Overtime management for textile and garment units

Consent and buyer limits

Overtime must be voluntary, because work beyond the prescribed hours needs the worker's consent. Buyer codes of conduct usually cap total weekly hours and expect a weekly day off, and auditors interview workers to confirm overtime was not forced. Record consent for each overtime spell, or a standing consent the worker can withdraw, take hours from punches, and set a monthly cap in the overtime policy that satisfies both the rules and your buyers' codes.

Piece-rate workers and overtime

A tailor paid by the piece who stays back two hours is still working overtime. Units work out an hourly rate for those hours, from the worker's time-rated wage or average earnings as the rules for piece-rated workers set, and pay twice that rate on top of the pieces made. Whichever method you use, write it down and apply it to every piece-rate worker, because auditors check that they receive overtime pay just as time-rated workers do.

Worked example: a pre-shipment fortnight

Meena, a flatlock operator in Tiruppur, has a time-rated monthly gross of ₹14,300. Divided over 26 days, that is ₹550 a day and ₹68.75 an hour. Before a shipment she works 2 extra hours on 10 days, 20 hours in all, with her consent recorded. At twice the hourly rate, ₹137.50 an hour, her overtime earning is ₹2,750, paid in the same month and shown on its own payslip line.

Planning overtime from the order book

Most garment overtime can be seen coming in the order book. When merchandisers confirm a shipment, the production planner can see the capacity gap weeks ahead. Close it first with extra operators, a second line or outside job work, and keep overtime as the final buffer. That keeps hours within your caps and spares workers from being asked for Sunday work in consecutive weeks.

How to set it up in ZeniaHR

1. Choose full-day hours as the overtime trigger, keep the 30-minute minimum and 15-minute rounding down, and switch approval on.
2. Hold every overtime multiplier, for weekdays, weekly offs and holidays, at 2 or higher, and add a monthly cap per worker that fits your buyers' codes.
3. Store each worker's overtime consent in Employee Documents and renew it when circumstances change.
4. Each morning the line supervisor clears yesterday's detected overtime in My Team, and HR gives the final approval.
5. Approve a whole line's pre-shipment overtime in bulk, and reject hours where no consent is on file.
6. Share the pre-shipment overtime plan on the Company Wall with the chosen departments so workers know in advance.

Read more about overtime in ZeniaHR.

Roles this applies to

Frequently asked questions