CHAPTER-4
HOURS OF WORK
4.1 Section 51 of the Factories Act, 1948 prescribes that no adult worker shall be required or allowed to work in a factory for more than forty-eight hours in any week. Further, Section 54 indicates that subject to the provision of Section 51 no adult worker shall be required or allowed to work in a factory for more than nine hours in any day. However, there is a provision to this section which states that subject to the previous approval of the Chief Inspector, the daily maximum hours specified in Section 54 may be exceeded in order to facilitate the change of shifts.
4.2 Section 52 of the Act states that no adult worker shall be required or allowed to work in a factory on the first day of the week i.e. weekly holiday. The Act further states that if the worker is deprived of any of the weekly holidays for which provision is made in Section 52, he shall be allowed compensatory holidays of equal number to the holidays so lost. Section 55 of the Act indicates that the period of work of adult worker in a factory on each day shall be so fixed that no worker shall work for more than 5 hours before he has an interval for rest of at least half an hour. The Chief Inspector of Factories can exempt factories from this provision to total number of hours worked without interval to six.
4.3 Section 56 of the Act indicates that the period of work of an adult worker in a factory shall be so arranged that, inclusive of his intervals for rest under Section 55, it shall not spread over more than ten and half hours on any day. The Chief Inspector, may, however increase the spread over upto twelve hours on specific grounds.
4.4 The reports received from various States/Union Territories on the working of the Factories Act, 1948 highlight satisfactory compliance with the provisions relating to hours of work.
4.5 Details pertaining to specified normal weekly hours for adult men and adult women workers by States and Industries have been given in Tables 3.1 to 3.4. Normal weekly hours of work of most of the adult men and women in the factories submitting returns was in the range of 45-48 hours. The following Table presents the percentage distribution of adult workers by normal weekly hours of work.
TABLE –G
Percentage Distribution of Adult Workers in Factories Submitting Returns by
Normal Weekly Hours of Work during the year 2002
|
Category of Workers |
Normal Hours of Work per Week |
|||
|
Upto 42 hours |
Above 42 and upto 45 hours |
Above 45 and upto 48 hours |
Above 48 hours |
|
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
|
Men |
2.24 |
4.92 |
72.09 |
20.75 |
|
Women |
3.26 |
3.12 |
72.91 |
20.71 |