Festival and Weekly Holiday Overlap: Can We Adjust Days Off Without Cutting Wages?

1) If a festival holiday falls on the day of a weekly holiday, on that day we don't work in the company as it is already a holiday. My question is, can we get a holiday on another working day due to the lapse of a festival holiday for the laborers without any lowering in the wages?

2) We have a weekly holiday on Sunday, can that weekly holiday be shifted to another day by our company?

Statutory Provisions for Festival Holidays

First of all, check whether there is any statutory provision regarding festival holidays in your state, like The Kerala National and Festival Holidays Act 1958. Otherwise, when the holiday list of the succeeding year is decided, please consider the festival holidays of that year and avoid all such holidays. However, National Holidays such as Republic Day, Independence Day, and Gandhi Jayanti are to be holidays without exception and cannot be exchanged. In cases where such holidays fall on the same day and where there is no statutory provision, different practices are followed by establishments. These practices include allowing a separate holiday on another festival day, designating any one day as an optional holiday even if it is not a festival day, and providing extra compensation for the lapsed day.

Shifting Weekly Holidays

Section 52 of the Factories Act 1948 holds the answer. In summary, it can be said that the weekly holiday can be shifted to any preceding or succeeding three days by issuing notice. Such shifting can be done up to two months with the approval of the Factory Inspector under Section 65 of the Act.

Thank you.