The Tamil Nadu assembly on Friday passed a bill that will allow factories to extend daily working hours to 12 hours per day. The bill to amend Factories Act, 1948, was tabled by Minister for Labour Welfare and Skill Development CV Ganesan and has been amended to provide appropriate wages to the workers as per the hours worked.The bill now empowers the state government to exempt any factory or group or group of factories from any or all of the provisions of Sections 51 , 52 , 54 , 55 , 56 or 59 of the Factories Act, 1948, which entail rules related to working hour limits.Workers can now choose to work for 12-hour daily shifts and they will be entitled to four-day work week, with three days off.Ganesan said the amendment was done after taking representations from multiple industries and associations “to bring out working hour reforms, by making a statutory provision for flexible working hours, citing the number of benefits it could bring to workers, especially women employees, the industry and the economy as a whole”.Action would be taken against factories, which coerced their employees to work against their wishes, he clarified.The bill was passed amid strong criticism and opposition from various parties such as AIADMK, Communist Party of India , Communist Party of India ), and Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi .CPI state secretary K Balakrishnan said the amendment would deprive workers of their rights. He noted that Tamil Nadu was the only non-BJP ruled state to pass such a law that accedes to the demands of industrialists.Also read: Long working hours are a killer, WHO study showsIndustries Minister Thangam Thennarasu assured that workers would not be affected. “This will not be applied to all the sectors. Only the industries that fit the bill will adopt the 12-hour work shift. Currently, employees have to work only 48 hours a week, and there will be no change to that. Only workers who volunteer can take up a 12-hour shift. Nobody can be forced to do a 12-hour shift. This is to increase flexibility in work and encourage women to join the workforce,” he said, according to a News Minute report.Chief Minister MK Stalin, as DMK president then, had in 2020 written to the Centre not to allow the raising of working hours from 8 to 12 hours.
