Report of the Royal Commission on Labour in India

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Monograph

Identifikator:: 1850495947

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-233603

Document type:: Monograph

Title:: Report of the Royal Commission on Labour in India

Place of publication:: London

Publisher:: His Majesty's Stationery Off.

Year of publication:: 1931

Scope:: xviii, 580 S.; graph. Darst., Kt.

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

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Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Chapter IV. - Hours in factories

Collection:: Economics Books

CHAPTER IVs (8 period within which factories may employ women, and to reduce from 131 to 13 hours the period within which they may employ any individual woman. In this connection we have considered the objections, which are felt strongly by many in India, to women working in or travelling to and from the factory after dark. We believe that many women will be unwilling to accept work involving late hours or a very early start, and we do not anticipate that this relaxation will have any effect on the hours in fac- tories which work without shifts. At the same time, we regard it as desirable to remove an obstacle in the way of the more general adoption of shifts and the employment of women who may be willing to work on these shifts. We may add that, if adopted, our proposals will bring the Indian law into strict conformity with the Convention relating to night work for women, to which we have referred. In the case of children, we recommend that the spreadover be limited to 73 hours, and consider that the night rest should continue to include the hours between 7 P.M. and B-30 A.M. Multiple Shifts in Jute NMills. Another question, to which great attention has been directed in Bengal in connection with the jute mills, is the control of shifts. Prior to 1922, textile factories could not work for more than 12 hours in all except under a system of shifts approved by an inspector. In 1922 all restrictions on the running hours of machinery were abolished, and with these went all power to prevent the working of shifts. The Government of Bengal now desire power to control the working of shifts with a view to the prevention or modification of a system which has been extensively used in jute mills. The practices to which the Government of Bengal and others have directed our attention require explanation. The Bengal jute mills are divided into “ single-shift ’ and * double-shift ” mills. ~All the mills open at 5-30 A.M. and close at 7 P.M, and in the former class of mills there is an interval of 23 hours during which no work is done. Here the only defect is the inadequate night period, with which we have already dealt. In the © double-shift ”” mills, the machinery runs for the whole 131 hours and work is conducted on a system of overlapping multiple shifts. This is best understood by reference to the appended diagram, which shows the shifts and the hours during which they worked in a typical mill. The essence of the system is that the workers in each department are divided into a number of groups enjoying intervals at different times, so that the machinery runs continuously for 13% hours with constant changes in the groups at work. It will be observed that, in the case illustrated by the diagram, the intervals are so arranged that at 22 different times in the course of the day, some workers are due to come in and relieve others who go out. Objections to Multiple Shifts. There are several objections to such a system from the point of view of labour. In the first place, the intervals bear no necessary relation ro mes] times and. where different members of a family work in different

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