Hi, we planned to implement a new roster system with 4 days X12 hours duty with 3 days weekly off in a week. wanted to know any legal implications in this roster pattern, request expert to revert your opinion on this please.
Tks / Rgds.,
Uthiramoorthy H

From India
Criteria for 48 hours working days in a week is fulfilled. Though, its a new concept for me, i believe legal implications are not involved. However, i would advise you to update the company manual / standing orders accordingly and forward it to the labor commissioner for his approval, as per the standard procedure.
From India, Mumbai
nathrao
3131

What type of office/factory are you running?
Criteria of 48 hours per week is fulfilled,but what about daily hours of work?
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
stipulates 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

From India, Pune
Dear Nathrao Sir,
Extract of Factory act is appended below:-
Section 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:
1*[Provided that, subject to the previous approval of the Chief Inspector, the daily maximum specified in this section may be exceeded in order to facilitate the change of shifts.].
I think 12 hrs shift is okay, if its been approved by the Chief Inspector. Here i would also request you to please clarify the following:-
Simple definition of a 'worker' and difference between a 'worker' and 'employee' or 'Office Staff'? (what is the difference in the definition between an employee who are highly educated and doing a white collar job in office and not a worker engaged in skilled/semi-skilled/unskilled jobs)??
Is factory act applicable to every establishment?? what if the query is raised for an employer who is having limited strength in his office , say , below 50, and running a shop or an establishment and not having a factory licence?? isn't shop and establishment act applicable to him instead of the factory act??

From India, Mumbai
nathrao
3131

My first query was what type of office/factory are you running?
The working hours as laid down in Shops and Establishment act and Factories Act are by and large same.
12 hour working will require a rest break etc and would spread over 13 hours .
This would be problematic.

From India, Pune
No, this is not allowed.
The factory act says that no one can be asked to work or allowed to work for more than 9 hours a day. The inspector can allow a change for shift change. That change, will be an extension of 15 min. No one can claim it takes 3 hours to Change shift.
In a shop also, the 9 hour duty / shift rule holds true.
Extension of time to 12 hours by use of overtime is allowed in exception and can not be a normal pattern.
Legally, this is not allowed.

From India, Mumbai
Worker,or employee or staff or supervisor or Engineer or some Managers ,all are workers under the Factories Act Varghese Mathew 8547139493
From India, Thiruvananthapuram
Dear Uthiramoorthy,

All the learned members responded to your query so far except Mr.Nathrao have confined their replies to the maximum no. of hours of work as per the provisions of different Establishment-oriented Labour Laws. Apart from the type of the establishment to which the query is related, I am constrained to state that a clear-cut understanding of the difference between the "hours of actual work in a day" and the " period of spread over of working hours in a day" will prove that the proposal mentioned in your question is not a new concept but a misconception of the legal provisions relating to working hours. Everyone will accept that " hours of actual work" needs no detailed explanation. But "spread over" refers to the time-stretch the workman/employee is at the disposal of the employer. We all know pretty well that a workman/employee can be allowed to work continuously for a maximum of 5 hours only and beyond which he should be allowed a rest intervel of at least half-an-hour. The exceptions as far as I am able to remember right now are Sec.15(1) of the Motor Transport Workers Act,1961 which totally exempts rest intervel in the case of a motor transport worker who is not required to work for more than 6 hours on any particular day and Sec.55(2) of the Factories Act,1948 empowering the Chief Inspector to exempt any factory from rest intervel subject to the condition that the total no of hours worked without an intervel does not exceed six. So, the spread over is the stretch of time the workman is at the disposal of the employer like I said earlier including the intervel for rest. Therefore, three days weekly-off with 48 hours of total work on the basis of 12 hours continuous work for 4 days in a week can not be legally permissible at all.

Coming to Brijendra's questions, 'employee' is a generic term indicating a person who is paid to work for somebody whereas 'workman' is the person employed to do physical work. And the term 'staff'' collectively refers to all the workers employed as a group. Apart from 'blue-collar' and , " white collar', there is yet another one called "gold collar' indicating higher level managers.

From India, Salem
Hello Uthiramoorthy,
I wouldn't wish to touch upon the scope of the clarifications given by other members.
But can you pl elaborate on the need/reason(s) for this step by your Company?
Is it to reduce the employee headcount or any other reason?
A 3-day weekly Off looks odd, in addition to the 12 hour duty roster you plan.
Rgds,
TS

From India, Hyderabad
I am working in a MNC RMC Division under placement service,we all are doing more than 12 hrs duty without any OT and there is no weekly off we are geeting 2days monthly off. Please Sir help us from the british rule...
From Hong Kong, Central District
Community Support and Knowledge-base on business, career and organisational prospects and issues - Register and Log In to CiteHR and post your query, download formats and be part of a fostered community of professionals.






Contact Us Privacy Policy Disclaimer Terms Of Service

All rights reserved @ 2024 CiteHR ®

All Copyright And Trademarks in Posts Held By Respective Owners.