Is It Legal to Count 4 Extra Hours as Overtime for a 12-Hour Workday? Seeking Advice on Labor Compliance

Hello,

We fall under the shops and establishment category, and my question is about the working hours, including lunch. Is it possible that if we require employees to work for 12 hours, we can allocate an additional 4 hours as overtime on their salary slip? Is this approach compliant with labor laws?

Thank you.

Yes, you can bifurcate or mention the extra 4 hours as overtime on the salary slip, based on the overtime rate. This can be done as long as the overtime is not mandatory.

I hope you realize that overtime is supposed to be an exception. You cannot make the employee work for a 12-hour shift and consider 4 hours of overtime every day. That is not allowed. The maximum overtime allowed in most states is 6-8 hours a week or 50 hours a month. If you are doing 12-hour shifts, the actual amount will be far more and will get you into trouble.

Yes, I forgot to mention that, as rightly pointed out by Mr. Banerjee, overtime should not be a daily occurrence as there is a cap, as mentioned in the above thread.

Mr. Saswata,

Most retail houses require employees to work 12 hours a day, based on my observations. I am curious about how they manage to adhere to statutory norms regarding working hours. If you have any insights on this matter, please share.

Regards

Raj,

I hope you are referring to retail shops and not housing societies.
12-hour shifts are illegal, and nothing they do or say will make it legal. They are banking on two things:
- Apathy of the employees themselves or their inability to protest as they need the job desperately.
- Ability to bribe the government officials to ignore the matter.