Is It Legal to Work 9.5 Hours a Day for 5 Days a Week? Seeking Legal Insights

Dear folks,

Our management wants to start working 5 days a week with 9 and a half hours of work each day for staff.

Please share under which clause or judgment by the court of law this will be possible.

Working hours, excluding intervals for rest, cannot exceed 9 hours in a day, even if you work for 5 days. This means that the total working hours per week should not go over the prescribed limit of 48 hours. However, if the concept of working 4 days a week with 12 hours per day becomes a legal possibility, you may be able to implement it. Despite the legal challenge of 9.5 hours per day, many organizations currently operate under this model.

As per Act requirements, the total working hours in a week are 48 hours. However, if the employer allows for 9.5 hours, i.e., 5 hours working + 0.5 hours break + 4.5 hours work, the total daily working hours would be 9.5 hours. In a weekly working scenario, the total working hours would amount to 47.4 hours.

Please ensure permission is granted for women to work beyond 7:00 PM.

Regards, Jagjeet

My question to Jagjeet Singh Arora is, will you be able to work for 9 hours and 30 minutes when the law states that hours spent beyond 9 hours would attract overtime wages? There is no doubt that a week shall comprise 48 hours, but it should be with a maximum of 9 hours in any day.

It is worth referring to the Supreme Court verdict in Philips India Ltd vs Labour Court, Madras & Ors (1985 AIR 1034, 1985 SCR (3) 491), in which it was directed that if a company is working less than 6 days in a week, the manner in which the hours that would qualify for overtime wages should be calculated not on the basis of 48 hours but the regular working hours in a week of five or four days, as the case may be.

Working Hours and Overtime under the Factories Act, 1948

Under the Factories Act, 1948, normal working hours are 8 hours per day and 48 hours per week. Overtime (OT) hours will be beyond 48 hours in a week or beyond 9 hours per day. When the daily working hours reach 9.5 hours per day, 0.5 hours will be considered as OT hours.

Therefore, for working 9.5 x 5 = 47.5 hours, payment should be calculated as 45 hours + (0.5 hours x 2 x 5) = 50 hours instead of 47.5 hours.

Regards, S K Bandyopadhyay (WB, Howrah) CEO-USD HR Solutions [Phone Number Removed For Privacy-Reasons] [Email Removed For Privacy Reasons] www.usdhrs.in

According to Pranay Patil's question, the management of his organization wants to work 5 days a week for 9.5 hours every day. He has not said if the 9.5 hours include or exclude the lunch break; therefore, where is the question of a violation of the Factories Act of 1948 and/or the S&E Act of 1948?

If they observe office hours of 9:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. daily with a half-hour lunch break, the daily working hours are 9, and female employees can also leave the office before 7:00 p.m., therefore no specific approval from any authority is required.

Suresh

Dear Suresh, when you say working hours per day is 9.5 hours, it should be interpreted as working hours excluding intervals for rest. Otherwise, you should have used "spread over," which would include intervals for rest. In my reply, I also mentioned that "IF" the total hours of 9.5 are excluding intervals for rest, it would be unlawful because a day cannot exceed 9 hours, even if you do not exceed 48 hours in a week.

Dear Madhu Jee,

You have written the act's provisions so that they are crystal clear and easy to understand for everyone. We've seen that when members seek answers to questions, they only provide half the information, expecting others to grasp what they're saying. I am certain that Mr. Pranay Patil's 9.5-hour workday refers to office hours rather than working hours. People in Hindustan have an office-hour attitude, which means they work throughout the entire duty hour, with no lunch or tea breaks.

In the past, textile and manufacturing industries required 8.5 hours of work every shift, with a half-hour lunch break in between. However, nowadays, 24x7 means three 8-hour shifts including a lunch break.

Regards,
Suresh