THE FACTORIES (SECOND AMENDMENT) BILL 207
of broken holidays earned by different employees in different factories arising out of broken periods of service in different factories. And this is the reason why it has not been possible to make the thing applicable to industry as a whole.
The second point which Mr. Joshi made was the complaint that the holiday period provided in the Act is too short. I also admit that there is considerable force in that 7 days is in fact too short a holiday but there again I am confronted with another difficulty, which difficulty is a difficulty which I am sure both Mr. Joshi as well as Sir Vithal Chandavarkar have to admit. The difficulty arises on account of the desultory character of our labour. Labour, as Mr. Joshi and Sir Vithal Chandavarkar both know, take long holidays for a variety of reasons and consequently the absenteeism which is prevalent on account of this habit does really complicate the matter very much. If our labour was induced or was trained to give continuous service in a factory for a large number of days than they have been doing now, I should be quite prepared to admit that the case for extension of the holiday beyond the period that we have fixed would undoubtedly be very strong but I hope that the fact that we have given seven days holiday would have its indirect effect on the labouring and working classes of this country who will realise that if they did render more continuous service than they have been doing, they would be making strong the case for the extension of the holiday beyond the period of seven days but as the situation stands, I think it would not be justifiable to go beyond the prescribed period of seven days which, if I may say so, is also the period which was recommended by the Convention.
Then, Sir, another point that was made with regard to the same question was with relation to the application of the Act to non-perennial factories, a point that was made by my Honourable friend Prof. Ranga on the other side. To that point also my reply is the same, namely, that the provision for 7 days paid holiday is made to those workmen who are not getting a sufficiently long rest, if I may use that phrase. Now, a non-perennial factory is a factory where people do get long period of rest. It may be that it is a case of involuntary employment, but I am not looking at it from the point of view of employment or unemployment. So far as the Bill is concerned, we are looking at it from the point of view of rest and so far as the non-perennial factories