Maximum Daily Working Hours for Contract Workers in Construction: What Does the Law Say?

Maximum Working Hours for Contract Workers

I wish to know the maximum number of working hours applicable in a day to a contract worker employed in an under-construction factory. Please provide a reference to the Act/Authority (if available).

Regards,
AJS

Working Hours Under the Factories Act of 1948

As per the Factories Act of 1948, the maximum working hours in a day, including spread over, is 10 hours. Under special conditions, it can be extended to 12 hours. Without spread over, the standard working hours are 8 hours a day, with a maximum of 9 hours under approval from the competent authority.

With Regards,
Sweta

Factory Act of 1948: Working Hours Regulations

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 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. However, there is a provision in this section which states that, subject to the prior 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., the weekly holiday. Section 53 of 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, 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. Section 55 of the Act lays down that the periods of work of adult workers in a factory each day shall be so fixed that no worker shall work for more than 5 hours before he has had an interval for rest of at least half an hour. The Chief Inspector of Factories can exempt any factory from this provision, so, however, that the total number of hours worked by a worker without an interval does not exceed six.

4.3 Section 56 of the Act stipulates 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 a half hours on any day. The Chief Inspector may, however, increase the spread over up to twelve hours on specific grounds.

A premises becomes a factory if it satisfies the definition of a factory as defined under the Factories Act. In your post, you have stated that the contract workers are engaged in the construction of a factory. As construction work is in progress, there could not be any manufacturing process, and therefore the premises cannot be called a factory as defined under the Factories Act. Therefore, the working hours of contract workers cannot be regulated by the provisions of the Factories Act regarding working hours. You have to look to the provisions of the Building and Other Constructions Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act for an answer. Section 28 of this Act gives power to the Appropriate Government to fix hours for a normal working day. Please find out whether the appropriate Government has fixed working hours and follow the working hours so fixed.

Regards