New Delhi : The Ministry of Labour and Employment has proposed to increase the working hours to a maximum of 12 hours per day in a recently passed Code of Parliament. Currently, the working day is a maximum of eight hours.
The Ministry has proposed under the rules of Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions i.e. OSH Code 2020. Short-term leave in between new work periods are also included. However, in this draft notified on 19 November 2020, the weekly working hours have been retained at 48 hours. In the current provisions, the work week is 6 days in an 8-hour workday, in which one day is a holiday.
Decision will be effective in social security
According to a senior Labor Ministry official, ‘This has been done keeping in mind the adverse climatic conditions of India, where the work is divided throughout the day. This will facilitate the workers to earn more through overtime allowance. ‘The officer also said,’ We have made necessary provisions in the draft rules so that all workers working more than eight hours can get overtime.’
According to the draft rules of the OSH Code, 15 to 30 minutes of time will be counted as 30 minutes in calculating overtime on any day. Under the current system, less than 30 minutes are not counted as overtime.
Employers will not be able to work more than 48 hours
The draft rules state, ‘No worker shall be required to work in any establishment for more than 48 hours in a week nor shall he be permitted to do so. The working hours have to be arranged in such a way that the working hours should not exceed 12 on any day, including the interval time for rest.
Special attention was given to the convenience of workers
According to the draft, no person shall work continuously for more than five hours without an interval of at least half an hour. Working hours will have to be fixed daily according to the week in such a way that it does not exceed 48 hours in the whole week.
It is worth noting that recently the Union Ministry of Labor and Employment has asked for objections and suggestions while notifying the draft Act of Social Security Code, 2020.