Ordinary rate of wages excludes notional house rent allowance where no actual entitlement exists for overtime computation.

Section 59 of the Factories Act requires overtime wages at twice the ordinary rate of wages, and ordinary wages include only allowances the worker is actually entitled to receive. Employees of the Government Mint who occupied Government accommodation and did not receive house rent allowance could not add a notional house rent allowance to their emoluments for overtime calculations. Government instructions did not create an entitlement to that allowance where none existed. The result was that house rent allowance could not be included in computing overtime wages.

---

---

Issues: Whether employees of the Government Mint who were occupying Government accommodation and were not in receipt of house rent allowance could nonetheless add a notional house rent allowance to their emoluments while computing overtime wages under Section 59 of the Factories Act, 1948.

Analysis: Under Section 59(1), overtime wages are payable at twice the ordinary rate of wages. Section 59(2) defines ordinary rate of wages as basic wages plus such allowances as the worker is for the time being entitled to, but excludes bonus and overtime wages. The entitlement therefore depends on an existing right to the allowance. The Government instructions relied upon by the Tribunal did not confer a right to include house rent allowance notionally where no such allowance was actually payable. Since the employees occupying Government accommodation were not entitled to house rent allowance, that amount could not be read into the ordinary rate of wages.

Conclusion: The employees were not entitled to include house rent allowance in the computation of overtime wages, and the appeals succeeded.

---