Regarding Lunch Break

Dear Senior Member,
Need your expert advice, i am working in a private sector company and my company is invoving in tunneling, i just like to know that is lunch break included in the 48 hours work in a week or is it apart from 48 working hours in a week?

The 48 Hours in working hours is apart from Luch Break, its 8 hours per day for 6 days a week it will be 8*6 = 48 hours

Dear Karnanand
Acc. to Factories Act 1948,
1. Weekly hours. NOT more than forty-eight hours in any week. but in a day no of hrs working can be max upto 9.
so in a factory instead of normal duty hrs of 8 we can have 9 hrs duty subjected to max working hrs in a week upto 48hrs.
2. for working of more than these hrs, written permission should be there from labour inspector or by standing orders, and for that double rate of pay should be given.
3.however, max no of hrs in a week incl. OT shall not exceed 60. AND
total OT hrs cannot exeed 50 in a quarter ( means period of three months)
Hope this will help you all
With Regards

Mr Karnanad;
The Factories Act is not applicable to your tunnel work.You are governed by BOCOW Act 1996, at your site. If your office is else where the respective state Act o Shop and Commercial Estt Act will apply.Read those two Acts with its rules .
Varghese Mathew
9961266966

Dear Mr.Karnanand,
In a factory working single/ two shifts it is possible to exclude lunch break from the 8 hours. However, in a factory working 3 shifts excluding the lunch break from the working hours may not be feasible as the day consists of 24 hours.
In such a case there are two options either you include the lunch break within the shift hours or reduce the number of working hours in the night shift and even in such a case the lunch break should be built in the working hours only.
M.V.Kannan

In factories on 3 shifts 8 hr work is inclusive of lunch break.Even during night you have to allow rest of half an hour as you cannot work an employee continuously for more than five hours.
Vargfhese Mathew
9961266966

Dear Karnanand,
Whatever the type of your industrial establishment and the parent labour law applicable to your industry, you should understand that working hours normally refers to the actual hours worked by the workmen. However, as you are well aware, one cannot work at a stretch continuously and would require certain breaks for physical comforts such as rest and other incidental physical needs such as taking food, answering nature's calls etc., Therefore, working hours need to be stretched beyond the actual hours of work including the times for such breaks and this entire stretch of time inclusive of actual working hours and intervals or breaks for rest is called as "Spread over". So, the time allowed for lunch break in a day or in a week is exclusive of the daily or weekly hours of work.

pl note that in any act lunch break is not included in the specified working hours.in other words lunch time cab be added to daily hours or shift working

Dear all, The question of inclusion or exclusion of meals break in the working hours depends on whether you are working continously for 24 hours (8*3) or not. In continous shift arrangement, the lunch break is included in the 8 hour shift whereas where there is no continous shift working, the lunch hour could be excluded. Normally in process industries, there is continous working and the lunch break is included in the shift hours. It is not very clear as to your activity falls in which category. However, the point to be noted is that even where there is continous shift, the shift hours shall be so arranged that the workman does not have to work continously beyond 5 hours and he gets a rest interval of half an hour before he resumes work (Section 55 of Factories Act 1948) So in such cases it has to be 5 hours work - 1/2 hour rest interval-2 & 1/2 hours work or 4 hours work- 1/2 hour rest interval- 3 & 1/2 hours work or the reverese.
KK

I think Factories Act will not apply to Karnanand.His Co is involved in Tunnel work .
Varghese Mathew