India’s IT sector: plan for longer working hours prompts backlash

At a time when worker dissatisfaction and labour rights are under intense scrutiny and reports suggest workforce wellbeing is dipping, information technology (IT) and information technology-enabled services (ITeS) companies in Karnataka state have reportedly put forward a controversial proposal to the Siddaramaiah Government to increase the working hours of the sector's employees to 14 hours a day from the existing legal maximum of 10-12 hours.

Under current labour laws, workers are limited to a maximum of 12 hours, which includes a 10-hour regular shift and up to two hours of overtime. However, under the proposal from the IT industry, IT employees in Karnataka could be asked to exceed the working hour limit by working up to 70 hours per week.

Karnataka’s Labour Minister Santosh Lad clarified that the proposed extension of IT employees’ working hours had been suggested by the heads of IT companies, prompting many IT workers to take to social media to criticise the plan as “inhumane”, fearing it could lead to health problems and job layoffs.

The state government immediately faced stinging criticism that it was failing to support the wellbeing of the IT workforce. in response, Karnataka Labour Minister Santosh Lad stated the idea hadn’t come from the state government and ministers were “under pressure” from the IT sector to approve the suggested change.

At the time of writing, the state government was still believed to be considering the proposal, although the Karnataka State IT/ITeS Employees Union (KITU) has slammed the idea, branding it an “assault on workers’ fundamental rights”.

“The proposed new law ‘Karnataka Shops and Commercial Establishments (Amendment) Bill, 2024’ seeks to normalise 14-hour working day,” said the KITU in a statement. “The existing law allows only a maximum of 10 hours of work per day, which has been completely done away with in the present amendment. It will allow the IT/ITES companies to extend the daily working hours indefinitely.”

‘Potential employee layoffs’
According to KITU, the proposed amendment is the “greatest attack on the working class in our era”.

The union argues IT companies could potentially use the proposed change to lay off around one third of the sector’s workforce, as the number of available work shifts could be cut by up to a third. The union alleges that employers could switch from the current three-shift system to a two-shift system, which would allow businesses to reduce headcounts by employing fewer people but extending their working hours.

“This change comes at a time when the world is beginning to accept that longer working hours have a negative impact on productivity,” said the KITU. “More and more countries are introducing new legislation to recognise the right to be offline as a basic right of every worker.”

Several IT worker unions, including the KITU and the Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate (NITES), strongly oppose the proposed extension to working hours.

Meanwhile, the IT industry body, the National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom), insisted that it had not requested a 14-hour working day or a 70-hour working week.

“This is a strategy by companies to make people work more during busy months like December and March,” said KITU secretary Nidiyanga, according to a report in The Hindu newspaper. “This way, the companies wouldn’t have to hire extra hands, and this would fetch them huge profits. This is what they are trying to say by using words like ‘flexibility’.”

IT workers hold protest
Following the news of the suggested extension to working hours, hundreds of IT and ITeS workers held a protest at the Freedom Park in Bangalore demanding that the Karnataka government reject the IT companies’ proposals.

The KITU union warned that any attempt to implement the change would be viewed as an “open challenge” to the two million people employed in Karnataka’s IT and ITeS sectors, although state Information Technology and Biotechnology (IT-BT) minister Kharge said that if adopted, the rule wouldn’t apply to all companies.

“The proposal will be applicable to sectors like manufacturing and service-oriented industries that require longer working hours,” IT-BT minister Kharge told the legislative council on 23 July.

Kharge also told the ANI news agency that the industry-specific demands that have been put forward to the labour department – such as the idea for longer working hours and working days for the IT industry – will be discussed. “There is no need to have any knee-jerk reaction,” he said. 

With news of Karnataka’s Indian Congress Party-led government considering plans to extend working hours in the IT sector dominating the airwaves, commentators say the proposal has potentially damaged the Congress Party’s public image in the state. In fact, the proposed change to IT sector working hours was the second time in recent months the Karnataka government has come under fire for its plans for amended employment rules and conditions in the state’s industries.

In July, the Karnataka cabinet approved a bill that would introduce legal quotas on the minimum proportion of jobs that private sector businesses would be required to reserve for people from the state of Karnataka, known as Kannadigas due to their ancestry being traced back to Karnataka over many years and generations.

Under the proposed bill, Kannadigas would have to be appointed to 50 per cent of management positions and 75 per cent of non-management positions. However, following a severe backlash from private sector businesses, the state government decided to “temporarily put on hold” the controversial ‘job reservation’ bill.
Meanwhile, against the backdrop of the proposed extension to IT sector working hours in Karnataka, commentators and researchers say that working longer hours does not appear to result in more output or better quality of work. 

In a study of consultants, carried out by Erin Reid, a professor at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business, managers reported being unable to find any difference in the output and quality of work between employees who worked for 80 hours a week and those who just pretended to work for that length of time.

