Are Lunch Breaks Included in 48-Hour Workweeks? Navigating Work Hours in Advertising Agencies

Hi, I just want guidance on daily work hours. It's 48 hours a week, but does that include a lunch break? If it's 10-7 pm per day including a lunch break, should all Saturdays be off? Or if it's 10-6:30 pm per day including a lunch break, should two Saturdays be off? It's an advertising agency where working late is normal on most days. They don't consider it as overtime and pay accordingly. What do you think?

Dear Payal,

Under any establishment-specific law, the term 'working hours' comprises two components. One is Spread Over, i.e., the entire continuous stretch of hours during which the employee is at the disposal of the employer, meaning the hours of actual work and the intermittent intervals for rest. The other is Actual Working Hours, i.e., the hours during which the employee is required to work without any intervening break. Therefore, 8 hours a day of work or 48 hours a week means 8 hours of actual work plus rest intervals like a lunch break, etc., every day. However, the length of spread over shall not exceed the limit notified by the Government.

Weekly Off and Rest Days

Every continuous stretch of six days shall be followed by a day of rest or weekly off as the general rule. It has nothing to do with the number of hours of work in a day. Depending on the type of industry or the nature of the work, the employer can decide whether the establishment should function on a system of a 5-day week or a six-day week, and the employees should work for 8 hours a day or less.

Shift Work and Overtime

When the establishment has to function round the clock or more than the normal spread over hours, the employer has to arrange for shift working only subject to the restrictions on the opening and closing hours of the place of work, if any.

Irrespective of the type of industrial establishment, if the employee is required to work more than the normal working hours, whether it is 8 hours or less, he should be paid overtime wages.

I hope you are having a great day. I am currently employed at a marketing company in Gujarat and I am in need of your valuable assistance regarding the following points:

1) The working hours are from 9:00 to 18:00 with a one-hour lunch break from 13:00 to 14:00. We work six days a week, totaling 54.00 hours per week. Am I eligible for overtime pay? Your help on this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your time and assistance.

Best regards, [Your Name]

Dear Gopal,

I think that you still need more explanation about the difference between "spread over" and "daily hours of work."

Like I said earlier, spread over refers to the total number of hours an employee is kept at the disposal of the employer, which includes the actual number of hours of daily work and the interval for rest. Spread over differs according to the relevant provisions of the establishment-specific labor law. For example, the spread over under the Factories Act, 1948 is 10 1/2 hours, whereas under most State Shops and Establishments Acts, it is 12 hours.

On the contrary, daily hours of work refer to the actual number of hours an employee shall be required to work, which is normally 8 hours, excluding overtime work. The weekly hours of work, therefore, become 48 hours only.

In your case, the spread over is 9 hours a day [9:00 hours to 18:00 hours], and excluding the one-hour lunch break, your actual daily hours are only 8 hours a day. If you are asked to work beyond the 18th hour, that alone would be treated as overtime. But the important point is that the total number of actual working hours shall not exceed 54 hours in total. This would imply that an employee cannot be required to work more than one hour of overtime on all the six working days.

However, if the contract of employment or the service regulations has fixed daily hours of work less than 8 hours, the extra hours, if any, required to work beyond the normal working hours thus already fixed, would entitle the employee to overtime wages for such work.