FACTORIES (AMENDMENT) BILL 371
The second argument which I have against this amendment arises from a direct consideration of the matter. If I have understood my Honourable friend correctly, the sort of way in which he employs his labour could, I think, be described in a simple manner in some such fashion : he has as a matter of fact two corps of labour under him, which for purposes of explanation may be called ‘A’ corps and ‘B’ corps358 ! and the way he would like to employ them would be somewhat in this fashion : ‘A’ corps would start work at 8 a.m. and work till 4 O’ clock in the afternoon. At 4 p.m. ‘B’ corps would be discharged and ‘A’ corps would again come in and work till 8 p.m. At 8 p.m. ‘A’ corps will be discharged and ‘B’ corps will be brought in for work and would work till 12 midnight. That, if I understood him correctly, would be the method by which he would work his labour.....
Sri T.A. Ramalingam Chettiar : Quite right.
The Honourable Dr. B.R. Ambedkar : Now, it seems to me that this arrangement is fundamentally opposed to the principle of spreadover. What is the principle of spreadover ? It is this, that as far as possible no worker should be required to stay on the factory premises for any period longer than is necessary for the full employment of the maximum hours prescribed by law. In this Bill we arc providing that the maximum hours per day should be 9. If the amendment was accepted, the worker would have to be kept on the premises, for three hours more, which I submit is not in consonance with the general principle of spreadover. A factory, if I may say so, is not a garden and certainly today has not got all the amenities which a factory ought to have ; and it is very desirable that an employee should be allowed to quit the factory as soon as he possibly can get back to his home, breathe free air, and enjoy such amenities as he can and make the best use of the leisure that the law gives him. For these reasons, I think this amendment is not a good amendment and I am therefore not prepared to accept it..
- The Honourable Dr. B.R. Ambedkar : I do not think I need say anything at this stage except to express my gratitude to the House and to the Members of the Select Committee who have so greatly
*Legislative Assembly Debates (Central), Vol. V. No. 4, 4th April 1946, p. 3540.