ILO to come up with India-specific report on working hours

According to an Economic Times report, ILO is reviewing the working hours and work schedules of people in India and will come up with its report on the same by July-August.

ILO has commissioned the study and the report will come out soon, reported ET citing sources. Working hours and work-life-balance is a key aspect while framing labour-related policies, but it is highly neglected during policy formation. This makes it important to highlight the issue for drawing the attention of the government, the anonymous source told ET. The report will also assess overtime and undertime work hours in its report.

As of now, ILO hasn’t come up with an official confirmation about the report. As per the rules under the Code on Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions (OSH&WC), it is proposed to extend daily work hours from 8 to 12 to maintain the weekly count to 48 hours to implement four days working system.

As per the report, ILO will compare the India-specific findings of its analysis of working hours with the working conditions of other south-east Asian countries. After comparison, the report will also give recommendations to improve the work environment in the country.

Maintaining the weekly count of 48 working hours, ILO recommends a daily limit of eight hours of work for six days in a week. The report will analyse the working condition from different aspects ranging from under time and overtime. There will also be a comparison between the actual working hours and the duration preferred by workers.

As per the global report of ILO on work hours, one-third of the global population of workers regularly worked for more than 48 hours in a week, whereas, another one-fifth of the total workers’ population worked for less than 35 hours per week.

The global report stressed the drawbacks of long working hours, which are not only detrimental to health and personal life but are also known of reducing efficiency. The global report also recommended the need for flexible working hours and reduced hours of work to improve work-life balance.