Working hours to be limited to 8 hours a day; overtime pay to be twice that of regular salary: Reports

New Delhi: Amidst news reports that the new wage code proposes 12 hours of daily work, government officials have told a business news daily that it is being conetmplated that working hours would instead be limited to 8 hours and any further hour spent post that will be considered as overtime for which the pay will be twice that of regular salary.

As per the new wage rules, any employee working between 15 minutes to 30 minutes time post the regular work hour will be considered as doing a half-hour overtime. i.e, after the end of working hours, if any employee gives more than 15 minutes into the work, he/she will be given 30 minutes of overtime.

According to the news published in The Economic Times, government officials said that it is being considered to keep the daily work hours for 8 hours only. But overtime will start after that. In overtime, the salary will be at least double the daily salary.

According to the news published in the newspaper, this explanation has come amidst fear that a lot of confusion has prevailed among the common people regarding working hours as per the new wage bill.

It may be recalled that the Rajya Sabha had passed The Code on Wages Bill, 2019 in August last year, while the Lok Sabha did it in July 2019. The Bill will become an Act after Presidential assent.

Among the four Acts being subsumed in The Code on Wages Bill, The Payment of Wages Act, 1936 belongs to pre-independence era and The Minimum Wages Act 1948 is also 71 years old. The Payment of Bonus Act, 1965 and The Equal Remuneration Act, 1976 are also being subsumed in the Code. It will be the first Code to become an Act out of the four Codes: Code on Wages; Industrial Relations; Social Security and Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions which Ministry of Labour and Employment has formulated. Ministry aims to simplify, rationalise and amalgamate various labour laws into four Labour Codes in line with the recommendations of second National Commission on Labour. 

Minister of State (I/C) for Labour and Employment Santosh Kumar Gangwar had said that Code on Wages is a historic bill which will ensure statutory protection for minimum wages and timely payment of wages to approximately 50 crore workers of organized as well as unorganized sector.