, said he and others shut the shop and gathered at an assembly point while customers continued to walk in and out of the building.

He lodged a complaint with mall management, but said he was yet to receive a response.

Other retailers were reluctant to speak publicly, but two said they were surprised there was no evacuation.

Three reviews on the Northlands Shopping Centre Facebook page, including one by Bullock, criticised the mall's handling of the situation.

"Mall management had no idea what was going on. I think that the decisions to close by stores was the correct thing to do and that threatening penalties is not on," one post said.

Northlands centre manager Vicki Bain said an assessment of the building found no noticeable damage, so there was no evacuation or closure. If retailers felt their shops were unsafe, they should close.

Mall policy was to stay inside when an earthquake happened because it was safer than going outside into the unknown, she said.

Bain said police confused the situation when they entered the mall and began evacuating retailers without management knowing.

"[Police] had no jurisdiction, in our view, to do what they did. There was no reason for them to do it."

She acknowledged shops were told they could be penalised for closing, but that would be addressed with staff. No stores were penalised.

"I'm very happy with how our staff handled it. I think compounding what they had to do was the situation with the Papanui police and we have addressed that with them."

Senior Sergeant Stephen McDaniel said three officers went to the mall. They had information it was damaged.

Retailers began asking police if they should close. Officers advised people to leave if they felt unsafe, but never started an evacuation process, he said.

A Fire Service assessment found the mall was structurally sound, he said.

"We have had a discussion on it, and hopefully everything will fall into place a lot better next time," McDaniel said.