Karnataka government proposes 14-hour work day in IT sector, union slams plan

BENGALURU: Karnataka State IT/ITeS Employees' Union (KITU) has urged the Siddaramaiah-led government to reconsider its reported plans to extend the working hours of the IT/ITeS/BPO sector. According to the union, the government plans to increase the working hours to 14 hours a day.

The proposal to amend the Karnataka Shops and Commercial Establishment Act in this regard, was presented in a recent meeting called by the labour department with various stakeholders in the industry, it said in a release. Labour Minister Santosh Lad, officials from the Department of Labour and IT-BT Ministry attended the meeting, in which the representatives of the union took part.

Attack on worker's right

The union strongly opposed the proposed amendment which, it said, poses an "attack on the basic right of any worker to have a personal life." The labour minister agreed to have one more round of discussion before taking any decision, it added. Noting that the proposed new bill 'Karnataka Shops and Commercial Establishments (Amendment) Bill 2024' attempts to normalise a 14-hour work day, the union said, the existing act only allows a maximum of 10 hours work per day, including overtime.

Corporate interests over workers' health

This amendment will allow the companies to go for a two shift system instead of the currently existing three shift system, and one third of the workforce will be thrown out of their employment, it claimed. Noting that during the meeting KITU pointed out the studies on the health impact of extended working hours among the IT employees, it said, "the Karnataka government in their hunger, to please their corporate bosses, completely neglects the most fundamental right of any individual, the right to live." This amendment shows that the Government of Karnataka is not ready to consider the workers as human beings who need personal and social life to survive. Instead, it considers them as only a machinery to increase the profit of the corporates to whom it serves, it added.

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Negative impact on productivity

The union further pointed out that this amendment comes at a period when the world starts to accept the fact that increased working hours are negatively impacting productivity and more countries are coming with new legislations to accept the "right to disconnect" as a basic right of any employee. The union urged the government to rethink and warned that any attempt to go with the amendment will be an open challenge to the 20 lakh employees working in the IT/ITeS sector in Karnataka, it said. "KITU calls upon all the IT/ITeS sector employees to unify and come forward to resist this inhuman attempt to impose slavery on us," it said.