Exceptions

(1) Section 161, with respect to the employment of women during the night, shall not apply– (a) to women holding responsible positions of a managerial or technical character; (b) to women employed in health and welfare services who are not ordinarily engaged in manual work; (c) to an industrial undertaking in which only members of the same family are employed; (d) in any case of force majeure when in an industrial there occurs an interruption of work which it was impossible to foresee, and which is not of a recurring character, and which is approved as such by the Commissioner; and (e) in a case where the work has to do with raw materials or materials in the course of treatment are subject to rapid deterioration and work during the night is necessary to preserve such materials from loss and the permission of the Commissioner to perform such work during the night has been obtained. (2) The Minister after consultation with any workers’ or employers’ organisations concerned, may by Order authorise the employment during the night of male persons who have 103 attained the age of sixteen years but are under the age of eighteen years for purposes of apprenticeship or vocational training in such class of industrial undertakings as are specified in the Order. (3) When in a case of serious emergency the public interest demands it, the Minister, after consultation with any employers’ and workers’ organisation concerned, may by Order suspend the prohibition of employment of male persons between the ages of sixteen and eighteen years during the night in any industrial undertaking or any branch thereof. (4) Where in an industrial undertaking there occurs an emergency which could not have been controlled or foreseen, and which is not of a periodical character and which is approved by the Commissioner and which interferes with the normal working of that undertaking, then, during that emergency, the provisions of section 161 with respect to the employment of persons under the age of eighteen years during the night shall not apply to male persons between the ages of sixteen and eighteen years employed in that undertaking during such emergency. (5) Notwithstanding section 161, the Minister, if he considers it expedient to do so, may by order, permit women and male persons between the ages of sixteen and eighteen years to be employed in any industrial undertaking or in any branch thereof during that part of the night which falls between 7.00 p.m. and 11.00 p.m. on condition that the night-rest period of such women and male persons is of not less than twelve consecutive hours duration. (6) Where the Minister considers that the employment of persons under eighteen years of age in a family undertaking wherein only parents and their children are employed is not harmful, prejudicial or dangerous to them, he may by Order exempt them from the application of this section relating to the employment of persons under the age of eighteen years, subject to such conditions as he may think fit. 104