PANAJI
Goa United Workmen Union President Olencio Simoes while greeting all labour/employee class in Goa on May Day warned the Central Minister of Labour and Employment Santosh Kumar Gangwar for any plans of amending the Factories Act, 1948 and increasing the existing 8-hour working day to 12 hours.
"Such amendment will be in contravention of International Labour Organization (ILO) convention no 1, which adopted International Labour Standard – the Hours of Work (Industry) Convention, 1919 (No 1) of an 8-hours per day or a 48-hours week as the standard which is followed by every country in the world," stated GUWU in a press note.
General Secretary of Goa United Workmen Union Arun Galve stated that if the working hours have been increased from 8 hours to 12 hours then the normal 48-hour work a week would be hiked to 72 hours a week that will lead to retrenchments of workers. We appeal to the state government to object and take all trade unions into confidence before any amendments in law which will further add to the misery of overexploited industrial workers especially those who are working in the hazardous sector.
