Bengaluru (Karnataka): Another proposed amendment law by the Karnataka government has sparked controversy. The proposal to bring an amendment act to extend the working hours of employees working in the IT sector has led to the outrage of labour unions.
Recently, the state government's move to introduce a bill to provide job reservations for Kannadigas in the private sector was slammed by the industrialists.
What is the Government's Proposed Amendment Act?: The state government has proposed to amend the Karnataka Shops and Commercial Establishments Act. Thereby the working period of IT sector employees will be extended to over 12 hours a day. According to this proposed amendment, an employee in the IT/ITeS/BPO sector may be required or allowed to work more than 12 hours a day and not exceed 125 hours in three continuous months. The existing act allows a maximum of 10 hours of work per day, including overtime (OT) duty.
Karnataka Labor Minister Santosh Lad held a meeting in this regard at Vikas Soudha last Friday. In the meeting, a discussion about the extension of the working hours of the employees working in the field of IT-BPO was held. Principal Secretary of Labor Department Mohammad Mohisin, Principal Secretary of Information Technology Department Ekroop Caur and Labor Department officials attended the meeting.
Karnataka's IT firms had submitted a proposal to the state government to extend the working hours. The IT companies have requested to extend the working period of 10 hours per day to 12 hours per day with two hours of overtime to an overall 14 hours per day. A request has been submitted to amend the current Act in this regard. The government is thinking of bringing an amendment in this regard, a labour department official said.
Strong opposition from IT Employees' Union and trade unions: The Karnataka State IT Employees' Union (KITU) and trade unions have expressed strong opposition to the state government's idea of extending working hours. The labour union representatives who participated in the meeting held on Friday expressed strong objections to this amendment.
The office-bearers of the Unions met top labour department officials and opposed the move. They said in a press statement that if the working period is extended, there is a possibility of mental stress and health problems.
"There is a possibility that the current three shifts will be reduced to two shifts by extending the working hours. A strong objection was expressed in the labour union meeting that there is fear that one-third of the staff will lose their jobs due to this," an official said.
