Road Transport Workers Ordinance, 1961

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THE ROAD TRANSPORT WORKERS ORDINANCE, 1961 
 
 
 
CONTENTS 
1.  Short title and commencement 
2. Definitions 
3.  Age limit 
3A. Order of appointment etc. 
4.  Hours of work and rest 
5.  Restriction on cumulative hours of work 
6.  Leave 
6A.  Festival holidays 
6B.  Casual Leave 
7.  W. P. Ordinance No. VI of 1968 to apply to road transport service 
8.  Maintenance of registers, etc. 
9.  Inspection of registers and calling for information 
10.  Power to make rules 
11.  Penalties 
12.  Protection of action taken under the Ordinance 
 

 
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THE ROAD TRANSPORT WORKERS ORDINANCE, 1961 
ORDINANCE No. XXVIII of 1961 
[4th July, 1961] 
An Ordinance to regulate the hours of work and other conditions of employment of road transport 
workers in Pakistan. 
 WHEREAS it is expedient to regulate the hours of work and other conditions of employment 
of road transport workers in Pakistan; 
  Now, THEREFORE, in pursuance of the Proclamation of the seventh day of October, 1958, 
and in exercise of all powers enabling him in that behalf, the President is pleased to make and 
promulgate the following Ordinance:— 
 1. Short title and commencement.__(1) This Ordinance may be called the Road Transport 
Workers Ordinance, 1961. 
 (2) It extends to the whole of Pakistan. 
 (3) It shall come into force at once. 
 2. Definitions.__ In this Ordinance, unless there is anything repugnant in the subject or 
context,__ 
(1)  “day” means a period of 24 hours beginning at midnight ; 
(2)  “employer” means the owner of any road transport service in which workers 
are employed, and where the business of such service is not directly managed 
by the owner, means the Manager, Agent, or Representative of such owner in 
the said service, and where the owner is a minor, the guardian of such minor, 
and in relation to any vehicle which is the subject of hire-purchase agreement, 
the person in possession of the vehicle under that agreement ; 
(3)  “Government” means the Provincial Government ; 
(4)  “hours of work” means the time during which the workers employed are at the 
disposal of the employer excluding any interval allowed for rest and meals ; 
(5)  “prescribed” means prescribed by rules made under this Ordinance ; 
(6)  “public place” means a road, street, way or other place, whether a 
thoroughfare or not, to which the public have a right of access, and includes 
any place or stand at which passengers are picked up or set down by a vehicle; 
(7)  “road transport service” means a service carrying passengers or goods or both 
by road in vehicles for hire or reward ; 
 
 
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 (8)  “vehicle” means any mechanically propelled vehicle, used or capable of being 
used for the purpose of road transport and includes a tramcar, a trolley-vehicle 
and a trailer; 
(9)  “week” means a period of seven days; 
(10)  “worker” means a person engaged on mobile duty, and includes drivers, 
cleaners, conductors and checkers employed by or in a road transport service ; 
(11)  “year” means a period of twelve months starting from the date a worker is 
employed in a road transport service and ending on the date immediately 
preceding in the following calendar year. 
 3. Age limit.__(1) No person, other than a driver, shall be employed in any road transport 
service unless he has attained the age of eighteen years. 
 (2) No person shall be employed in any road transport service for the purpose of driving a 
vehicle unless he has attained the age of twenty-one years.  
 1[3A. Order of appointment etc.— An employer— 
(a)  who has employed a worker before the commencement of the Road Transport 
Workers (Amendment) Act, 1975, shall within one month of such 
commencement, and 
(b)  who employs, transfers or promotes a worker after such commencement shall 
on the day of such employment, transfer or promotion, 
furnish such worker with an order in writing in such form as may be prescribed specifying the terms 
and conditions of his employment, transfer or promotion, as the case may be.] 
 4. Hours of work and rest.__(1) No worker shall be employed on a vehicle__ 
(a)  for more than five hours at a time before he has had an interval for rest of at 
least half an hour nor for more than 1[seven] hours before he has had at least 
two such intervals ; 
(b)  for more than 1[eight] hours in a day ; and 
(c)  for more than 1[forty-eight] hours in a week. 
 1[Explanation.__ A worker who is required to wait for not less than 30 minutes to be 
employed on a vehicle shall be deemed to be employed on a vehicle during the time he is so required 
to wait.] 
 (2) Every worker shall be entitled to have at least twenty-four hours of consecutive rest in a 
week. 
 
1Ins. and subs. by Act No. XII of 1975, ss.2-3. 
 
