Working Hours Under Factories Act 1948

WORKING HOURS AND HOLIDAYS UNDER FACTORY ACT 1948:-

Section	Heading	Content
51, 54, 55, 56	Weekly hours	1.    No adult worker shall be required or allowed to work in a factory for more than FORTY-EIGHT HOURS IN ANY WEEK. 2.    No adult worker shall be required or allowed to work in a factory for more than NINE HOURS IN ANY DAY: Provided that, subject to the previous approval of the Chief Inspector, the daily maximum specified in this section may be exceeded in order to facilitate the change of shifts. 3.    The periods of work of adult workers in a factory each day shall be so fixed that no period shall exceed five hours and that NO WORKER SHALL WORK FOR MORE THAN FIVE HOURS BEFORE HE HAS HAD AN INTERVAL FOR REST OF AT LEAST HALF AN HOUR. 4.    State Government or, subject to the control of the State Government, the Chief Inspector, may, by written order and for the reasons specified therein, exempt any factory from the above provision SO HOWEVER THAT THE TOTAL NUMBER OF HOURS WORKED BY A WORKER WITHOUT AN INTERVAL DOES NOT EXCEED SIX. 5.    The periods of work of an adult worker in a factory shall be so arranged that inclusive of his intervals for rest under section 55, THEY SHALL NOT SPREAD OVER MORE THAN TEN AND A HALF HOURS IN ANY DAY: Provided that the Chief Inspector may, for reasons to be specified in writing increase the SPREAD OVER UP TO TWELVE HOURS.
66	Special provision for Women	1.    No woman shall be REQUIRED OR ALLOWED to work in any factory EXCEPT BETWEEN THE HOURS OF 6 A.M. AND 7 P.M. 2.    Provided that the State Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, in respect of any factory or group or class or description of factories, vary the limits laid down in clause (b), BUT SO THAT NO SUCH VARIATION SHALL AUTHORIZE THE EMPLOYMENT OF ANY WOMAN BETWEEN THE HOURS OF 10 P.M. AND 5 A.M.; there shall be no change of shifts except after a weekly holiday or any other holiday.
71	Working hours for children	1.    No child shall be EMPLOYED OR PERMITTED to work, in any factory for more than FOUR AND A HALF HOURS in any day; NO CHILD CAN WORK DURING THE NIGHT. 2.    Explanation.—For the purpose of this sub-section “night” shall mean a period of at least twelve consecutive hours which shall include the interval between 10 P.M. and 6 A.M 3.    No child shall be required or allowed to work in any factory on any day on which he has already been working in another factory. 4.    NO FEMALE CHILD shall be required or allowed to work in any factory except between 8 A.M. and 7 P.M. 5.    The period of work of all children employed in a factory shall be limited to two shifts which shall not overlap or spread over more than five hours each; and each child shall be employed in only one of the relays which shall not, except with the previous permission in writing of the Chief Inspector, be changed more frequently than once in a period of thirty days.
52, 53	Holidays	1.    No adult worker shall be required or allowed to work in a factory on the first day of the week i.e. SUNDAY (hereinafter referred to as the said day), unless :         i.    he has or will have a holiday for a whole day on one of the three days immediately before or after the said day, and        ii.    the manager of the factory has, before the said day or the substituted day under clause (i), whichever is earlier,— b.    delivered a notice at the office of the Inspector of his intention to require the worker to work on the said day and of the day which is to be substituted, and c.    displayed a notice to that effect in the factory   2.    Provided that no substitution shall be made which will result in any worker working for more than ten days consecutively without a holiday for a whole day. 3.    Notices given under sub-section (1) may be cancelled by a notice delivered at the office of the Inspector and a notice displayed in the factory not later than the day before the said day or the holiday to be cancelled, whichever is earlier. 4.    Where, in accordance with the provisions of sub-section (1), any worker works on the said day and has had a holiday on one of the three days immediately before it, that said day shall, for the purpose of calculating his weekly hours of work, be included in the preceding week 5.    Where, as a result of the passing of an order or the making of a rule under the provisions of this Act exempting a factory or the workers therein from the provisions of section 52, a worker is deprived of any of the weekly holidays for which provision is made in sub-section (1) of that section, he shall be allowed, within the month in which the holidays were due to him or within the two months immediately following that month, compensatory holidays of equal number to the holidays so lost.