Working hours in a factory employing 10 or more workers are regulated by the Factories Act, 1834. In shops and commercial concerns, including administrative departments of factories, these are regulated under the West Pakistan Shops and Establishments Ordinance, 1969.
Both of these laws prescribe maximum limits of normal weekly as well as daily work hours. A week has been defined as a period of seven days beginning at mid-night on Saturday A day has been defined as a period of 24 hours beginning at each mid-night.
Factories are of two kinds: seasonal which remain operative for a part of the year as specifically referred to in the Sec 4 of the Factories Act, 1934 and a non-seasonal which remains operative throughout the year. Besides, factories have two kinds of processes. One is continuous that runs day and night in three shifts and the non-continuous running in one or two shifts in a day.
A factory having continuous process is exempted from restrictions of daily working hours, rest intervals and spread-over subject to the conditions laid down by the rules providing for such exemption, for example, the Sindh Factories (Adult Exemption) Rules, 1989. There are also some other specified processes exempted from restrictions under the Sect 43 of the Factories Act.
In the case of a non-seasonal factory having non-continuous process, the law provides normal working hours up to nine hours a day and 48 hours a week. It also provides for one hour rest interval after six hours or half an hour after five hours and two rest intervals of half an hour each when a worker is required to work for more than eight and a half hours.
In a non-continuous process, a worker can be required to work for over and above the normal working hours but subject to the condition that he is paid at twice the normal rate of wages for such an extra work. At the same time, the law puts a limit on the period of such an extra work through the device of spread-over according to which the maximum period of work along with the rest intervals can be spread at the most up to 12 hours.
The spread-over period consists of two elements. One is working hours, both normal and overtime. Other is rest intervals of one hour or two half hours in a period per Sec 37 of the Factories Act.
The 12 hours period of spread-over in the case of a factory having non-continuous process, running on the basis of six days a week, could be: eight normal working hours a day, half an hour rest interval and three and a half hours overtime (if need be).
Another half an hour rest interval falling during the overtime period has been counted in overtime hours for the purpose of payment (1962 PLC 1380). Spread-over periods in factories having five and a half working days may be adjusted accordingly.
Based on the provisions of the Sec 47 of the Factories Act, 1934 some people are of the view that the overtime period is to be calculated .on weekly basis and even if a worker works for more than normal working hours on a certain day of the week, he will not be entitled to any overtime payment if the total number of hours for which he has worked in that week does not exceed 48. This is not correct, because the word “or” in Sec 47(a) is disjunctive and not conjunctive meaning that a worker will be entitled to overtime payment if he works either for more than nine hours in a day or for more than 48 hours in a week. In some cases the daily work hours are less than nine in which case the period over and above the normal hours so fixed, and not above nine hours, has to be treated as overtime (1970 PLC 513).
Thus, if a person works for more than normal working hours on a certain day he will be entitled to overtime payment for the extra hours which are not to be adjusted against any shortfall in his total weekly work hours. In fact, the condition of working for more than 48 hours is meant for a different situation, And that is if a worker works for 48 hours in a week he should not be required to work beyond that unless he is paid at twice the normal rate of wages for the extra work.
For example, a factory runs on the basis of five and a half days a week with eight and a half hours normal working on each of the full five working days and five and a half hours normal working on the half day which will come to 48 hours. If, the half working day there is some extra work a of two to three hours the employer will not be entitled to require a worker to do it without any overtime payment on the plea that under Sec 36 of the Factories Act he s obliged to work for nine hours a day.
Moreover, it will also be unfair if a worker is out to the ordeal of extra work on the expectation that he will get twice the normal rate of wages, for it and is then deprived thereof simply because he has not worked for more than 48 hours in the week.
In a factory having a continuous process, the normal working hours could be up to 56 in a week as per Sec 34 of the Act.
This is because, continuous process is exempted from restrictions of the weekly holidays as a result of which a worker can, as per Rule 9 of the Sindh Factories (Adult Exemptions) Rules, 1989, be required to work up to fourteen days without a weekly holiday which has to be subsequently allowed to him as a compensatory holiday.
And if a worker works for eight hours on all days of the week without a weekly holiday,his normal work hours will obviously be 56 in that week.
Although, the continuous process is exempted from the restrictions of work hours and weekly holidays etc but that exemption is subject to certain conditions which are: that such process shall ordinarily be run on the basis of eight hours a shift, that when shifts are changed no worker shall be employed for more than 16 hours in one day i.e. two periods of eight hours each with an interval of eight hours, that no worker shall be employed for more than 14 consecutive days without a compensatory rest period of 24 hours and that his average work hours in any three weeks shall not exceed 56.
The rules further provide for maximum overtime up to 12 hours a week for exempted processes and works which is likely to be increased because of the increase in. the permissible overtime hours in non-exempted processes through increase in spread over as discussed.
As per Sec 45 read with Sec 36 of the Factories Act, 1934, a woman can be ordinarily required to work for nine hours a day —between 0600 and 1900 hours- but if she agrees she may be required to work in any of the two shifts in a day between 0600 to 2200 hrs provided the employer makes arrangement for transport specially in the evening shift. Sect 45 of the Act prohibits relaxation of work . hours in the case of women which means that a woman cannot be required to do overtime in a factory.
The law also provides for spread-over of the work period of an adult which along with the rest interval can be up to 12 hours in a week subject to the further condition that the work-hours including overtime but not rest intervals,, not exceeding 60 in a week.
The law also places limit on the number of overtime hours which shall not exceed 624 in a year. Thus, the work period in a day, in an establishment running on the basis of five and a half hours a day, be spread as: eight and half hours normal working, one hour rest interval after six hours working on every full working day, five and a half hours normal working on the half day and up to two and a half hours overtime on every full working day.
In working out the overtime period, care should be taken that the total work hours including the overtime hours do not exceed 60 in a week and that the total overtime hours do not exceed 624 in a year.