Prakash Kumar advised workers in his factory to work on all Sundays in a month by compensating the weekly holiday on Wednesdays. Veena, a worker without availing the weekly holidays, claimed double of the wages for worki

Section 52 of the Factories Act, 1948 provides that there shall be holiday for the whole day in every week and such weekly holiday shall be on the first day of the week. However, such holiday may be substituted for any one of the three days immediately before or after the first day of the week provided the manager of the factory has: delivered a notice at the office of the Inspector; and displayed a notice in the factory to this effect. The effect of all this is that subject to above said conditions (i) and (ii) there shall be a holiday during ten days. In other words, no adult worker shall work for more than ten days consecutively without a holiday for the whole day. Compensatory Holidays: Section 53 provides that where, as a result of the passing of an order of the making of a rule under the provisions of this Act exempting a factory or the workers therein from the provisions of section 52, a worker is deprived of any of the weekly holidays for which provision is made in that section, he shall be allowed, within the month in which the holidays were due to him or within the two months immediately following that month, compensatory holidays of equal number to the holidays so lost. Extra wages for overtime: Further, Section 59 provides that where a worker works in a factory for more than nine hours in any day or for more than forty-eight hours in any week, he shall, in respect of overtime work, be entitled to wages at the rate of twice his ordinary rate of wages. The ordinary rate of wages here means the basic wages plus such allowances, including the cash equivalent of the advantage accruing through the concessional sale to workers of food grains and other articles, as the worker is for the time being entitled to, but does not include a bonus and wages for overtime work. Thus, in terms of section 52 of Factories Act, 1948, Veena should not be allowed to work for more than 10 days consecutively without a holiday for the whole day. Further, in terms of section 59 where she has worked for all the day in a month, she should be given the extra wages for the overtime.