HR Advisory · Working Conditions

The Four-Day Week Is Now Legal in India: Should You Offer One?

The OSH Code permits a 12-hour-day, four-day week — three days off, same 48 hours. It is an option, not a mandate. The interesting question isn't whether you can. It's whether you should.

One of the more headline-friendly parts of India's labour reform is the four-day work week. The Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code permits it, the final central rules were notified on 8 May 2026, and the press has had a field day. But the reporting has muddled what the law actually allows with what it requires — and skipped the harder management question entirely. Here is the clear version.

What the law actually permits

The OSH Code caps weekly working hours at 48 with a standard eight-hour day, and adds flexibility in how those hours are distributed. Employers may spread the 48 hours across four, five or six days, with daily hours capped at 12. So a four-day week is allowed if employees work up to 12 hours a day across four days, followed by three days of rest. Two conditions matter:

• It is optional, not mandatory. The four-day week is a flexibility employers may offer, not a rule anyone must adopt. Employees can stay on a five- or six-day schedule if the organisation does not adopt the compressed model.
• Overtime is expensive. Any work beyond the prescribed hours must be paid at double the normal wage rate, calculated on the revised wage structure. The compressed week does not let you extract more hours — it redistributes the same 48.

The question the headlines skip: should you?

Just because a model is legal does not make it right for your workforce. A 12-hour day suits some roles and punishes others. Consider:

• Role type. Roles with natural rhythm and bounded tasks can absorb a 12-hour day. Roles requiring sustained cognitive intensity or safety-critical attention degrade over 12 hours — fatigue is a real safety and quality risk, which is precisely why the OSH Code pairs the option with stricter rest-interval rules.
• Workforce demographics. A 12-hour day plus commute is very different for a young single employee than for a parent with school-age children or an older worker. A compressed week can be a benefit for some and a barrier for others.
• Operational continuity. If clients or operations need coverage five or six days, a four-day individual week requires staggered scheduling, not a blanket switch.

If you do offer it, do it properly

1. Make it genuinely optional and document consent. Coercing a 12-hour day undermines both the law's intent and your culture.
2. Get attendance tracking right. Paper registers are no longer compliant — the rules require digital record-keeping, and accurate tracking is what proves you stayed within 48 hours and paid overtime correctly.
3. Respect the rest intervals. The OSH Code mandates breaks; a 12-hour day without proper intervals is non-compliant and unsafe.
4. Check your state. Labour is a concurrent subject; states notify their own rules. Karnataka, Maharashtra and Kerala are among those that have notified. Confirm the rules for each state you operate in.
5. Pilot before you scale. Try it with one team, measure fatigue, output and satisfaction, then decide.

The honest verdict

The four-day week is a genuine tool, not a gimmick — but it is a tool for specific situations, not a universal upgrade. For the right roles and a willing workforce, three consecutive days off is a real retention and wellbeing benefit at no extra wage cost. For the wrong roles, it is a fatigue and safety problem dressed as a perk. The reform gives you the option; the judgement about whether to use it is yours, and it should be made role by role, not by press release. This sits within the wider Labour Codes rollout every employer is now working through.