Night shift jobs elude women

The government may have amended the laws to permit women to work night shifts in factories but major employers are in no mood to see women workers toiling into the wee hours of the night.

Businesses would prefer to limit the presence of women to service sector activity like business process outsourcing (BPO) centres and would at best allow women on night shifts at high-end machinery and component assembly plants where work environment was sanitised and comfortable.

The Factories Act of 1948 has recently been amended to allow women to work night shifts, pointed out S B Ganguly, chairman and chief executive of India's largest battery maker, Exide Industries Ltd., at a seminar on 'Congenial environment for women at night shift' organised by Pragati, the ladies wing of the Bengal National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BNCCI).

Ganguly said that women did working in factories during the day, when 25 managers supervised workers.

On night shift, one single supervisor was in charge of 300 or more workers and providing adequate safeguards in the factory for protection of the dignity of women was a problem.

It would becomes an additional liability which employers were not eager to take on, he added.The ground realities in medium and heavy industries favoured male workers and infrastructure was also built that way, he admitted.

Sumedha Sen, chief executive officer of Woodlands Medical Research Centre Ltd, said women on night shifts in hotels or nursing homes faced additional risk from external customers if their workplace permitted free access to outsiders.

Issues like transport, toilets and other amenities were minor factors, she added.