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* The Factories (Second Amendment) Bill @ Holidays with Pay for Factory Workers
The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar (Labour Member): Sir, I move:
“That the bill further to amend the Factories Act, 1934, (Second Amendment) be referred to a select Committee consisting of Nawab siddique Ali Khan, Khan Bahadur Shaikh Fazl-i-Haq Piracha, Mr. R. R. Gupta, Mr. A. C. Inskip, Sir Vithal N. Chandavarkar, Rao Bahadur, N. Siva Raj, Mr. N. M. Joshi, Mr. D. S. Joshi and the Mover and that the number of members whose presence shall be necessary to constitute a meeting of the Committee shall be five.”
The provisions of the Bill fall into two parts and I think it will be desirable from the point of view of simplicity in the matter of presentation if I explained to the House the provisions of the Bill in two separate forms.
Part I of the Bill deals with compensatory holidays for the loss of compulsory holidays. Members will realise that in section 35 of the Factories Act it is obligatory upon the owner or manager of the factory to give one compulsory holiday to every adult worker in the factory. This provision which is contained in section 35 is subject to the provisions contained in sections
43 and 44. Section 43 and 44 provide that the Inspector of factories may permit exemptions being granted to the manager of the factory or factory owner from the obligations imposed by section 35. The view that is taken is this that when such exemptions should be granted, they ought to be compensated by other holidays, equivalent in number. Health and efficiency of the worker requires that he should have the requisite number of holidays which are prescribed by law. The Act, as it stands, makes no such provisions for compensatory holidays. Consequently, clause 2 of the Bill has been introduced for the purpose of removing this lacuna. It will now be open for the Provincial Governments to make rules subject to certain
*Legislative Assembly Debates (Central), Vol. IV, 1st Nov. 1944, pp. 89-91.
@ Titles for paragraphs are taken from the Indian Information, 15th November
1944, pp. 600-01.