Inadvertently, there is no mention in the post about the type of the establishment such as a factory, shop or other establishment. Daily hours of work differ from establishment to establishment. For example, in a factory it is 9 hours per day (sec.54 of the FA,1948) subject to a maximum of 48 hours in a week (sec.51). In a mine it is the same for employees required to work above the ground (sec.30 of the Mines Act,1952) and in respect of employees required to work below the ground, it is 8 hours a day( sec.31). To my knowledge, 8 hours a day is the standard norm of daily working hours in every other establishment - specific law. However, no employee can be required to work continuously for 8 hours in any day; he has to be allowed a rest interval of at least half an hour after a continuous stretch of 5 hours of working. Thus the concept of spread-over is introduced in such laws. Simply put, spread over is the continuous stretch of time during which the employee remains at the disposal of the employer. It is 10 1/2 hours under the Factories Act (sec.54)., 12 hours under the Mines Act,[sec.30(2)] and the Motor Transports Workers Act, 1961. Thus it varies according to the type of the establishment though it is a continuous stretch of hours the employee remains at the disposal of his employer from signing on to signing off inclusive of actual working hours and intervals for rest.
Coming to overtime work, it is generally restricted by the daily spread over, total no of hours of work in a month or quarter including O.T etc., in almost all the establishment specific labor laws. For instance sec.65 of the Factories Act,1948 granting power of exemption to periods of work in respect of certain factories depending on their nature of work. The summary of this exemption is that though daily 4 hours of OT can be allowed within the extended spread over of 13.5 hours a day, it has to be within the limits of 12 hours of work per day, total 60 hours of work per week including overtime work and 75 hours of O.T in a quarter.
Therefore,
1) Rest intervals are not paid
2) Normally, O.T cannot be more than one hour a day. But, in case of exemption obtained u/s 65 of the Factories Act,1948 it can be more subject to the restrictions imposed u/s 65(3) of the Act.