factory act

• Factory Act is a central legislation which came into existence in 1881
• Factory Act


  • Regulates the working conditions of the workers
  • Lays down various provisions related to health, safety, working conditions, hazardous processes of the workers
  • Provides procedures for penalties in case of any contravention of provisions
• The Factory Act was extensively amended

  1948
• Factory Act 1948


  More comprehensive than the previous act, focuses mainly on health, safety, welfare of the workers inside factories, working hours, minimum age to work, leave with pay etc.
• The Factory Act 1948 is based on the provisions provided under Factory Act of Great Britain passed in the year 1937
• Industry


  A steady and systematic activity in which trade is organized
• Factory


  The place where such industrial activities are carried on
• The entire day to day activity taking place in the factory is governed by the Factory Act 1948
• The Factory Act 1948 extends to the whole of India including Jammu & Kashmir
• The Bhopal Gas Tragedy in 1984 has made the people aware of the pollution and hazards of factories and therefore necessitated the government to take timely steps facilitating amendments in the act
• Factory Act


  Applied to all factories employing 10 persons or more when it uses power and 20 persons when no power is used
• Main provisions of the Factory Act 1948

  • Safety, guarding of machines
  • Health and cleanliness
  • Drinking water, washing and latrine facilities
  • Lunch rooms and rest rooms
  • Sitting arrangements
  • First aid and dispensary facilities in factories employing more than 500 workmen
  • Creches where more than 50 women are employed
  • Welfare officer where more than 500 workmen are employed
  • Spittoons
  • Holidays with wages at the rate of one day for every 20 days worked
  • Weekly hours 48 for adults and 27 for younger persons
  • Regulations regarding young persons
  • Rate of payment for overtime work
  • Rest for half an hour after maximum of 5 hours of work
  • Number of hours of work
  • Weekly holiday
• Since there are many changes and developments related to safety and health, the need for effective implementations of various provisions duly amended have been felt
• The ILO conventions have also necessitated the means for amendments in the Factory act
• In order to study the administration, enforcement and implementation of Factory Act, several Labour and employment statistics are collected by the central and state government and disseminated by the labour bureau
• With the help of these statistics, we can analyze the current scenario of the implementation of the Factory Act, the employment position, the women workers employment with respect to their male counterparts, the hazardous processes, the number of fatal accidents, and the inspection being carried out along with prosecution and penalty and the safety measures undertaken
• The history of Factory Act is more than 100 years old
• As the process of modern industrialization came to India almost a century after its beginning in Great Britain, the beginnings of factory legislation had to wait for the same period of time
• The first cotton textile factory was set up at Bombay as early as 1854
• By 1881 there were 5000 power looms at work in Bengal
• This brought factories evils such as employment of women & children at tender age, excessive hours of work & hazardous & insanitary working conditions
• Great need for protective labour legislations to fight the conditions of workers (specially women & children) was felt as early as 1850, but nothing was done by British Government
• The industrial revolution that took place between 1760 and 1820 in England changed the techniques of production
• With the industrial revolution, capital became an important factor of production with the technological advances; the employment in factories rose up tremendously
• Two distinct classes emerged namely the capitalist class and the working class
• The workers were largely untrained, uneducated, and unorganized and the capitalists of 'hard grind' nature exploited the workers and paid lower wages, working conditions remained unhygienic. There was a total lack of welfare measures
• Thus protective labour legislations was embodied in Factory Act 1881
• The Act of 1881 was inadequate
• Narayan Meghaji Lokhandey, a disciple of Mahatma Jyotiba Phule, emerged as the first labour leader in India
• The Factory Commission was appointed by the Government of India in 1890
• An act was passed in 1891 on the basis of the recommendation of this commission, whereby the definition of Factory was amended to include premises in which fifty persons or more were employed
• The Factory act was amended from time to time
• The First World War and the Russian Revolution of 1917 affected the labour movement
• International Labour Organization (ILO) was set up in 1919
• Factory (as per Factories Act, 1948)


  Any premises including the precincts thereof (i) whereon ten or more workers are working, or were working on any day of the preceding twelve months, and in any part of which a manufacturing process is being carried on with the aid of power, or is ordinarily so carried on, or (ii) whereon twenty or more workers are working, or were working on any day of the preceding twelve months, and in any part of which a manufacturing process is being carried on without the aid of power, or is ordinarily so carried on
• Manufacturing Process (as per Factories Act, 1948)


  Any process for (i) making, altering, repairing, ornamenting, finishing, packing, oiling, washing, cleaning, breaking up, demolishing, or otherwise treating or adapting any article or substance with a view to its use, sale, transport, delivery or disposal, (ii) pumping oil, water, sewage or any other substance, (iii) generating, transforming or transmitting power, (iv) composing types for printing, printing by letter press, lithography, photogravure or other similar process or book binding, (v) constructing, reconstructing, repairing, refitting, finishing or breaking up ships or vessels, (vi) preserving or storing any article in cold storage
• Worker (as per Factories Act, 1948)


  A person employed (directly or by or through any agency including a contractor), with or without the knowledge of the principal employer, whether for remuneration or not in any manufacturing process or in cleaning any part of the machinery or premises used for a manufacturing process or in any other kind of work incidental to or connected with the manufacturing process or the subject of the manufacturing process
• Occupier (as per Factories Act, 1948)


  The person who has ultimate control over the affairs of the factory
• Provisions regarding health in Chapter III of Factories Act, 1948


  • Cleanliness
  • Disposal of Wastes & Effluents
  • Ventilations & Temperature
  • Dust & Fumes
  • Artificial Humidification
  • Overcrowding
  • Lighting
  • Drinking Water
  • Latrines & Urinals
  • Spittoons
• Cleanliness (as per Factories Act, 1948)


  Accumulation of dirt shall be removed daily, the floor of every workroom shall be cleaned at least once in a week, all inside walls, partitions, ceilings must be repainted or varnished once in every five years, all doors and windows frames other wooden or metallic framework and shutters shall be kept painted or varnished