More pay for 'lobster shift' workers: Too much sacrifice, still no hope from law

Night shifts generally refer to working hours between 7 pm and 6 am.

Night shifts, especially in the information technology (IT) and manufacturing sectors, are a given. Industry trends show that night-shift employees are more or less paid equally to their peers doing the day shift. It's not just about perks.

“We miss our day-to-day interaction with seniors and our colleagues. Despite being responsible for the same job, we feel like backstage performers!” Vipul Saxena, a 25-year- old employee working in a Lucknow-based ITeS company, said.

Night shifts generally refer to working hours between 7 pm to 6 am. During a demand surge, companies need to run the production 24x7. IT, manufacturing and hospitality sectors are classic examples.

Don’t they have rotational shifts?

Though many companies have rotational shifts, some employees, such as Saxena, are assigned to work in night shifts only. It is mainly because of their job role and global timings— IT and EMR support—software developers with clients in foreign nations—among others.

Multiple studies have suggested that employees working on a night shift for a longer time suffer sleep disruption, altered meal timing, stress-related behaviours, etc.

Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a US-based health agency, highlighted that both the National Toxicology Program (NTP) and International Agency for Research on Cancer reports suggest that people who regularly work in night shifts under certain conditions appeared to be at the highest risk of getting cancer.

When Bengaluru-based Anjali Sainik, 32, was told to work the night shift, she faced stiff resistance from family members. Though she gets a handful of perks and services working in the “swing shift”, Sainik says it's too much to sacrifice for just Rs 400-500.

“I miss almost everything crucial to my family life. For instance, when I sleep, my kids go to school. Losing all this for a meagre allowance,” she said.

What does the law say?

Though specific conditions are there to protect the safety and welfare of women during night shifts, including their transport and working conditions, the Shops and Commercial Establishment enactments of various states and the Factories Act, 1948, do not prescribe additional wages for any work during the night, Srinivas BR, Partner, DSK Legal, said.

“The workmen will become entitled to additional wages only if they do overtime work,” he said.

Specific approvals from municipal authorities and factories are required for establishments to operate, post-midnight. Therefore, working during the night is more of an exception than a rule.

Srinivas said there is no restriction on payment of additional incentives for night work.

What are the current trends?

Initially, the provisions for employees working in night shifts moved at a slow pace but Anushkaa Arora, Principal & Founder, ABA Law Office, said IT and manufacturing industries are now offering extra pay.

The night shift allowance can be 10-15 percent of the monthly salary but it is more common in IT and ITES industries, and, to some extent, in manufacturing, according to Sonal Arora, Country Manager of staffing firm Gi Group Holding India.

Four HR leaders of IT and healthcare companies whom Moneycontrol contacted declined commenting on the matter.

However, employees in IT majors such as Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys, Wipro, Tech Mahindra, and Accenture, among others, did say a night shift allowance, ranging from Rs 300-400 a night, was given. However, in not-so-big companies, it is worse.

“A majority of the companies neither pay overtime nor night-shift allowances,” Harpreet Singh Saluja, president of Pune-based labour union, Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate (NITES), said.

To earn some extra money, employees opt for night shifts but Saluja said it has its demerits. “Increased stress levels and higher chances of cardiovascular disease, hypertension, and gastro-intestinal disorders leads to high medical bills, which also affects the family, economically,” he added.

“Since it's not mandated by law to pay a certain amount, Rs 360-420 is what we pay to attract workers for the night shift,” HR manager of a Bengaluru-based IT startup said on the condition of anonymity.

“Also, night shifts are on a need-to-need basis. Paying more is nothing but bad math,” she added.

Any hope in the new labour code?

Private-sector employees are often subjected to extra working hours with no overtime wages. One of the most famous examples is the demonetisation period in India.

“More than 10,000 bank employees had to work beyond their working hours in both private and public sector banking firms, without overtime wages,” Ishanee Sharma, Managing Partner at IS Law Offices, said.

The draft Code on Wages (Central) Rules, 2019, says workers engaged in night shifts should get a full 24-hour weekly offs. The counting for that period will start from the end of the shift, according to Sharma.

On weekly offs for night shift workers, the draft rules say: (a) a holiday for the whole day for the purposes of rule 7 shall, in this case, mean a period of twenty-four consecutive hours beginning from the time when his shift ends; and (b) the following day in such a case shall be deemed to be the period of twenty-four hours beginning from the time when such shift ends, and the hours after midnight during which such employee was engaged in work shall be counted towards the previous day.

Yet Sharma reiterated that this draft does not mention any compensation other than setting a bar.