Although managers did penalise workers who revealed they were in fact working fewer hours than the required total of 80, Reid was unable to find any evidence that those employees actually achieved less, or any indication that the ‘overworking’ employees achieved more.

Nitish Kumar, an IT consultant from Bengaluru, says the recent backlash against the plans to extend Karnataka’s IT sector’s working hours demonstrates that many IT workers have reached breaking point over long working hours and general working conditions.

“Fundamentally changing working conditions overnight is unlikely, but we are experiencing an unprecedented shake-up in terms of how workers do their jobs and the kinds of conditions they are expecting from employers in return,” he stated.

Detrimental impact on wellbeing
Trade unions also argue that the intense working culture and long working hours faced by the country’s IT workers are already having a detrimental impact on employee health and wellbeing, and the proposed extension of working hours in Karnataka threatens to aggravate the situation.

For example, unions say a Knowledge Chamber of Commerce & Industry (KCCI) report found that 45 per cent of employees in the IT sector are facing mental health issues such as depression and 55 per cent are facing physical health issues, such as back and neck pain. The KCCI report also found that 50 per cent of IT employees in India work more than nine hours a day, and as many as three-quarters of IT employees report missing family events due to extended work hours, according to the Business Standard newspaper.

Meanwhile, the alleged working practices of the e-commerce giant Amazon recently hit the headlines after a new report by the UNI Global Union claimed Amazon warehouse and delivery workers in India are enduring intense pressure and unsafe working conditions while dealing with insufficient pay. The report, published in July 2024 by the UNI Global Union in partnership with the Amazon India Workers Association (AIWA), is based on a survey of 1,838 Amazon employees in India. 

The report says that 86.3 per cent of Amazon India warehouse workers and 28 per cent of its delivery drivers surveyed allege the company does not “allow adequate time” for them to use bathrooms.

The report also claims that “one in five” surveyed delivery drivers reported being injured on the job, while “four out of five” warehouse workers say targets set by Amazon India were “difficult or very difficult to achieve”.

“Indian workers face a troubling reality that mirrors the experiences of Amazon employees worldwide,” said Christy Hoffman, general secretary of UNI Global Union. “It’s clear that for conditions to improve at Amazon in India and beyond, workers need strong unions.”

The report also highlighted Amazon’s alleged inadequate response to workplace injuries. Some workers shared experiences of allegedly receiving no assistance after being hurt on the job, while others spoke of health issues due to alleged high work pressure and being denied leave.

The publication of the report came just weeks after media reports alleged that workers at an Amazon warehouse in Manesar, Haryana, were asked by managers to work continuously for long periods without breaks in order to meet work targets.

According to news reports, at around 4.30pm on 16 May, a manager instructed workers to hold out their arms and pledge not to take any breaks, stop to drink water or go to the bathroom until they had met their targets. The incident took place while northern India was experiencing a heatwave, with temperatures exceeding 50 degrees Celsius.

According to the UK’s Independent newspaper, female workers at the site reported that because the break areas were small and extremely hot during the heatwave, female staff began resting in the bathrooms, but managers came searching for them if they believed they had exceeded their break time, calling them back to work.

‘Isolated incident’
Following complaints by the Amazon India Workers Association (AIWA), India’s National Human Rights Commission called on the central and state Labour departments to investigate the allegations, and a team of labour inspectors visited the site. In response, Amazon issued a statement conceding that the incident had occurred and was “an unfortunate and isolated incident”. Amazon told The Independent it was an isolated incident of poor judgment by an individual manager who had since been disciplined.

Amazon added that it took the safety and wellbeing of its staff very seriously and its facilities are “industry leading and provide competitive pay, comfortable working conditions, and specially designed infrastructure to ensure a safe and healthy working environment for all”.

It also told The Independent its warehouses have heat index monitoring devices that constantly monitor the temperature, and if increasing heat or humidity is detected, management take corrective action to provide comfortable working conditions, including temporarily suspending work. It added that employees are free to take informal breaks at any point in their shift, including to use the bathroom or get drinking water.

Heatwave insurance for workers
Meanwhile, in a separate development, SEWA (Self Employed Women’s Association) recently launched a first-of-its-kind pilot heatwave insurance programme designed to mitigate the effects of high temperatures on its members.

Under the heatwave insurance programme, in urban Ahmedabad where home-based garment workers are based, when the mercury recently rose to 43.6 degree Celsius for three consecutive days, the union transferred INR250 (US$3) into the workers’ bank accounts. If the temperature remained the same on the fourth day, the workers were again due to receive INR250 (US$3).

Manali Shah, national secretary of SEWA, says: “This year, we did a pilot programme and more than 46,000 of our members across 22 districts in three Indian states received benefits under the programme.

“This enabled women workers to not compromise on their health without having to choose between protecting their health or feeding their families.”