Statutory overtime rate applies only beyond the legal work-hour ceiling, not merely beyond employer-set working hours.

Work beyond an employer's shorter normal hours does not automatically attract the statutory overtime rate of twice ordinary wages under the Tamil Nadu Shops and Establishments Act. Section 14 was construed as a ceiling on daily and weekly working hours, while Section 31 applied only to overtime within the proviso to Section 14(1), namely work in excess of the statutory maximum. Accordingly, where employees worked beyond employer-fixed hours but still within the statutory ceiling, some higher compensation could be payable, but not the mandatory overtime rate under Section 31.

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Issues: Whether overtime work done beyond the hours prescribed by the employer, but within the maximum hours permitted by Section 14 of the Tamil Nadu Shops and Establishments Act, 1947, attracts the statutory overtime rate of twice the ordinary wages under Section 31 of that Act.

Analysis: Section 14 was construed as fixing a ceiling on daily and weekly hours of work, not as compelling every establishment to prescribe the maximum permissible hours. An employer could prescribe shorter normal working hours, but work beyond those prescribed hours would not automatically attract the statutory rate under Section 31 unless it was work beyond the maximum hours permitted by the statute. Reading Sections 14 and 31 together, the statutory overtime rate was held to apply only to overtime as contemplated by the proviso to Section 14(1), that is, work in excess of the statutory ceiling. For work beyond the employer-fixed hours and up to the statutory ceiling, some higher compensation was payable, but the statute did not compel payment at twice the ordinary rate merely because the work exceeded the employer's own schedule.

Conclusion: The statutory rate under Section 31 was not payable for work done beyond the employer-prescribed hours but within the statutory maximum under Section 14; the employees were not entitled to overtime at twice the ordinary wages for that period.

Ratio Decidendi: Section 31's statutory overtime rate is attracted only for overtime work falling within the proviso to Section 14(1), namely work beyond the maximum hours permitted by the statute, and not merely for work beyond shorter hours fixed by the employer.

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