A reason to restrict 8 hours a day of work

As per a study report, working for 55 hours a week causes the risk of stroke by 33% compared to working hours of 35-40 hours a week.

May be studies are also required patterns for continuous hours of work, number of hours of work a day, etc to have more reliable data. 

As per Factories Act and Rules, 125 hours of overtime in a quarter is permitted. But, it is quite common for many persons  to put more hours at work, particularly in unorganized sector like in construction industry. For earning more also, it is quite natural for persons to work for more hours though it leads to strain. 

It will be difficult for anybody to control working hours unless it is practiced by the individual himself. In case of forceful work, then unions have to take the responsibility to protect the persons from the risks.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/science/Working-over-8-hrs-a-day-raises-stroke-risk-by-33/articleshow/48550484.cms

Person dies after long hours of work

An intern died after reportedly spending long hours of work. Legislations specify certain number of hours of work per day, per week, etc and limits on overtime hours also. However, these rules are mostly applied to factory workers and I am not sure whether they are applied to supervisors and blue collared employees in the same organization. 

This leads to spending long hours at work place by these people, either by force, or even if there is no requirement, may be to learn the work, or to get attention of higher authorities. This type of work is not possible forever. If somebody joins as trainee/apprentice and even for regular employees, managements of any establishment should strictly enforce working hours, instead of being a passive onlooker. Only then, these types of incidents can be avoided at the work place. It is all in work culture which is guided by safety culture of the organization. 

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2013/aug/21/bank-intern-death-working-hours

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/uk/Intern-at-a-London-bank-dies-after-working-for-72-hours/articleshow/21947167.cms

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/08/20/bank-of-america-intern-dies-after-working-three-straight-days.html

Bank employee takes a nap on keyboard, transfers millions | The Hindu

Bank employee takes a nap on keyboard, transfers millions | The Hindu

293 million US dollars were transferred by a bank employee who was asleep while on the job. Imagine what can happen if somebody on the job in the control room of a chemical plant sleeps.

All plant employees should be healthy, and had sufficient rest before attending their duty. In some plants, workers have long working hours and on few occasions, they have to continue if reliever does not come, doing overtime.

Legislations specify number of working hours (8-9.5 hr) with rest in between and also the number of hours which a person can work continuously in a day and number of hours in a week, quarter and so on to ensure that they get sufficient rest and are not forced or lured for extra money they get. It is not possible to work more hours continuously and this will lead to mistakes and accidents.