Long working hours: a growing problem for India

Gaurav Jain’s workday officially starts at 08.30am but the first thing he does upon waking up at 7.00am is check his work emails. Working for a US-based multinational, throughout the day the 28-year-old is on phone calls with clients and colleagues based across multiple time zones. There are short breaks between calls and answering emails, and his day ends at 10.30pm – a gruelling 14 hours later – every day, five days a week. Gaurav’s case is not an isolated one and underlines a broader pattern of an exploitative workplace culture in India.

In 2022, employees of the Bengaluru-based educational technology company Bjju’s, which launched its learning app in 2015 and soon snowballed into a multi-billion-dollar behemoth, alleged that the company had an abusive and exploitative work environment. Employees claimed that they were often expected to work 12-hour shifts, six days a week, or even seven days a week. They were not allowed lunch breaks or even to leave the office if strict targets were not met, they alleged.

Employees also alleged that they suffered verbal and physical abuse at work. Byju’s, once valued at $22 billion, is now facing insolvency proceedings. Around 160–200 former employees of Byju’s – who were laid off due to falling revenues – have complained to the Karnataka state labour commissioner that they have not received outstanding salary payments, according to a report by Moneycontrol news website. The total amount owed to former staff is reportedly Rs 4.5 crore.

Mental health challenges
Although many studies have shown that remote workers can be more productive than office- and site-based staff – and some experts say hybrid working boosts employees’ productivity, work-life balance and wellbeing – commentators argue that remote and hybrid working models are also associated with career penalties, work-family conflict, higher stress levels and other mental health challenges.

For example, computer giant Dell allegedly recently informed remote workers in a memo that they can continue working from home but they will not be considered for promotions.

In addition, many home-based and hybrid employees in India say they now find themselves working longer hours than they previously did when based in the office.

“When I swapped the office for home working in early 2024, I hoped my work would be a lot less stressful without my boss watching my every move,” said Noida-based sales manager Neha, who didn’t want to reveal her full name for fear of affecting her career prospects

“I thought this is my chance to enjoy much-needed distance from a negative environment. I was so wrong because ‘working from home’ has somehow changed, and people like me are working even longer hours than before.”

She added: “Not having all his employees nearby has rattled my supervisor to the extent that he has become obsessive – micromanaging every single aspect of my work and finding flaws in almost everything I do.”

Neha says that she is experiencing high levels of work-related stress, knowing that at any moment her boss might contact her with a query or work request, which was “driving her crazy”.

In fact, commentators argue that ‘don’t stop when you’re tired, stop when you are done’, appears to have become the new work mantra in India’s large corporations. However, the vast majority of people demanding employees adopt this approach are not the people doing the actual work but a small group of bosses, financiers and owners, argue commentators.

Large numbers working long hours
Dr Amrut Swami, associate professor in the Community Medicine Department at Dr S S Tantia Medical College, Hospital and Research Centre, argues that 86 per cent of men and 67 per cent of women in India now work more than 40 hours per week, whether they or not they are paid for this overtime. “The effect of working too much can be felt both personally and professionally,” he says.

In Japan, where long working hours are common, a growing number of workers have been dying from cardiovascular causes in their most productive years, says Dr Swami. According to studies based on workers’ compensation claims, many of the victims were working very long hours before their deaths. The Japanese term such deaths as Karoshi, meaning ‘death from overwork’.

The topic of long working hours and its negative impact of employee health and wellbeing recently hit the headlines in India following the death of a 26-year-old Ernst & Young (EY) employee who reportedly died of a heart attack, following allegations of intense work pressure and long working hours.

Anna Sebastian Perayil passed away four months after joining EY as a chartered accountant. Following her death, her mother wrote to EY India’s chairman Rajiv Memani blaming work stress and an excessive workload for her daughter’s death, and raising concerns about the company’s alleged working culture.

Anita Augustine alleges that her daughter faced an “overwhelming workload, especially the additional tasks assigned verbally, beyond the official work”, and “management took full advantage of the fact that she was new and overwhelmed her with both assigned and unassigned work”.

She claimed Anna “worked late into the night, even on weekends, with no opportunity to catch her breath”, and would “return to her room exhausted utterly exhausted, sometimes collapsing on her bed without even changing her clothes, only to be bombarded with messages asking for more reports”.

Writing to Rajiv Memani, Anna’s mother claimed that EY India’s alleged long hours culture was a “systematic issue that goes beyond managers and teams”, and said “burdening newcomers with such back breaking work, making them work day and night, even on Sundays, has no justification whatsoever”.

She called on the company’s leadership to change an alleged work culture that “seems to glorify overwork while neglecting the very human being behind the role”.

