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CHAPTER X.—RAILWAYS-—continued. 
Hours of Employment. 
The International Labour Convention relating to hours of work, 
adopted at Washington in 1919 and ratified by India in 1921, prescribed 
that the principle of a 60 hour week should be adopted in factories, in 
mines and “ in such branches of railway work as shall be specified for 
this purpose by the competent authority ”’. Provision for the 60 hour 
week was embodied in the Factories Act in 1922 and in the Mines Act in 
1923. The Convention relating to the weekly rest was adopted at 
Geneva in 1921 and ratified by India in 1923. So far as India was con- 
cerned, the scope of this Convention was the same as that of the Washing- 
ton Hours Convention, and the Factories and Mines Acts comply with its 
terms in respect of factories and mines. The provisions of the Conven- 
tions have thus been operative for several years in respect of the 136,000 
workers in railway workshops, but not in the small sheds not covered by 
the Factorics Act. They also apply to the 25,000 workers in railway 
collieries. But the- Railway Board found the application of the Con- 
ventions to other branches of railway activity a problem beset with many 
difficulties, and it was only after prolonged investigation that an Act was 
passed in 1930 under which statutory rules have been framed to regulate 
the hours of employment and periods of rest of railway servants. 
Actual Hours. 
In railway workshops the normal hours of employment may be 
said to be 48 in a week of tive and a half days, Saturday afternoons and 
Sundays generally being observed as holidays or rest days. Overtime, 
when worked, is paid at a flat rate up to 60 hours per week and there- 
after at the rate of time and a quarter. In the larger loco. sheds a three 
shift system of 8 hours each is worked and in the smaller sheds, where work 
is intermittent, two shifts of 12 hours a day or 84 hours a week. We 
are informed that the number of continuous and intermittent workers 
who respectively perform more than 60 and 48 hours in the week is very 
small. The hours of work of the mechanical staff employed in the sheds 
are said to be generally restricted to 8a day. Overtime is seldom worked 
but, when it is necessary, it is paid for at the ordinary rate. 
The hours of labour in the engineering department on main- 
tenance of permanent way vary on different railways. The Railway 
Board states that this labour is generally employed from 8 to 9 hours 
a day and 48 to 58 hours a week. We received evidence that on 
one railway the actual hours were 12 with two hours off, making 10 
hours net per day. They get a half holiday on Sunday or every alter- 
nate Sunday off, excepting on one railway where this staff is allowed a 
full day off every week. Overtime is worked only during accidents or 
emergencies, when the gangmen are given either compensatory rests or 
allowances ; these are generally at the rate of half a day’s pay if the 
overtime worked is four hours or less and a whole day’s pay if more. 
At the larger and important stations where work is continuous 
a three shift system of 8 hours eachis worked by the station staff. with