With the ever-increasing competition in the world of work, one question that remains largely unanswered is: what should be the maximum working hours?

There are different views on whether output at a workplace should be measured in terms of hours put into work or targets achieved by individuals regardless of the time involved.

There is a possibility that an employee working for four hours a day is more productive for a company than another person who spends eight to ten hours at the same place. At the same time, the productivity of an employee can be directly proportional to the number of hours he puts into work. It’s the nature of work involved that determines what policy best suits in each case.

All over the world one finds an eight-hour work day formula is the most commonly followed one. After the Industrial Revolution, factory owners tried to maximise the output by running the factories round the clock. In order to meet the revised targets, people had to work more and a 16-hour day for workers was a common thing.

It was around this time that a Britisher, Robert Owen, one of the founders of utopian socialism, started a campaign to put a limit of eight hours on work. His slogan was, "Eight hours labour, eight hours recreation, eight hours rest."

Ford Motors was the first company to follow this policy. According to the website Inc.com, "In the early 1900s, it ran dozens of tests to discover the optimum work hours for workers’ productivity. They discovered that the "sweet spot" is 40 hours a week and that, while adding another 20 hours provides a minor increase in productivity, that increase only lasts for three to four weeks, and then turns negative."

In Pakistan, there are different sets of laws that define working hours for workers in factories, mines, road transport sector, railways, and so on. As per these laws, it is binding on the administrations of these entities to paste details about working hours and other service rules at prominent places. Compliance with these laws is definitely a challenge as labour inspection mechanisms in the country are not effective.

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On the significance of fixed working hours, Shaukat Ali Chaudhry, Deputy General Secretary Pakistan Workers Confederation (PWC), Punjab, says working hours are important but productivity also depends on many other factors. For example, he says, "the working environment available to the worker and the condition in which he reaches his workplace has a lot to do with his performance."

He says if a person is fresh and his manager supportive, he can concentrate and give better output in the first three hours or so. "After that the energy level starts coming down but the good work done at the start of the day compensates for the reduced productivity later. For this reason, countries in Europe have focused on quality transport for workers to take them to work from home and back."

Another major factor that determines the productivity level of workers, even more than the number of hours put into work, is the ability of their supervisors to get the best out of them. "This is the real task of the human resource managers but, unfortunately, they hardly focus on it," says Arshad Bajwa, a LUMS and UET graduate employed in the fertilizer sector.

"The real problem with most bosses and managers in Pakistan is that they do not identify the real potential of their employees and make them rot in same departments for their whole lives. Quite often, people land into jobs that they do not enjoy much and it is quite possible to infuse energy in them by slightly changing their TORs," says Bajwa.

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He says there are many examples of people who have joined accounts or administration departments, for example, but later on made their mark in marketing. "So, success or productivity lies not in long working hours but in realising and exploiting the real potential of a person," he concludes.

Coming to the labour laws in place, the Factories Act, 1934 says "no adult employee, defined as a worker who has completed his or her 18th year of age, can be required or permitted to work in any establishment in excess of nine hours a day and 48 hours a week. It further provides that no worker should be required to work continuously for more than six hours, unless he or she has had an interval for rest or meals of at least one hour."

In the transport sector, no worker is employed on a vehicle for more than eight hours per day and 48 hours per week. He or she must be given rest for half an hour after the first five hours. If he or she is working for seven hours continuously, they must have two such intervals. Every worker is entitled to at least twenty-four hours of consecutive rest a week.

There are separate rules for newspaper workers, mine workers, employees of autonomous bodies, such as Pakistan Railways, etc. Then the government employees have their own service rules that are implemented by the state.

There may be situations where no labour laws apply. In such cases, it depends on the discretion of the employer or bargaining between employer and workers. But if the case goes to the labour court, the court will decide what is just and fair for both.

Khalid Mahmood, Director, Labour Education Foundation (LEF) urges for implementation of labour laws, instead of merely coming up with more. "Unfortunately, the labour inspection system is quite weak, something that encourages employers to make workers work more than stipulated hours, without paying them overtime."

Mahmood says he knows many white collar workers who come to office early in the morning but have to stay in the office till their bosses leave late at night. "The bosses come late in the afternoon but they expect the exhausted workers to give them company."

Even worse is the job of bankers, in his opinion, who have to close accounts after the close of work/public dealing and stay back for many more hours in office. "Hardly anyone objects or raises voice as this can cost them their jobs," concludes Mahmood.