Maharashtra plans to let employees avail paid holiday after 90 working days

MUMBAI: In a move that would benefit public as well as private sector employees in Maharashtra, the state government is planning to bring down to 90 the number of working days to avail paid holiday from the present 240 days.

"An amendment would be made in the Factories Act, 1948, to reduce the number of working days to 90 for employees to avail paid holiday," an official in the Labour department said.

The government has already decided to clear the decks for women employees to work in night shifts. Currently, under the Factories Act, women are not permitted to work between 7 pm and 6 am.

The official said the Labour department is striving to ease rules and permissions required for easy conduct of business.

Recently, it was decided to amend the Shop and Establishment Act, 1948 and allow shops to stay open seven days a week throughout the year.

"One weekly off will be mandatory to workers. There would be minimum of nine working hours every day for the workers," an official said.

The official said the decision would help in recruitment of more workers and the shop owners will be able to do more business. A Government Resolution (GR) was issued in March this year.

"It has been made mandatory to provide licence for setting up of shops within seven days of receiving application. If that does not happen, the receipt of payment and acknowledgment of application will be considered as licence," the official added.

Similarly, the contract licence will also need to be given in seven days, failing which the payment receipt and acknowledgment of application would be considered as licence.

The Labour department has decided to start self certification cum consolidated annual return scheme for boiler/economisers. Steam-boilers are needed to start machinery in factories. Boilers require yearly inspection, while economisers need inspection after two years.

"Earlier, factories had to apply to the state government for yearly inspection. Now, companies with surface area of more than 1,000 sq meter will have boiler operation engineers, who will carry out self certification in the prescribed format and submit the report to the Labour department," the official said.