After facing the flak on the job reservation bill, the Karnataka government is now planning to increase the working hours of IT employees to 14 hours a day from the current 10, triggering opposition from IT sector unions.
The proposal to amend the Karnataka Shops and Commercial Establishment Act to facilitate 14-hour working day was presented in a meeting called by the labour department with various stakeholders in the industry. The representatives of the Karnataka State IT/ITeS Employees Union (KITU) have already met with labour minister Santosh Lad and raised their concerns over the move.
The proposed new bill ‘Karnataka Shops and Commercial Establishments (Amendment) Bill 2024’ attempts to normalise a 14-hour work day. The existing act only allows a maximum of 10 hours work per day including overtime, which has been completely lifted in the current amendment.
IT sector unions have come out in public in protest against the move, calling it ‘inhuman’, that will have implications on 2 million workers in the state.
“It will facilitate the IT/ITES companies to extend the daily hours of work indefinitely. 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 from their employment. During the meeting, KITU pointed out the studies on the health impact of extended working hours among the IT employees,” said Suhas Adiga, general secretary of KITU.
According to a KCCI report, 45 per cent of employees in the IT sector are facing mental health issues such as depression and 55 per cent facing physical health impacts. Increasing working hours will further aggravate this situation. A WHO-ILO study says increased working hours will lead to an estimated 35 per cent higher risk of death by stroke and 17 per cent higher risk of dying from ischemic heart disease, the union said.
“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,” Adiga added.
“The government considers them as only a machinery to increase the profit of the corporates to whom it serves.This amendment comes in 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,” he added.
The Karnataka State IT/ITeS Employees Union urged the government to rethink and warned that any attempt to go with the amendment will be an open challenge to the 2 million employees working in the IT/ITeS sector in Karnataka.
“KITU calls upon all the IT/ITeS sector employees to unify and come forward to resist this inhuman attempt to impose slavery on us,” he added.
Meanwhile, labour minister agreed to have one more round of discussion before taking any decision.
This comes after the controversial draft Bill proposing job quota for locals in Karnataka was put on hold on Wednesday following high-pitched industry protests.
First Published: Jul 20 2024 | 12:26 PM IST