14 Hours A Day, 70 Per Week: What Does Karnataka’s New Work Proposal For Techies Say?

After massive backlash led the Karnataka government to pause a new bill mandating reservation for Kannadigas in private industries, the state could stoke another controversy as it mulls a proposal to extend the working period of techies to 14 hours per day and 70 hours a week. Raising concerns over this, employee and trade unions in the IT sector have already resisted the move calling it “inhuman” while chief minister Siddaramaiah and his government are yet to comment on the issue.

The Karnataka State IT/ITeS Employees Union (KITU) said the state government is planning to amend the Karnataka Shops and Commercial Establishments Act, 1961, to raise the working hours of an employee in IT/ITeS/BPO sector “for more than 12 hours a day and not exceeding 125 hours in three continuous months”. Union representatives met state labour minister Santosh Lad, labour department principal secretary Mohammad Mohsin and IT-BT department principal secretary Ekroop Kaur among other officials to register their opposition.

According to a report published by The Hindu, the labour department called a meeting with different industry stakeholders to present the proposal to raise the working hours to 14 per day and 70 per week. If implemented, the amendment will impact state capital Bengaluru, which is the IT hub of the country.

What does the proposal say?

The new proposal states that “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”. Though it does not mention it clearly, the KITU said the new amendment bill attempts to normalise a 14-hour work day and will completely change the existing law that allows maximum 10 hours per day including overtime.

“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 statement read, as per a report published by NDTV.

The KITU was quoted as saying this is the “biggest ever attack on the working class in this era” and will allow companies to go in for a two-shift system instead of the existing three-shift system, while one-third of the workforce could be axed.

Union representatives said they also pointed out the health impact of such a proposal, saying the sector already ails from poor physical and mental health. They quoted studies to make their case stronger and said longer working hours could lead to stroke, heart disease and depression.

“As per the report of KCCI, 45% of employees in the IT sector are facing mental health issues such as depression, and 55% facing physical health impacts. Increasing working hours will further aggravate this situation. WHO-ILO study says increased working hours will lead to an estimated 35% higher risk of death by stroke and 17% higher risk of dying from ischemic heart disease,” the KITU said.

The unions have urged the chief minister to “rethink” the proposal and warned that this will be an “open challenge” to the 20 lakh employees working in the IT/ITeS sector in Karnataka, calling upon them to unite and resist this “inhuman attempt to impose slavery on us”.

Lad, however, told The Hindu that the proposal is still in the discussion stage. “A proposal of extending the work hours to 14 hours has come in. Discussions are still going on the same,” he was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

The proposal comes at a time when there is a rising awareness among the younger workforce about how increased working hours can negatively impact productivity as well as health, especially after the Covid pandemic led to hybrid work and work-from-home models.

It also comes amid a raging debate on how many hours of work per day should be put in by Indian techies and private sector employees, which was triggered by Infosys chairman Narayana Murthy’s statement that he worked 14 hours per day for six days a week. He has, however, altered his past statement by saying he was only talking in terms of productivity.

Former Infosys board member TV Mohandas Pai, who vociferously opposed the private sector quota bill, has also made similar statements in the past in terms of layoffs. “In the first 10 years of life you have to work 12-14 hours a day to make an impact. Work life balance is fine but understand, work is life. HR will come and tell you about work-life balance, events, etc, but when they get laid off, what happens to you? You get laid off unless you are productive. If you compete with everybody and do better than everybody, then your job is much more secure,” he had told The Economic Times in an old interview from 2022.