Is It Legal for Factory Workers in Maharashtra to Have a Holiday Between Shifts?

In a factory in Maharashtra operating 24x7, persons are required to work in shifts. The timings of the shifts are as follows:

Night shift: 00:00 to 08:00 hrs
General Shift: 08:00 to 16:00 hrs
Evening shift: 16:00 to 24:00 hrs

The manager has given a weekly holiday from the end of the evening shift until the start of the night shift. This means that today, individuals work until 24:00 hrs, take their holiday, and then report back for duty at 00:00 hrs the next day for the night shift. The question arises whether they should enjoy the holiday or rest in preparation for the night shift. Is such a holiday legal in India?

Weekly Off Regulations Under the Factories Act
Weekly off is regulated by Section 52 of the Factories Act. According to this section, an employee is eligible to get 24 hours of rest after every 6 days of work. Section 57 of the Act states that the 24-hour weekly holiday of an employee who has worked during the night shift will begin from the time when his night shift ends. Therefore, if the shift ends at 8 am today, the weekly off will commence at 8 o'clock only. This means he cannot be called to work until 8 am tomorrow. If he is asked to join work at 00 hours, then it is illegal, and this practice occurs only in some parts of India, even though it is not permitted by law in India.

Madhu Sir, With reference to the above, I wish to inform you that the Manager of the factory gives a weekly holiday after the end of the evening shift, from 00:00 hrs to 24:00 hrs, followed by the night shift, which starts at 00:00 hrs. Consequently, due to the night shift, the holiday will be used for rest, and workers cannot engage in personal activities on that day. In my opinion, this arrangement does not constitute an appropriate weekly off/holiday.

As per the law, 24 hours from the end of the previous shift is what is required. It is true that this employee will not get a 'day,' but the weekly off will be used as a day for rest. But after 00:00 hours, he would have taken rest at least until 10 am. It is not necessary that having worked from 8 pm until midnight, he should require the entire day for sleeping. Imagine that he has slept for 8 hours from 1 am onwards (after spending one hour in taking a bath or similar routine) until 9 am. He can spend the remaining time with family and outing. Is that not fair?

The situation appears to be that an employee works for 6 days in the evening shift from 4:00 PM to 12:00 midnight, from Monday to Saturday, and then resumes duty in the night shift from 12:00 midnight to 8:00 AM on the intervening Sunday-Monday night. The employee is getting 24 hours of rest, and thus the requirement of Section 52(1) of the Factory Act 1948 is met. This type of cyclical change of shifts is done in 8X3 working in factories.