Workmen working more than 50 hours monthly - How we can show the OT in a paysheet to avoid legal issues?

Dear All,
Thank you so much for your valuable replies given. As a professional I too know doing more Overtime will leads to more problems. But, Management is the ultimate decision maker. After suggesting higher OT will leads to problems, still if they simply ignores what an HR can do?
Thank you Mr. Vinayak Nagarkar for your valuable suggestion.
Regards
Hanuma.....

Dear Hanuma,
It is time the HR not only in your company and elsewhere too start asserting. Labor is the smallest and weakest among the various factors of production. HRM has to focus on HR Development. It is the physical and mental well being of employees in the long run that one has to focus. Hence stop such exploitation by insisting on engaging additional labor and also ensure that OT is not avoided with Compensatory off (called comp off) due to long misuse. OT also has to be paid as per law and not on per hour basis fixed arbitrarily. I would always advocate returning back to following labor laws in the true spirit to do justice to labor to whom the support of trade unions has weakened.

In most small companies workers work in 12 hour shifts only, even though this is not allowed. Many industries work 24 hours and hence there is no option other than 2 12-hour shifts or 3 8-hour shifts. Now small companies don't want hassle of more manpower because of stringent labor laws and many times good manpower is also not available. Secondly they cannot pay workers too high for 8 hour shifts and then have 3 shifts. This increases costs a lot. Workers too are not able to manage their households in the salary they would get in 8 hours so they work for more hours. Hence the situation persists I believe. We may brush off such practices as being illegal but everyone knows these practices are prevalent in most small companies. It is the norm rather than an exception and is sort of a win-win both for the companies and the workers. Only very large corporate companies can really function with following all the laid down rules.

To be legally compliant you have to follow a balanced outlook

Please note that OT rates are double as :Under Sec. 59 it is mentioned that where a worker works in a factory for more than 9 hours in any day or for more than 48 hours in any week, he/she shall, in respect of overtime work, be entitled to receive wages at the rate of twice his/her ordinary rate of wages.

Thus if you are having 100 employees you are paying approx Rs 1,27,800 per day including overtime on a Central Min wage of Unskilled daily wage of Rs.639.

Thus the hourly daily wage is Rs 80 and hence the OT rates will be Rs 160.

Therefore for daily wage for Unskilled will be Rs 1278 (for 4 hours OT in addition to 8 hrs normal working day)

Thus it would be ideal to introduce SHIFTS of 8 hours in your establishment with 50% employees coming in 2-3 hours early from the next shift.

In addition if you feel that you need full strength for a given shift you can recruit more employees for the shift in proportion and still pay the same daily wage for all employees to the extent that you will be paying overtime.

The greatest benefit will be more productivity and employment for many.

Please seniors correct me if I am wrong

If it is a one time occurrence you can show it as OT and explain the reasons to the inspector. If it is a recurring one excess OT hours should be stopped forthwith.There should be no manipulation of records
V.Aswath Hari
Advocate and HR consultant

The OT rules is governed by the Shops and Establishment of the respective state where your employee are working. Please let us know the state where your employees are working so that we can advice on it.

Different state rules are having different OT rules.

The issue of over time has relevance to extra working hours under certain crucial circumstances.This can be read and understood by combined reading of shops and estd. act and section 59, , 64 and 65 of factories act.
It concludes that implementation of OT itself needs prior permission from concerned authorities beyond the stipulated work hrs and under certain exigencies.