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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Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Chapter IV. - Hours in factories

Collection:: Economics Books

34 CHAPTER IV. The present provisions governing children’s certificates should apply mutatis mutandis to these certificates. Further, we recommend that such persons should not be employed when women cannot be employed, i.e., that they must not be employed during the night hours which are closed bo women and that in no case should it be possible to exempt them from the provision relating to spreadover. Day of Rest. The Factories Act provides for a weekly rest day. This ordi- narily falls on Sunday, but employers can substitute for Sunday any of the three days Preceding or following it, subject to the condition that Shere must not be more than 10 days’ continuous work. This proviso, which is designed to enable the more important religious festivals to be substituted for Sundays, appears to give general satisfaction; andin a few centres there are more ‘holidays on substituted days than on Sundays. An attempt was made by the Government of India in 1921 so to amend the law as to ensure that the holiday would fall on the same day of the week for long periods ; but the proposal was rejected by the legislature which, we think, interpreted correctly the views both of employers and employed. Some difficulty has been caused by the fact that the law stipulates for a complete calendar day, so that a break of 36 hours or even 47 hours does not necessarily constitute compliance with it. Where work is conducted continuously on shifts, none of which ends at midnight, the day of rest can be given in principle without being secured in prac- tice, and exemptions are frequent in favour of such factories, The In- ternational Labour Convention relating to the weekly rest day, which India has ratified, requires merely 24 hours’ continuous rest and not a calendar day’s rest; but it is preferable to meet special cases by means of exemptions rather than to alter the principle followed by the Indian law, which is better than that of the Convention. Grant of Exemptions, Associated with the provisions of the Factories Act relating to hours of work are a number of clauses giving local Governments the power to grant exemptions to individual factories or classes of operatives or factories. No exemptions are permissible in the case of children’s hours ; and the daily limit of hours is absolute, so far as women are concerned. But with these exceptions, all the provisions relating to hours of work can be relaxed in certain defined circumstances, In the main the principles governing the grant of exemption are based on provisions of International Labour Conventions. In the years immediate- ly following the passing of the 1922 Act, considerable latitude was shown; lately exemptions have been substantially curtailed. In this respect, policy has been guided to some extent by the central Government who, in exercise of their powers of supervision, have also endeavoured to secure some uniformity between province and province. There are, however, differences in the treatment of the same class of factories in different provinces and in the degree of latitude which local Governments exhibit in the matter of exemptions generally. The criteria laid down in

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