Nine paid holidays a year. The Tamil Nadu Industrial Establishments (National and Festival Holidays) Act 1958 gives every person employed in a factory, shop, commercial establishment or plantation in the State a paid holiday on 26 January, 1 May, 15 August and 2 October, and on five festival days fixed for each establishment. A worker who works on one is owed double wages, or a substitute paid day.
The nine days
Four fixed national holidays and five festival holidays that vary by establishment. Section 3 of the Act names the national days and leaves the festivals to be specified by the Inspector "in consultation with the employer and the employees" of each establishment; the Tamil Nadu Labour Department describes the result as "five festival and four national holidays". Two sites in the same district can therefore have different festival lists, and each is bound by its own.
| Holiday | How the date is fixed | Qualifying condition for the wages |
|---|---|---|
| Republic Day, 26 January | Fixed by s.3 | None |
| May Day, 1 May | Fixed by s.3 | None |
| Independence Day, 15 August | Fixed by s.3 | None |
| Gandhi Jayanti, 2 October | Fixed by s.3 | None |
| Five festival holidays | Specified for the establishment by the Inspector, after consulting employer and employees | Thirty days' service in the ninety days before the holiday (s.5, proviso) |
May Day has a history of its own. A 1971 amendment declared that any employer's curtailment of a holiday "in lieu of the holiday allowed on the 1st May" on or after 25 April 1970 was "null and void", so it cannot be traded away against a festival day.
Who the Act covers
Almost every private workplace a contract crew is deployed to. Section 2 defines an industrial establishment as a factory, an establishment under the Tamil Nadu Shops and Establishments Act 1947, a plantation, or any other establishment the Government notifies, and an employee as any person, including an apprentice, employed in it to do skilled, unskilled, manual, supervisory, technical or clerical work "for hire or reward". Nothing in that definition turns on who pays the worker.
Section 10 exempts four groups: employees in a position of management, employees whose work involves travelling, establishments run by the Central or a State Government, a local authority, the Reserve Bank or a railway administration, and mines and oil fields. The Government can exempt others by notification. The factory limb of the definition still refers to the Factories Act 1948, which the OSH Code 2020 repealed from 21 November 2025; how that reference now reads is a point for the site's counsel [VERIFY: whether the State has amended the definition or issued a clarification].
What a holiday pays, and what working on one pays
A normal day's wages for the holiday, and double for working it. Section 5(1) says every employee "shall be paid wages for each of the holidays", notwithstanding any contract to the contrary, and since a 2007 amendment those wages must be paid with the wages for the wage period in which the holiday falls. A piece-rated worker is paid the daily average of their wages, calculated as the rules prescribe (s.5(3)).
An employer can require work on a holiday only by serving written notice on the employee at least twenty-four hours before, and sending a copy to the Inspector and displaying it on the premises (s.5(2)(a)). The worker who works then chooses, not the employer: twice the day's wages, or the day's wages plus a substituted paid holiday on one of the three days immediately before or after (s.5(2)(b)).
In money, take a monthly wage of ₹15,600, a round figure chosen to divide cleanly and not a rate this site quotes, or ₹600 a day. The nine holidays are worth ₹5,400 a year per worker. A worker who works Independence Day is owed ₹1,200 for it, or ₹600 and a paid day off within three days either side. The thirty-day condition affects only the festival days, and the Explanation to the proviso counts weekly holidays and authorised leave toward the thirty, so a worker who joined a month before a festival will usually qualify.
Special holidays and polling day
Two further days can be added in a given year. A 2017 amendment inserted section 3(2), which lets the State Government declare "any other day as a special holiday" to employees of industrial establishments, "having due regard to any emergency or special circumstances"; the Statement of Objects and Reasons records that some employers had not granted paid holidays declared by Government Order before then [VERIFY: Act number and commencement of the 2017 amendment]. Separately, section 135B of the Representation of the People Act 1951 requires a paid holiday on polling day for employees entitled to vote in a Lok Sabha or Assembly election [VERIFY: read from secondary reports of the section, not the Act text].
Who owes it when the crew is a contractor's
The contractor pays in practice, but the Act's own definitions point at the establishment. Section 2(c) defines the employer as the person "who has the ultimate control over the affairs of the industrial establishment", or the manager to whom those affairs are entrusted, and it is that employer who must send the Inspector a statement of the holidays allowed and display it on the premises (s.4). On those words the holiday obligation for everyone employed in the establishment sits with the site, whatever the contract with the contractor says about who funds it; section 55(3) of the OSH Code separately makes the principal employer liable for wages a contractor fails to pay. How the two fit on a particular engagement is for the site's counsel.
- Put the contract crew on the same holiday list. The statement under section 4 covers the establishment, not one payroll. A contractor's workers on the floor get the same nine days as the site's own.
- Check the holiday wages in the contractor's wage register. Each holiday should appear in the wage period it falls in, since the 2007 amendment requires payment with that period's wages.
- Keep the notice trail for holiday working. The written notice to each worker, the copy to the Inspector, and a record of which option the worker chose: double wages or a substitute day.
- Watch the penalty band. After the 2018 amendment, a contravention of section 3 or 5 carries a fine of ₹500 to ₹5,000 for a first offence and ₹5,000 to ₹10,000 for a repeat, and section 8-A lets the Commissioner of Labour compound it [VERIFY: commencement notification of Act 26 of 2018].
How Velura Services helps
Velura applies the Tamil Nadu holiday list to every crew, pays holiday wages and double pay or a substituted day when a holiday is worked, and records each one. You see the holiday wages on our monthly payroll report, so the site can see they were paid.
Sources
- The Tamil Nadu Industrial Establishments (National and Festival Holidays) Act, 1958 (Tamil Nadu Act 33 of 1958), with amendments of 1971, 2000, 2007 and 2018, compiled by PRS Legislative Research — s.2 (employer, employee, industrial establishment), s.3 (national and festival holidays), s.4 (statement to the Inspector), s.5 (holiday wages; working on a holiday; piece rates; thirty days in ninety for festival holidays), s.8 and s.8-A (penalties and compounding, as amended by Acts 11 of 2007 and 26 of 2018), s.10 (exemptions); Act 17 of 1971 on the 1 May holiday. Opened and read from the scanned Gazette text [VERIFY: against the Tamil Nadu Government Gazette].
- Labour Department, Government of Tamil Nadu: The Tamil Nadu Industrial Establishments (National and Festival Holidays) Act 1958 — "five festival and four national holidays". Opened and read.
- Tamil Nadu L.A. Bill No. 21 of 2017, Tamil Nadu Government Gazette Extraordinary No. 183, 20 June 2017 — insertion of s.3(2) (special holidays) and the Statement of Objects and Reasons. Opened and read.
- Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 (Act 37 of 2020), Gazette text hosted by DGFASLI — s.55(3) (principal employer's liability for wages the contractor fails to pay). Opened and read.
- Representation of the People Act, 1951, s.135B (paid holiday on the day of poll) [VERIFY: from secondary reports quoting the section; the Act text was not opened].