Working time
What is the maximum overtime allowed in India?
Overtime is capped by statute, not just priced. Under the Factories Act the total including overtime cannot exceed 60 hours in a week, and quarterly overtime limits — commonly 50 to 75 hours depending on state and sector — apply on top. All overtime must be paid at twice the ordinary rate of wages.
Indian law treats overtime as an exception with two separate controls: a price and a ceiling. The price is section 59 of the Factories Act, 1948 — wages at twice the ordinary rate for work beyond 9 hours in a day or 48 in a week. Most state Shops and Establishments Acts carry an equivalent double-rate rule for offices and IT establishments.
The ceiling is the part employers more often miss. The Factories Act limits total weekly hours including overtime to 60, and state rules add quarterly overtime caps that commonly sit between 50 and 75 hours. Paying the correct double rate does not cure work performed beyond those caps — the contravention is the hours, not the payment.
The Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 preserves both the overtime premium and the principle of a quarterly cap, with the exact figure to be set by rules. Several states have also issued relaxations at various times for particular sectors; these are time-bound notifications rather than permanent changes, so a relaxation relied on in one year may not exist in the next.
Because the caps are cumulative over a quarter, the compliance question is rarely about a single late night. It is about whether anyone is tracking the running total — which is why overtime findings in inspections usually surface as a pattern across months rather than a single incident.
Where this comes from
- §Factories Act, 1948 — section 59 (overtime wages at twice the ordinary rate), section 64/65 (limits including the 60-hour weekly total)
- §State Shops and Establishments Acts and rules — quarterly overtime caps, varies by state
- §Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020
General information, current to August 2026, not legal advice. Labour rules vary by state and the Labour Codes continue to roll out — confirm your position with your compliance advisor before acting.
How Workclave handles this
Workclave computes overtime from actual session records rather than from a monthly guess, so both the pay calculation and the running quarterly total are derived from the same evidence an inspector would ask to see.
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