The IT sector’s proposal to increase the working hours of IT and ITeS employees to over 12 hours a day will “legalise exploitation” in the sector, say tech workers in Bengaluru. 

Komal, an employee at a Bengaluru office of Accenture, an American multinational company, sounded baffled by the move when she spoke to TNM over the phone. “Most of my colleagues feel the same way as well,” she exclaimed. 

IT workers like Komal are often made to work overtime to finish deadlines and projects. “We sometimes have to work on weekends as well and are not compensated for the extra hours of work we put in. So if the government increases working time to 12 or 14 hours per day, it means the actual time we might have to put in at work will be more than the said hour,” she lamented. 

In a meeting called by the Karnataka Labour Department, helmed by Labour Minister Santhosh Lad, on July 19, the government proposed an amendment to the Karnataka Shops and Commercial Establishments Act. According to the proposed amendment, “An employee working in the IT/ ITeS/BPO sector may be required or allowed to work for more than 12 hours in a day and not exceeding 125 [extra] hours in three continuous months.”  

The existing Act only allows a maximum of 10 hours work per day including overtime. 

The proposal has sparked fierce resistance from IT employees as well as workers unions, who argue that it would severely impact work-life balance and employees' health.

“I have worked on projects that required me to be online 24x7. We were not able to disconnect from work even after our working hours were over. Whenever we were asked to, we had to come online, no matter what time of the day or night it was,” said Komal. 

She added that all of this has triggered major stress and anxiety related issues including eating disorders, insomnia, and migraine. “My eyesight was perfect before joining work. But a couple of years of working and constantly straining my eyes in front of a computer screen has hampered my eyesight as well,” she remarked. She added that the current proposal would only “legalise such exploitation”. 

Ravikumar*, an employee at Microsoft asked whether the government and company managements would take into consideration the commute to and from office also in the total working hours per day. “Everybody knows about the infamous Bengaluru traffic. We spend at least two hours commuting to and from work. So on top of the new 12 to 14 hours, we will have to spend a couple of hours on the road. So in short, we will be left with hardly eight hours for recreation, sleep, and everything else that helps us lead a balanced life,” Ravi observed. 

Karnataka State IT/ITeS Employees Union (KITU), during their meeting with the Labour Department, strongly opposed the move, citing studies that highlight the adverse health impacts of extended working hours. They highlighted a report by the Karnataka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), which found that 45% of IT employees working long hours face mental health issues like depression, while 55% experience physical health problems. 

"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 workers as human beings who need personal and social lives to survive. Instead, it considers them as only machinery intended to increase the profit of the corporations that it serves,” said Suhas Adiga, General Secretary of KITU. 

Politicians react

Meanwhile, the BJP, on Monday, slammed the Karnataka government over the proposed policies for the IT and ITES sectors. Speaking to reporters at Vidhana Soudha in Bengaluru, state BJP President BY Vijayendra said that the issue needs to be discussed and the CM cannot take decisions unilaterally. “My request to the CM is that Bengaluru is a global IT hub, and whatever decisions are taken, every stakeholder should be taken into confidence. The CM cannot take decisions unilaterally,” he said. 

Earlier in the day, Labour Minister Santhosh Lad had stated that the government is under pressure from the IT industry to bring forth new legislation permitting extra hours of work for techies, but is evaluating the matter.

“The Bill has come to us because of pressure from the IT industries; it is not the IT Minister [Priyank Kharge] himself who has come up with this idea. Industrialists are pressuring us for this. Since the pressure is from the industry, the Bill has come to us, and we are still evaluating it from the labour department’s perspective. Now, the question is, I want all industrial heads to discuss it as the issue is in the public domain. People are free to express their opinions. I want all the major stakeholders to debate this. Since the matter has come to the public, there is dissent among IT employees,” said Minister Santhosh.