The Factories Act, 1934
The Factories Act, 1934 was enacted on 1st day of January 1935 to amend and consolidate the laws related to regulation of the labor working in the factories across Pakistan. This Act was later amended in 2012, known as Factories (Amendment) Act, 2012. Under the Factories Act 1934 the word Factory means any premises, including the precincts thereof, wherein ten or more workers are working, or were working on any day of the preceding twelve months, and in any part of which a manufacturing process is being carried on, or is ordinarily carried on with or without the aid of power, but does not include a mine, subject to the operation of the Mines Act, 1923 (IV of 1923). Under the Factories Act, 1934 the term Worker means a person employed directly or through an agency whether for wages or not, in any manufacturing process or in cleaning any part of the machinery or premises used for a manufacturing process or in any other kind of work whatsoever incidental to or connected with the subject of the manufacturing process, but does not include any person solely employed in a clerical capacity in any room or place where no manufacturing process is being carried on. The Act prescribes working hours for workmen. The daily and weekly working hours of an adult workman are limited to nine hours and forty-eight hours respectively. The working hours are extendable to ten hours a day and fifty hours a week in case of a seasonal factory. The Act also prescribes minimum working, health, and safety conditions like keeping the factory clean and free from effluvia arising from any drain, privy or other nuisance, effective arrangements in factory for the disposal of waste and effluents, adequate ventilation, and reasonable temperature for factories. Under the Factories Act, 1934 the workers are provided with a hygiene card in which entries shall be recorded after examination by the appointed factory doctor to the effect that the worker is not suffering from any contagious or infectious disease. Additionally, the Act has prohibited the employment of children with the age of less than fourteen. No worker shall be allowed to work in a factory unless he has been granted a certificate of fitness from a certifying surgeon.
