I have mailed my comments on Draft Code of Conduct for CA Students to scravishankar @ icai.org which are mentioned below. Please go through it and also give your comment
Dear Sir,
According to point 4.4 of the Draft Code of Conduct for Chartered Accountancy Students:
"The working hours for the articled assistants should not exceed 35 hours in a week excluding the lunch break and normally an articled assistant be required to work during the normal working hours fixed for articled assistants.
In case of the exigencies of work with the Principal, an articled assistant may be required to work beyond his/her normal working hours. However, under such circumstances, the aggregate number of working hours shall not exceed 45 hours per week. The requirement to work beyond 35 hours in a week should not be a practice but only in exceptional circumstances. Further, where the articled assistant is required to work beyond normal working hours, and aggregate of such hours exceed 35 hours per week, he/she shall be entitled to compensatory leave calculated with reference to number of completed working hours, over and above, 35 hours per week".
But practically, in a very high majority of the cases, the working hours of the Article Trainees are way beyond the working hours specified above. Generally in majority of the Chartered Accountancy firms, the working hours of the Article Trainees are around 45 hours in a week (excluding lunch break) and in the audit season (May to September), the working hours goes well beyond 60 hours in a week.
According to point 13.1 of the Draft Code of Conduct for Chartered Accountancy Students:
"Non - adherence to the above guidelines would be construed as Misconduct and lead to action against the articled/audit trainee in accordance with Regulation 66/79".
If you apply 4.4 and 13.1of the Draft Code of Conduct, virtually every Article Trainee will be guilty of Misconduct.
Hence I request you to either amend 4.4 or to ensure that all the Practicing Chartered Accountants (who are providing Articleship Training to Students) comply with Regulation 60 of the of CA Regulations, 1988.
CAclubindia
