'Workers Not Humans': Karnataka Plans 14-Hour Workday For Tech Industry

The Karnataka government is planning to raise the IT staff's working hours to 14 per day, the Karnataka State IT/ITeS Employees Union (KITU) said on Saturday. This comes amid a huge uproar over a bill that directed private firms in Karnataka to reserve jobs for Kannadigas.

According to the KITU, the proposal to change the Karnataka Shops and Commercial Establishment Act to allow for a 14-hour work day was put forward at a meeting organised by the labour department with several industry stakeholders.

Karnataka State IT/ITeS Employees Union, which has more than 10,000 members, also said the plan to amend the Karnataka Shops and Commercial Establishments Act, 1961 is an “open challenge” to the 2 million employees working in the IT/ITeS sector in the state.

"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 of work per day including overtime, which has been completely lifted in the current amendment. It will facilitate the IT/ITES companies to extend the daily hours of work indefinitely," the Union said in a statement.

“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,” KITU said in its statement.

“This amendment shows that the Government of Karnataka in 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,” KITU said.

It said the labour minister agreed to have one more round of discussion before taking any decision. The union has also called upon all the IT/ITeS sector employees to unify and come forward to resist the proposed amendment.