The MK Stalin administration in Tamil Nadu has on Friday - April 21 courted a big controversy as for the first time since DMK formed the government in the state, the party's close allies have come down hard on the Stalin administration and walked out of the Assembly after it passed a contentious Bill of overhauling the daily working hours for factory workers. 

The DMK government's Bill has extended the daily working hours from 8 to 12 - the factor that was strongly opposed by MK Stalin when he was the Opposition leader. Now, as his government passed the amendment that he opposed, the ruling party has sparked a public outcry with a scathing attack from the allied parties including the Congress and the Communists. 

On Friday, the Tamil Nadu Assembly passed a Bill amending the Factories Act, 1948, extending the daily working hours for factory workers from 8 to 12. The Factories (Tamil Nadu Amendment) Bill, 2023 was tabled on April 12 and it has now been passed with a clear majority. The Bill was tabled by Minister for Labour Welfare and Skill Development CV Ganesan and said that the decision to amend the Act was taken after representations from multiple industries and associations. 

The government cited that the representations were made to bring out working hour reforms, by making a statutory provision for flexible working hours, citing the number of benefits it could bring to workers, especially women employees, the industry and the economy as a whole. Section 65A of the Factories Act has been invoked in the amendment. 

It has been reported that Section 65A enables the state government to exempt any factory or group of factories from Sections 51- weekly hours, 52 - weekly holidays, 54- daily hours, 55 - intervals for rest, 56- spread over, and 59 - prohibition of overlapping shifts of the Factories Act. If 12-hour shifts are followed by the factories, they can also follow a four-day work week. 

However, if certain factories are exempted, the employers of these factories shouldn't have to follow these amendments. Notably, MK Stalin played a vocal critic against the extension of working hours from 8 to 12 three years ago. In 2020, while he was the Opposition leader, he wrote a letter to the Union government in which he said that the working hours shouldn't be increased from 8 to 12. 

During the Bill was debated in the Assembly on Friday, the allied parties of DMK including Congress, VCK, MDMK, MMK, and CPI (M) opposed the Bill and walked out of the Assembly. It is the first time that the allied parties of DMK walked out of the Assembly since MK Stalin came to power. The oppositions slammed the government by stating that Tamil Nadu is the only non-BJP ruling state that has proposed such an amendment and claimed that it is unfair that the Bill was passed without any debate. 

However, on the other hand, Tamil Nadu Industries Minister Thangam Thennarasu came to the defence of the government and gave an assurance that the Bill would be introduced without affecting the workers. By citing that the Bill will not include the ambit of all the sectors, the minister said, "Only the industries that fit the Bill will adopt the 12-hour shift. Employees currently have to work only 48 hours a week, and there won't be any change in this and no one can be forced to do a 12-hour shift." He further said that the Bill will increase the flexibility in work and encourage women to join the workforce.