Proposal mooted to extend working hours of IT employees to more than 12 hours a day in Karnataka; unions resist move

The Karnataka government is reportedly planning to amend the Karnataka Shops and Commercial Establishments Act, 1961, to increase the working hours of IT employees, which has met with resistance from the trade unions.

The Karnataka government is reportedly planning to amend the Karnataka Shops and Commercial Establishments Act, 1961, to increase the working hours of IT employees, which has met with resistance from the trade unions.

Representatives of the Karnataka State IT/ITeS Employees Union (KITU) met with Labour Minister Santosh Lad, Principal Secretary, Labour Department, Mohammad Mohsin, Principal Secretary of IT-BT Department, Ekroop Kaur, and other officials to register their opposition to the proposal.

As per the new proposal, “an employee working in IT/ITeS/BPO sector may be required or allowed to work for more than 12 hours in a day and not exceeding 125 hours in three continuous months.”

“A proposal of extending the work hours to 14 hours has come in. Discussions are still going on the same,” Mr. Lad told The Hindu. 

Sooraj Nidiyanga, secretary, KITU, told The Hindu that the proposal does not mention any cut-off on the maximum working hours of an employee per day.

“This means that, although the draft proposes 125 extra hours over three months, the companies can make the employees work as much as they want in a day, in a week or over a month as long as it doesn’t cross 125 hours,” he argued.

“For example, the month of March is usually busier. During such a month the companies can force the employees to work an additional 125 hours as there is no upper limit. This is completely unacceptable,” he added.  As per the existing labour laws, an adult cannot work more than 48 hours a week.