Jul 21. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Karnataka Information Technology Workers Union (KITU) has complained that the government of the state of Karnataka, in southeastern India, is planning to extend the working day from 10 to 14 hours in the IT sector. The capital of Karnataka, Bengaluru, is considered to be the largest IT centre in the country.
KITU said the draft amendment to the Karnataka Trade Act to amend the maximum daily working hours was tabled at a meeting convened by the authorities with representatives of the sector and attended by Karnataka Labour Minister Santosh S Lad.
“The proposal seeks to normalise the 14-hour workday. The current law only allows a maximum of ten hours per day, including overtime, and this would be completely lost with the reform. It would make it easier for IT companies to extend daily working hours indefinitely,” KITU said in a statement reported by Indian television NDTV.
This proposal “is the biggest attack on the working class in our time” and would allow for a system of two daily shifts instead of the current three and would jeopardise the employment of a third of the workforce.
The union representatives also warned at the meeting about the health risks for staff if the new regulations are approved. “Forty-five percent of IT workers suffer from mental illnesses, such as depression, and 55 percent have physical problems, according to a study by the Karnataka Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Increasing the hours would only aggravate the situation,” they warned.
“A study by the World Health Organisation and the International Labour Organisation (WHO-ILO) indicates that increasing working hours increases the risk of death from a heart attack by 35 percent and the risk of dying from coronary artery disease by 17 percent,” the union added.
KITU has called on the authorities to reverse the proposal and on workers in the sector to unite and stand up to this “inhuman attempt to impose slavery on us”.
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