A bill to amend the Factories Act was introduced in the Lok Sabha today by Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya. The Factories Amendment Bill 2016 seeks to enhance the limit of overtime hours from the present ceiling of fifty hours per quarter to one hundred hours. The proposed amendment also intends to further increase the limit of overtime hours to maximum of one hundred and twenty five hours per quarter in public interest. <br/><br/>The amendment will also empower the central government, in addition to the state government, to make exempting rules and exempting orders in respect of total number of hours of work on overtime. It would ensure uniformity in its application by various state governments and Union Territory administrations.<br/><br/>Earlier, RSP member N K Premchandran raised issues related to increase in working hours and expressed his reservations about proposed changes. He said the amendment is also against the spirit of cooperative federalism. <br/><br/>Mallikarjun Kharge of Congress also raised his concern saying that only two sections from main bill are brought for changes which relate to working hours. Clearing the doubt the Labour Minister said the proposed changes in working hours are within the parameter of International Labour Organisation -ILO. He said the increase in working hours is based on the demand from industries so that the factories can carry out the work on urgent basis.