Workers in India’s IT hub have won a significant victory. The government in the south Indian state of Karnataka – the hub of the Information Technology (IT) industry in the country – has finally decided to withdraw its proposals to increase the maximum working hours in the IT/ITes sector, following a relentless struggle by the Karnataka State IT/ITes Employees Union (KITU).

After a meeting with the state’s additional labor commissioner, KITU announced its victory against the regressive move in a statement on Tuesday. Scores of IT workers took to the streets to celebrate the victory.

KITU is the sole registered union representing IT and related sector employees in Karnataka, a southern Indian state with the largest concentration of the country’s IT industries. Bangalore, its capital, is a significant hub of the industry and home of hundreds of thousands of IT workers.

KITU has been carrying out protest demonstrations and other mass campaigns against the state government’s attempts to increase the maximum working hours in the sector from 10 – including overtime – to 12.

KITU has claimed that the move is being undertaken by the government to appease big corporations.

The proposal to increase the working hours was first introduced by the ultra-right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government in the state in 2023. It had expressed its intention to increase the working hours to 14. That same year, it lost the state legislative elections to the centrist Indian National Congress (INC), which ultimately revived the BJP government’s proposals despite popular opposition to the move.

The governments have planned to introduce amendments in the Karnataka Shops and Commercial Establishment Act, 1961 to increase the working hours.

The current government had expressed its desire to do so during a stakeholder’s meeting convened by the state’s labor department on June 18. KITU representatives in the meeting had opposed the move and made it clear that it will never allow the implementation of such an act, calling it an attack on workers’ fundamental right to a personal life and calling for demonstrations against the move.

“The relentless struggle compelled the Karnataka government to retreat from its attempt to extend working hours in the sector,” KITU claimed in a statement issued on July 29. It thanked “all the IT/Ites employees who stood united with the union in resisting the government’s attempts to curtail hard-won labor rights.”

Unproductive and hazardous

KITU has maintained that the proposal to increase the working hours was counterproductive and hazardous for workers. It had also termed the move “foolish and regressive” based on numerous studies which have established that longer working hours negatively affect productivity and cause mental and physical health issues for the workers.

Some studies claim that over 90% of corporate employees in India under the age of 25 are already struggling with anxiety and a significant number of them are suffering from more serious mental health issues.

KITU has noted how the move to increase working hours defies the global trend to reduce working hours as it is considered healthy and productive.

The union had also claimed that the increase in the working hours would have resulted in the loss of jobs for a large number of current employees and future aspirants in the country amid the growing concern over rising youth unemployment. With an increase in working hours, most of the companies would have converted to a two-shift system from the current three-shift system, reducing their workforce by a minimum one third.

KITU is already fighting against India’s biggest software company TCS for retrenching thousands of its employees in one sweep recently.

Various protest demonstrations have been organized by KITU at public places and also in front of the IT companies in Bangalore against the attempts to increase the working hours. It reached out to a large number of unaffiliated employees working in the IT and related sectors in the city through its street-level campaigns mobilizing public opinion against the government’s move in recent months.

The post Worker resistance stops Karnataka government’s plan to increase IT work hours appeared first on Peoples Dispatch.

From Peoples Dispatch via this RSS feed