A recent ordinance by the Gujarat government, issued on July 1st, has amended the Factories Act of 1948, increasing the daily working hours for industrial laborers to 12 hours. This swift action, taken without even waiting for the Legislative Assembly to convene, suggests an urgent need perceived by the government. However, this move directly contravenes a global standard established through centuries of struggle by workers worldwide.
The principle that workers should not labor more than eight hours a day and 48 hours over six days a week in factories is enshrined in laws across the globe. This isn't a gesture of state generosity or benevolence. Rather, it's the hard-won outcome of widespread movements and protests against the horrific exploitation of laborers by capitalists.
The demand for an eight-hour workday in industries first emerged in the 19th century. The movement advocating for this began at the dawn of that same century. During the Industrial Revolution, which started in England in the 18th century, workers faced brutal exploitation. It was then that the demand for an eight-hour workday arose, driven by the reality that laborers, including children as young as nine, were toiling for approximately 10-16 hours daily in factories.
Robert Owen (1771-1858), a social reformer, thinker, and pioneer of the cooperative movement in England, was among the first to advocate for limiting factory work. In 1910, he demanded that workers should not be made to work more than ten hours. Later, in 1917, he famously coined the phrase: "Eight hours labor, eight hours recreation, eight hours rest". This became a rallying cry, leading to global movements that affirmed eight hours of labor as sufficient for a person to earn a living. This also implied that an eight-hour workday should enable a worker to earn enough to live well during their remaining daily hours and throughout their life.
The acceptance of reasonable working hours in factories led to England's first law on working hours in 1833. This law set different working hours for children of various ages: prohibiting work for children under nine, limiting those aged nine to thirteen to eight hours daily and 48 hours weekly, and those aged thirteen to eighteen to 12 hours daily.
The struggle of laborers continued long after this law. Eventually, a ten-hour workday law was enacted in 1847, followed by an eight-hour workday law in 1902. This demonstrates that the eight-hour workday in industries was achieved through immense effort and sustained movements.
In 1866, the International Workingmen's Association, at a conference in Geneva, explicitly demanded an eight-hour workday. They declared that "the legal limitation of the working day is a preliminary condition. Without it, all attempts at improvement and emancipation of the working class must prove abortive". Karl Marx, in his renowned 1867 work 'Das Kapital,' also emphasized the destructive nature of extending the workday, stating that it "not only squanders human labor power by robbing it of the normal moral and physical conditions of its development and activity, but also prematurely exhausts the worker and leads to the premature death of labor power itself". This fundamental idea was crucial in establishing limits on daily and weekly working hours to prevent unbridled exploitation by capitalists.
Despite these efforts, progress towards an eight-hour workday before World War I (1914-18) was slow. During the war, even longer hours were deemed essential for the war effort. However, Uruguay, a small South American nation, was an exception, enacting an eight-hour workday law in 1915.
It became understood that working more than eight hours for monetary gain constituted market-driven exploitation of human beings. This understanding gradually led to the acceptance of an eight-hour workday in factories. This acceptance, however, took approximately 100 years, from Robert Owen's initial idea in 1917 to the law's enactment in England in 1902.
In England, often considered the cradle of the Industrial Revolution, some factories subjected workers to as many as 18 hours of labor daily. Strikes by laborers, such as those at Beckton in London, eventually reduced these exorbitant hours to eight. The success in achieving an eight-hour workday was largely due to worker strikes and collective bargaining by labor unions. Inspired by the 'Chartist Movement' of the 1830s and 1840s in England, workers themselves campaigned for limited working hours. Similar movements spread across Europe in the 19th century, forcing governments to enact laws for an eight-hour workday.
In India, the Factories Act was first drafted in 1911, then in 1926, and finally after independence in 1948. The 1948 act stipulated an eight-hour workday and a 48-hour work week in factories. Now, the Gujarat government has altered this. Previously, workers could not be made to work more than nine hours daily or 48 hours weekly. The new ordinance allows for 12 hours of work per day while maintaining the 48-hour weekly limit.
This change is particularly concerning given that a five-day work week with an eight-hour workday, resulting in a 40-hour week, has been a global trend for a long time. In India, too, many government offices and large private companies observe weekends off, or at least have holidays on all Sundays and the second and fourth Saturdays. This raises a critical question: why has the Gujarat government chosen to reverse course and amend the Factories Act to allow for a 12-hour workday? This is indeed a matter that requires deep consideration.
---
*Senior economist based in Ahmedabad
Comments