Dear prashant
Your query appears to me is that if a factory worker is on leave for 4 days prior to his weekly off whether he is eligible for weekly off under Sec.52 since he did not work for six days. Here Sec. 53 deals with establishments which are exempted from Sec.52 and hence sec.52 and Sec.53 are independant of each other.
Nowhere Sec.52 laid down that a factory worker shall work for six days to earn a weekly off. What it all says is that an adult worker shall not be allowed to work on the first day of the week or if he has to work on the first day of the week, he shall be granted weekly off on one of the three days either immediately before or after the said day of the week which in your case is the Thurs day. The section does no where say that he should work with hammer and sickle for six days to earn a weekly off.In my view, the section is silent on this condition to solve a problem you just posed.
In support of this view, suport can be sought from Sec.79 of the Factories Act. Explanation to Sec.79 which stipulates minimum240 days of srevice to be put in by a factory worker to earn his annual leave, explains as to how to compute those 240 days of service. It says at clause (c) of the explanation that the period of leave enjoyed by a worker shall be deemed to be the days on which he worked in a factory for the purpose of entitling him to annual leave for the next year. In the same, iny view, the days on which a factory worker is on leave (with wages) during a week shal be deemed to be the days he worked and hence he is entitled to weekly off on Thurs day even though he was on lave for four days prior to Thurs day.
B.Saikumar
HR & labour Law Consultant
Chipinbiz Consultancy Pvt.ltd
Mumbai
022-28324234