Understanding Section 56 of the Factories Act
Section 56 does not permit working up to 12 hours; it only allows a spread over of 12 hours. The Factories Act stipulates that the daily hours of work shall not exceed 9 hours (Section 54). However, Section 65 empowers the Chief Inspector of factories to exempt, by written order, the total number of hours of work on any day as not exceeding 12 hours on the grounds that the exemption is required to enable the factory to deal with exceptional pressure of work. The other conditions for the exemption are given in Section 65, which may be perused.
Applying for Exemption
This provision was utilized on innumerable occasions by submitting a self-explanatory application explaining the requirement for exemption and pursuing the matter with the Chief Inspector. There have been no occasions where the request was not agreed.