PANJIM: The State cabinet on Wednesday approved the Factories (Goa Amendment Bill) which permits women to work on night shifts in factories and industries. The Bill will now be placed before the forthcoming session of the Goa Legislative Assembly.
After the clearance, the Bill permits factories and manufacturing units to employ women on night shifts between 7pm and 6am.
It seeks to amend Section 66 of the Act, so as to empower the government to specify conditions for ensuring the safety of women who work in any factory or any manufacturing process between the hours of 7pm and 6am.
The Bill placed before the cabinet also seeks to increase the working hours from 50 to 72 per week. Also, what is pertinent is that overtime begins only after 75 working hours and goes up to 125 hours.
“The Bill also seeks to amend Section 65 of the Goa Factories (Amendment) Act 2014, so as to empower the Chief Inspector to exempt, on such terms and conditions as specified in the rules, any or all of the adult male works in any factory or group or class or descriptions of factories from the provisions of the sections 51, 52, 54, and 56 of the said act to deal with the exception press of work, and also to enhance the total work hours of work per week from 60 to 72 hours and the total hours of overtime in any quarter from 75 to 125.
The Bill also seeks to insert a new Section 92A in the Act, so as to compound certain offences before or after the institution of prosecution, the note before Cabinet said.
The amendment of Section 105 will empower chief inspector to file a complaint under the Act before the court. The Bill also seeks to amend Section 106 of the said Act, so as to enhance the time allowed for making complaints from three months to six months and also seeks to insert fourth schedule to the act specifying therein the compoundable offences.
