14 hour shift: The uproar over the issue of reservation in jobs in Karnataka had not yet completely subsided when another plan of the state government has started creating a ruckus. In fact, the Congress government led by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is now considering making the shift of those working in the IT sector in the state 14 hours. This decision will also apply to the employees of IT/ITES/BPO sector. This plan is being criticized from the streets to social media. At the same time, the suggestion of working 70 hours a week by NR Narayana Murthy, co-founder of Infosys, the second largest company in the Indian IT sector, has once again come into the headlines.

First Narayanamurthy and now Siddaramaiah

It is worth noting that when Infosys co-founder Narayan Murthy made a statement about working 70 hours a week in October 2023, it was criticized across the country. Although stalwarts like Sajjan Jindal and Bhavish Aggarwal supported his statement, Bengaluru's famous cardiologist (heart doctor) Dr. Deepak Krishnamurthy has opposed Narayan Murthy's statement. He had said that working 12 hours a day will have a direct impact on the heart of the employees, which cannot be accepted.

Now employee unions have staged protests

The plan related to the IT sector has created an atmosphere of fear among those working in other sectors. Now the Karnataka State IT/ITES Employees Union (KITU) has appealed to the Siddaramaiah-led government to reconsider its alleged plan to increase working hours for IT/ITES/BPO sector employees on humanitarian grounds. According to the union, the government is planning to increase the working hours for employees to 14 hours per day, this decision is wrong.

A union statement said a proposal to amend the Karnataka Shops and Commercial Establishments Act in this regard was presented in a meeting convened by the labour department with various stakeholders from the industry recently. Labour Minister Santosh Lad, officials from the labour department and the Ministry of Information Technology and Biotechnology (IT-BT) attended the meeting, which was also attended by union representatives. The union strongly opposed the proposed amendment, which it called an attack on the fundamental right to private life of any employee. The labour minister agreed to hold another round of discussions before taking any decision, the release said.

The union said the proposed new bill 'Karnataka Shops and Commercial Establishments (Amendment) Bill 2024' seeks to normalise a 14-hour working day, while the existing Act allows a maximum of 10 hours of work per day including overtime. The amendment will allow companies to adopt a two-shift system instead of the currently prevalent three-shift system and lay off one-third of the workforce, the union claimed.

Hunger to please 'corporate' bosses?

During the meeting, KITU pointed to studies related to the health impact of increased working hours on IT workers and said the Karnataka government, in its hunger to please its 'corporate' masters, was completely neglecting the most fundamental right of any individual, the right to life.

The union said the amendment shows that the Karnataka government does not consider employees as human beings who need a private and social life to survive. Instead, it sees them as mere machinery to increase 'corporate' profits.

More than 20 lakh people will be affected

The association urged the government to reconsider and warned that any attempt to push through the amendment would be an open challenge to the 20 lakh employees working in the IT/ITES sector in Karnataka.