Hours of work is part of regulatory legislation, regulating
the working hours across the industry and standardizing the
practice of engagement of workers within the restricted hours.
The respective state legislators create the legislation or
modify the legislation to suit the population and the culture of
the State. The working hours differ state to state as per the
applicable law of the land and nature of Industry as well. In
general, many of the states follow the 8 hours working is a normal
day which is excluding the mandatory break of 30 minutes, however
across all the states & UT's the standard 48 hours work a week is
the common parameter maintained. It's essential to understand
every organization to know the allowed maximum working hours,
period of break and spread over (First in and Last out time) for
the nature of Industry with the help of regulatory legislation
which is governing working hours related to the employees who are
working with.
Overtime hours
There are several legislations that regulate the overtime
payment and overtime work. In India as a general clause, the
workmen who engaged for exceeding 48 hours a week as a normal
course of employment, to be paid with overtime wages
The overtime wages to be paid with twice the normal rate of
wages. The State government notified the maximum overtime
engagements in a day / week / quarter / year, engaging a workman
for exceeding the maximum allowed overtime limits will amount to
violation under the respective Act's. Tracking of overtime hours,
calculation of overtime wages and maintaining the applicable
registers against the statutory requirements are the challenges
across the industry and any violation on it will amount to
criminal proceedings against the owner of the organizations.
