The Economic Survey, a report tabled by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherji on the eve of presenting the budget in July, had many outright anti-worker proposals. One such proposal was that the government must amend the Factories Act to legalise a 60 hour working week and a 12 hour working day.  The Factories Act, 1948, which is currently in operation, stipulates 48 hours as the maximum length of the working week, and 9 hours as maximum length of a single working day.

The global recession and industrial slowdown in India has resulted in massive closures and layoffs in many sectors. Tens of lakhs of workers have lost their jobs in the past year, even by official count. The bourgeoisie is using the conditions of recession and slowdown to justify the intensification of exploitation of the work force in all sectors of the economy. Legalising a 60 hour working week is part of this offensive of the bourgeoisie against the living standards and basic rights of the working class.

Profit for the capitalist comes from the surplus value or unpaid labour that is extracted from the worker. There is a constant struggle between the workers and the capitalist over the degree of extraction of this surplus. In each working day, the worker works during a certain part of the day to produce what pays his wages, and in the remaining part he is producing surplus value for the capitalist to pocket. The capitalist strives to increase the rate of surplus value, the proportion of unpaid to paid labour. One of the most effective ways for the capitalist to achieve this is by increasing the length of the working day.

The worker naturally resists all attempts to extend hours of work, as it means less time to spend with one's own family and friends, less time for rest and leisure, for entertainment, etc.  From the standpoint of the workers, the struggle to shorten the working day is one of the major arenas of struggle for defending and improving their living standards.

The Factories Act of 1948 was the result of many long years of struggle of the Indian working class, led by those employed in large-scale manufacturing.  According to the Factories Act, workers can only be asked to work a maximum of two hours extra as overtime per day, and they have to be paid double for the overtime period. In other words, if they work 2 hours overtime a day, they must be paid additional wages for 4 hours work.

After enacting this Act in 1948, the bourgeoisie has found numerous ways to violate its provisions so as to super-exploit the workers.  One of the main ways is by excluding large number of workers from the coverage of the Factories Act altogether.

The Factories Act covers all registered manufacturing enterprises in the country. Organised sector in manufacturing is surveyed by the ASI. This pertains to manufacturing units registered under the Factories Act 1948. According to the ASI survey for the period 1999-2000, conducted in 2000-2001, there were 1.27 lakh manufacturing units in the organized sector, employing 6.2 million workers. (The ASI Survey excludes workers in railway workshops, electricity production, as well as some other sectors!)

Latest data on unregistered enterprises in manufacturing has been released in February 2008  by the 62nd round of National Sample Survey Organisation, covering all manufacturing units that employ at least 20 workers. According to the NSSO data, there are about 7.2 lakh unregistered units employing over 20 workers each. Of these, 2.7 lakh unregistered units employed over 50 workers each, while 4.5 lakh unregistered units employed between 20 and 49 workers. It can be estimated that there were a minimum of 22.5 million workers employed in these unregistered manufacturing units  All these workers do not have the legal protection provided in the Factories Act. All these excluded workers are already being made to work for much longer than 48 hours a week; many of them are already working over 60 hours. At the same time, some of them constantly strive to organise themselves and force their employer to register and bring them under the purview of the Factories Act. They strive to reach the standard of those in large-scale industry who have access to legal protection against being made to work long hours.

The bourgeoisie would like to raise the degree of exploitation of the entire working class to that prevailing in the most exploited section. This is the aim behind legalising a 60 hour working week.  It means to set a new standard that is more favourable to the capitalist class and less favourable to the working class.  One of its immediate implications will be that the capitalists in large-scale industry can stop paying overtime rates to those being made to work longer than 48 hours a week.

The working class cannot and must not accept legalisation of longer working hours under any pretext. When the length of the working day increases, it means more exploitation of labour and higher profits for the capitalists. It means that workers, as a class, will be performing more unpaid labour, to fill the pockets of the capitalists. On the other hand, if the length of the working day is reduced, then the degree of exploitation will reduce. This is to the benefit of the working class.

The situation demands that the most organised section of the working class must take the lead in vigorously resisting any attack on the length of the working day.  And most importantly, the most organised section must fight to ensure that the crores of workers who are currently excluded because of being unregistered must also come under the purview of the Factories Act. It has become essential to raise the banner of universal extension of coverage of laws protecting labour rights, to ensure that all workers can make use of them to defend their rights.

Fight for universal coverage of Factories Act, to limit the working week to 48 hours for all!