Working Hours

51. Weekly hours.-No adult worker shall be required or allowed to

work in a factory for more than forty-eight hours in any week.

52. Weekly holidays.- No adult worker shall be required or allowed

to work in a factory on the first day of the week, unless-

(a) he has or will have a holiday for a whole day on one of the three
days immediately before or after the said day, and

(b) the manager of the factory has, before the said day delivered a
notice at the office of the Inspector of his intention to require the
worker to work on the said day and of the day which is to be
substituted, and also displayed a notice to that effect in the factory:

Provided that no substitution shall be made which will result in any

worker working for more than ten days consecutively without a
holiday for a whole day.

53. Compensatory holidays.- Where a worker is deprived of any of

the weekly holidays he shall be allowed, within the month in which
the holidays were due to him or within the two months immediately
following that month, compensatory holidays of equal number to the
holidays so lost.

54. Daily hours.-Subject to the provisions of section 51, no adult

worker shall be required or allowed to work in a factory for more than
nine hours in any day:

Provided that, subject to the previous approval of the Chief Inspector,

the daily maximum hours specified in this section may be exceeded in
order to facilitate the change of shifts.

Section 55.Intervals for rest. -The periods of work of adult workers

in a factory each day shall be so fixed that no period shall exceed five
hours and that no worker shall work for more than five hours before
he has had an interval for rest of at least half an hour.
The State Government or, subject to the control of the State
Government, the Chief Inspector, may, by written order and for the
reason specified therein, exempt any factory from the provisions of
sub-section (1) so however that the total number of hours worked by a
worker without an interval does not exceed six.

Section 56.Spreadover. -

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, they
shall not spreadover more than ten and a half hours in any day:

Provided that the Chief Inspector may, for reasons to be specified in

writing, increase the spreadover up to twelve hours.

59. Extra wages for overtime.- Where a worker works in a factory or

more than nine hours in any day or for more than forty-eight hours in
any week, he shall, in respect to overtime work, be entitled to wages
at the rate of twice his ordinary rate of wages.

Where any workers in a factory are paid on a piece-rate basis, the time
rate shall be deemed to be equivalent to the daily average of their full-
time earnings for the days on which they actually worked on the same
or identical job during the month immediately preceding the calendar
month during which the overtime work was done, and such time rates
shall be deemed to be the ordinary rates of wages of those workers.

Provided that in the case of a worker who has not worked in the
immediately preceding calendar month on the same or identical job,
the time rate shall be deemed to be equivalent to the daily average of
the earning of the worker for the days on which he actually worked in
the week in which the overtime work was done.
  There will be only one offence and not two or more where two
or more persons have been employed without complying the
requirements of the Factories Act, 1948.
 Any settlement b/w employer and employee which denies
overtime wages to workmen cannot be valid even under ID Act.

Associated Cement Staff Union Vs. Associated Cement Co.

(Hours of work have to be fixed in consideration of many factors,
including the question of fatigue on the health of the workmen, the
effect on their efficiency, the physical discomfort that may result from
long and continuous strain, the need of leisure in the workmen’s lives,
the hours of work prevailing for similar activities in the same region
and also in similar concerns and other relevant factors)

Salkia Transport Agency Pvt. Ltd. Vs. Workmen

(Difference between Leave and Holiday)

John Douglas Keith Brown Vs. State of West Bengal AIR 1956 SC
1341
(Specific permission of each worker is required if they have to work
on weekly holiday. Where something is done in breach of the
prohibition enacted in Section 52(1), both the manager and the
occupier will be liable to the penalties prescribed in that section.

Transport & Dock Workers Union Bombay Vs. Chowgule

Steamship
(Difference between Periods of work and Hours of work)

Delhi Cloth & General Mills Co. Ltd. Vs. Its Workmen
(No compensation for loss of rest interval if wages are fixed with due
regard to exemption of rest period)

Union of India Vs. G.M. Kokil 1984 SCC (L&S) 631

(Supreme Court extended the scope of Section 59 even to non-
workers. Technical Supervisors appointed in Indian Security Press,
Nasik, excluded by the State Rules were held to be entitled to Over-
time Wages.)

Director of Stores, Gujarat SRT Corporation Vs. P.S. Dube

(No over-time wages are required to be paid when a workmen goes on
tour for office purpose)

M/s. Hind Art Press Vs. ESI Corporation

It is not obligatory for any workmen to work overtime and the
management has also no right to compel a workman unless he agrees
thereto

Union of India v. Suresh C. Baskey AIR 1996 SC 849

61. Notice of periods of work for adults. -There shall be displayed

and correctly maintained in every factory, a notice of periods of work
for adults, showing clearly for every day the periods during which
adult workers may be required to work.

State of Gujarat Vs. Kanasara Manilal Bhikalal AIR 1964 SC

1893

A departure from the hours of work as laid down in Section 61(2) can
only be made in those cases in which the exempting provisions of the
rules cover the case and not otherwise. If on a particular single day,
there is a departure from the system of work notified under section 61,
than that cannot be said to be change in the system rather it should be
a permanent change or a change for a fairly long time.