Tamil Nadu Assembly passes bill allowing 12-hour work in factories

Amid the stiff opposition from the political parties, including allies of the ruling DMK, the State government passed a Bill to amend the Factories Act, 1948 to insert a provision namely “65A-Power to exempt in special cases” so as to empower the government to exempt any factory or group of factories from certain provisions dealing with the working hours of workers and wages.

The Amendment Bill empowers the State government to exempt any factory or group or class or description of factories from any or all of the provisions of Sections 51, 52, 54, 55, 56 or 59 of the Factories Act, 1948 or the rules made thereunder.

CITU state president A Soundararajan said that the Bill provisions are aimed at open-endedly to empower employers to evade all their statutory obligations in respect of working hours in the workplaces through such mass-scale exemption mechanism in respect of almost all provisions of the Factories Act, both directly and indirectly related to regulations of working hours.

“At a time when Western Countries are reducing working hours to 6-7 hours a day and a five-day workweek, increasing the working hours is a retrograde step and a historical blunder. It will have serious health implications, particularly for women,” he said.

Soundararajan said that the statement of objects and reasons for the bill states that it was mooted based on the representations from the industries and industry associations to bring out working hour reforms. “But the government did not discuss the bill which will have serious implications for the workers with the trade unions in the State labour advisory board,” he said, demanding the government repeal the bill.