Haryana government allows 12-hour workday if industries pay overtime

Siddharth Tiwari | TNN | Updated: May 1, 2020, 11:00 IST

GURUGRAM: To kickstart the stagnant economic wheels of the state, the Haryana government has announced some relaxations for industries in non-containment zones for the next two months. These include increased working hours for the “permitted” factory employees — from 8 to 12 hours. However, the employers will be required to pay overtime to all these workers as per the law, the labour department has said.
While these relaxations till June 30 are aimed at optimising the productivity, given that limited workforce has been allowed to resume duties, the worker unions claim these violate their rights of not more than 48 hours of work a week, as mandated by the ILO norms. Industrialists in Gurugram, on the other hand, argue that the exemptions can materialise in a meaningful outcome only if the supply chain is fixed.

“As of now, we have permission to work with only 33% workers, although the government has been hinting that it may be increased to 50%. But, still industries cannot function unless the entire situation stablises. What’s the point of producing and manufacturing when markets are shut, truckers aren’t available for movement and regulatory permissions are hard to come by,” PK Yadav of IMT Manesar Association, told TOI.
“These relaxations are well intended but do not lessen the operational challenges of the industries as the entire chain is disrupted. And, with NCR borders further sealed, the movement of goods and consignments will further take a hit,” he added.
Industrialists also claim that the provision of overtime was available earlier as well and that they have been paying overtime as per the laws.
“It’s good that government is trying to revive the factories that have been shut for over 40 days now. But, without any survival stimulus and fixing of the supply chain movement, factories don’t have the incentive to function in full capacities. There’s no rotation of commodities, payments are stuck, and freight services are fraught. I believe we need to wait it out for the pandemic situation to normalise,” said JN Mangla, president of Gurugram Industries Association.
Workers, however, are disgruntled and call this a “cruel” move to burden them at a time when they grappling with deep vulnerabilities. Many are not even willing to resume work and want to go back home instead. Several garment factories workers from UP and Bihar are already pooling money to leave the city at the earliest.
The union leaders allege that this is a clever way of diluting labour reforms which the government has been contemplating for a while now. They have contested that this move violates workers right of not more than 48 hours of work a week, as mandated by the ILO norms.
“It’s a class war and ugly side of capitalism in full display. For a while now, the government has been trying to increase working hours and dilute labour rights. They now want to pass it off as ‘war against corona’. There’s no legal provision that during pandemic, the government can squeeze workers working capacity to an exploitative level to maximise surplus generation,” said Syambir, a labour rights activist.