Working 12 hours a day, daily for 5 weeks. What right do i have?

Every State has got its own shops & establishment Act governing the service conditions of the employees working therewith. Even the Factories Act also stipulated the working hours which are almost equal to the provisions of the shops & establishment Act.

We will quote Section 8 of the Delhi Shops & Establishment Act, which is self explanatory regarind number of working hours a person can be asked to work in a day and in a week. This Act also provides that if the employer needs more than those working hours from the workers, he has to pay the overtime wages beyond the stipulated hours at double rate. If workers are asked to work on weekly offs, then also, the wages shall be double of the original wages.

All the employees working together and suffering must file a collective complaint to the Labour Inspector of your Area and he will inspect the premises and prevail upon the management to follow the laws of the land and for the payment of past dues, he will advise you to file recovery application before the Authority under the Shops & Establishment Act, which normally will be Deputy Labor Commissioner of the area.

THE DELHI SHOPS & ESTABLISHMENT ACT, 1954

8. Employment of Adults, hours of work

No adult shall be employed or allowed to work about the business of an establishment for more than nine hours on any day or 48 hours in any week and the occupier shall fix the daily periods of work accordingly: Provided that during any period of stock taking or making of accounts or any other purpose as may be prescribed, any adult employee may be allowed or required to work for more than the hours fixed in this section, but not exceeding 54 hours in any week subject to the conditions that the aggregate hours so worked shall not exceed 150 hours in a year:

Provided further that advance intimation of at least three days in this respect has been given in the prescribed manner to the Chief Inspector and that any person employed on overtime shall be entitled to remuneration for such overtime work at twice the rate of his normal remuneration calculated by the hour.

Explanation.- For the purpose of calculating the normal hourly wage the day shall be reckoned as consisting of eight hours.

Hope this clarifies your stand and rights.