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 (3) The Government may, by rules made under section 10, grant such exemptions from the 
provisions of sub-section (1) and sub-section (2) as it thinks fit, to meet cases of emergency or of 
delay by reason of circumstances which could not be foreseen: 
 Provided that__ 
(a)  no worker shall be employed overtime in any year in excess of one hundred 
and fifty working hours ; and 
(b)  the worker employed overtime shall be paid remuneration at twice the rate of 
his normal wages calculated by the hour.  
 (4) Where as a result of the making of a rule exempting any worker from the provisions of 
sub-section (2), a worker is deprived of any of the weekly hours of rest for which provision is made 
in the sub-section he shall be allowed, as soon as circumstances permit, compensating hours of rest 
of equal number so lost ; 
 Provided that no worker shall be caused or allowed to work for more than ten consecutive 
days without a compensating rest for at least twenty-four hours at one time. 
 (5) The Government or, if authorised in this behalf by the Government by rules made under 
section 10, the competent authority, may require an employer to fix beforehand the hours of work of 
the workers so as to conform with the provisions of sub-section (1) and may provide for the 
recording of the hours so fixed. 
 (6) No worker shall work or cause or allow any other worker to work outside the hours fixed 
or recorded for the work of the said worker in compliance with any rule made under sub-section (5). 
 5. Restriction on cumulative hours of work.—No worker shall work or be allowed to work 
on a vehicle or two or more vehicles in excess of the period during which he may be lawfully 
employed under this Ordinance. 
 6. Leave.—(1) In addition to the period of daily and weekly rest, every worker, who has been 
in continuous employment for a period of one year, shall be entitled to not less than 14 days’ leave 
with full pay or, if he has been continuously employed for a period of six months, he shall be entitled 
to not less than seven days’ leave with full pay. 
 (2) For the purpose of computing the period during which a worker has been in continuous 
employment within the meaning of sub-section (1), the period during which he was on leave under 
this section shall be included. 
 1[6A. Festival holidays.— (1) Every worker shall be entitled to festival holidays with full 
wages for twelve days in a year and the employer shall notify the days and dates for such holidays to 
workers within a week,— 
(a)  in the case of a road transport service operating immediately before the 
commencement of the Road Transport Workers (Amendment) Act, 1975,— 
 
1Ins. by Act No. XII of  1975, s.4. 
 
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(i)  for the year 1975, of the commencement of the said Act; and 
(ii)  for subsequent years, of the beginning of each calendar year; and  
(b)  in the case of a road transport service which starts operating after the 
commencement of the said Act,__  
(i)  for the year in which it starts operating, of the starting of its operation; 
and 
(ii) for subsequent years, of the beginning of each calendar year. 
 (2) A worker may be required to work on any festival holiday but a substitute holiday shall be 
allowed to him within ten days of the festival holiday, or, at his option, he shall be paid wages in 
respect of such work at double the ordinary rate of wages payable to him. 
 6B. Casual Leave.— Every worker shall be entitled in a year to ten days casual leave on full 
wages: 
 Provided that casual leave admissible under this section shall not be accumulated and carried 
forward to the succeeding year.]  
 1[7. W. P. Ordinance No. VI of 1968 to apply to road transport service.—The provisions 
of Standing Orders 10B, 10C, 12, other than those contained in clause (2) thereof, 13, 14, other than 
the proviso thereto, and 15 of the West Pakistan Industrial and Commercial Employment (Standing 
Orders) Ordinance, 1968 (W.P. Ordinance No. VI of 1968), as in force for the time being, shall apply 
to every road transport service as if such road transport service were an industrial establishment to 
which the aforesaid Ordinance had been applied by a notification under clause (c) of sub-section (4) 
of section 1 thereof, and as if a worker was a workman or permanent workman, as the case may be, 
within the meaning of that Ordinance: 
 Provided that for the purpose of calculating the period for which gratuity is due under 
Standing Order 12, no period of service preceding the commencement of the Road Transport 
Worwers (Amendment) Act, 1975, shall be taken into account: 
 Provided further that Standing Order 10B, or 10C, or Standing Order 12, in so far as it relates 
to gratuity, shall apply only to a road transport service wherein the workers and the other persons 
employed on any day within the twelve months immediately preceding the commencement of the 
said Act were, or on the day of commencement of the said Act or on any day thereafter are,__ 
(a)  in the case of Standing Order 10B, more than forty-nine: or 
(b)  in the case of Standing Orders 10C, and 12, more than nineteen] 
 8. Maintenance of registers, etc. __ (1) Every employer shall, in the prescribed form and in 
the prescribed manner, keep in the office of the road transport service a record of the hours worked 
and the amount of leave taken by, and of the intervals allowed for rest and meals to, every worker in 
accordance with the provisions of this Ordinance and particulars of all employment overtime shall be 
separately entered in the record.  
 
 
1Subs by Act No. XII of 1975, s.5.  
 
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 (2) Every employer shall, for the purposes of this Ordinance, maintain such other records and 
registers and display such notices or other documents as may be prescribed. 
 9. Inspection of registers and calling for information.—It shall be the duty of every 
employer to produce for inspection of such inspectors as may be appointed by the Government all 
accounts or other records required to be kept for the purposes of this Ordinance and to give to such 
officer any other information in connection therewith as may be required. 
 10. Power to make rules.—The Government may make rules for the purpose of carrying 
into effect the provisions of this Ordinance. 
 11. Penalties.—Whoever contravenes any of the provisions of this Ordinance, or any of the 
rules made thereunder, shall be 1[punishable__ 
(a)  for the first offence, with fine not exceeding one thousand rupees ; and 
(b)  for every subsequent offence, with imprisonment which may extencd to six 
months and fine not exceeding one thousand rupees.] 
 Provided that__ 
(a)  in the case of any contravention of the provisions of section 8, the employer 
shall be liable, on conviction, to a fine not exceeding ten rupees for every day 
on which the contravention occurs or continues, and 
(b)  if any employer, with intent to deceive, makes or causes or allows to be made, 
in any record, register, notice or other document as provided under section 8 
an entry which is to his knowledge false in any material particular, or wilfully 
omits or causes or allows to be omitted from any such record, register, notice 
or document an entry required to be made therein, shall be liable on conviction 
to simple imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or to a fine not 
exceeding five hundred rupees or both. 
 12. Protection of action taken under the Ordinance.—No suit, prosecution or other 
proceedings shall lie against any person for anything which is in good faith done or intended to be 
done in pursuance of this Ordinance or rules made thereunder. 
 
 
 
 
 
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1Subs. by Act No. XII of 1975, s.6.