Covid-19 lockdown: 12-hr workday in Rajasthan factories, Punjab may follow

State invokes powers under Factories Act to extend maximum hours to 12 from eight earlier; Other states may follow as move is aimed to ensure production isn’t impacted due to reduced workforce

As industries prepare to restart operations in a staggered manner in the second phase of the lockdown, the Rajasthan government has extended working hours at factories from a maximum of 8 hours to 12 hours a day to ensure production doesn’t take a hit with a limited workforce. The template is set to be followed by other states such as Punjab. Rajasthan has used special powers under the Factories Act of 1948, which could be invoked during a public emergency, to make these changes for the next three months. This will apply to all the manufacturing activities permitted for operations.

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“To achieve the dual objective of restoring full supply of essential goods and ensure a minimum presence of people in manufacturing and distribution facilities, it is allowed that the usual eight hours of working per day according to the Factories Act, 1948, be exempted for next three months to allow maximum of 12 hours working per day,” Niraj Kumar Pawan, Rajasthan labour, employment and skill secretary, said in an April 11 order.

This will be applicable for all the exempted categories of industries that will be allowed to work through notifications issued by the central and the state governments.According to the notification, the additional four hours of work will be counted as ‘overtime’ for which, Pawan told Business Standard, the worker will be paid double the wages in normal working hours…Read More