“It is time to reflect on the work culture within your organisation and take meaningful steps to prioritise the health and wellness of your employees,” she told Memani.

EY refutes the allegations
However, EY India has refuted the allegations, saying that Perayil was allotted work like any other employee and that it didn’t believe that work pressure could have claimed her life. The company added that it was “deeply saddened” by Anna’s “tragic and untimely passing”.

It further stated: “We are taking the family’s correspondence with the utmost seriousness and humility. We place the highest importance on the wellbeing of all employees and will continue to find ways to improve and provide a healthy workplace for our 100,000 people across EY member firms in India.”

However, following widespread media coverage of the allegations, the Union Labour Ministry announced an investigation into the circumstances around Anna’s death.

“Deeply saddened by the tragic loss of Anna Sebastian Perayil,” said Minister of State for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises and Labour and Employment Shobha Karandlaje in a post on X.

“A thorough investigation into the allegations of an unsafe and exploitative work environment is underway,” she added. “We are committed to ensuring justice & @LabourMinistry has officially taken up the complaint.”

The Union Government’s announcement followed widespread calls for an investigation into the circumstances around Anna’s death, with Rajeev Chandrasekhar, a former junior minister in Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, stating on X: “This is very sad but also disturbing at many levels. I request Govt of India @mansukhmandviya @ShobhaBJP to investigate these allegations made by the mother of unsafe and exploitative work environment that claimed the life of young, full of future Anna Sebastian Perayil.”

Increased risk of heart attack and stroke
Dr Swami from Dr S S Tantia Medical College, Hospital and Research Centre, warns that long working hours can lead to addictions and chronic diseases. “As compared to people who worked 35–40 hours per week, those who worked more than 55 hours per week had a 13 per cent higher risk of having a heart attack and a 33 per cent higher risk of having a stroke,” he said. Long working hours are also associated with a higher risk of alcohol misuse, he warned.

Amid an ongoing public debate about the alleged long hours culture of large Indian corporations and start-up businesses, particularly in the technology sector, a former EY employee slammed the company’s work culture, alleging that employees were often “mocked” for leaving on time and “shamed” for enjoying weekends.

Aakash Venkatasubramanian posted on LinkedIn: “My wife quit EY just because of the toxic work culture and if she had not quit, I don’t know what would have happened to her.

“18 hours workday is normalised, glorified and expected out of employees by many big MNCs [multinational corporations] in India. The irony is, these same MNCs would not do that outside India.

“Indians are being seen as donkeys to offload work to and India is seen as a huge factory willing to operate 24x7x365.

“The Indian government is happy to take tax from us without ensuring the bare humane conditions to work. The government does not help taxpayers when they are laid off, but would happily collect the taxes from us when they aren’t even giving us the basic necessities.

“Dear Government, let this be the last death. I hope at least after this incident, the corporate workers would get some benefit from the government with a new law or a job seeking cushion in the event of layoff.”

Anna’s mother also told The Hindu newspaper that Anna was not compensated for working extra hours, such as weekends, by being granted time off in lieu.

“I believe that India should establish rules and laws that require employers to provide overtime pay and hourly rate compensation to employees working beyond 8 hours,” said one Indian corporate employee on X.

No overtime pay
Incidentally, not all employees in India are entitled to overtime pay, as there are several exemptions and exclusions to the Factories Act 1948 and the Shops and Establishment Acts of various states.

According to these laws, employees who work more than 48 hours per week are eligible for overtime which is twice the rate of their normal wages. However, there are exemptions and exclusions for certain categories of employees, such as government employees, managers and supervisors. Additionally, employees who are working on a contractual or freelance basis may not be legally entitled to overtime pay.

Sourabha Venkatesh, a lawyer at BCP Associates who specialises in employment and labour legislation, points out that in the IT sector, employers are aware of overtime laws and regulations, but some attempt to circumvent the rules by classifying employees as managers or supervisors who are normally exempt from overtime pay.

“This means that even though these employees may be working more than 48 hours per week, they are not entitled to receive overtime pay because of their job classification,” he explains.

“This can be a point of contention between employers and employees, as some employees may feel that they are being taken advantage of or not being fairly compensated for the work that they are doing.”

Backlash against long hours
In fact, there is a growing backlash among rank-and-file employees in India about the impact of the country’s long hours culture on employees’ health, wellbeing and work-life balance. For instance, in July 2024, the Karnataka government abandoned plans to increase the legal maximum working day for the state’s IT sector workers from 10-12 to 14 hours in the face of a furious reaction from unions and IT workers, who warned it would lead to a major deterioration in staff wellbeing.

Under Karnataka’s current labour laws, workers are limited to a maximum working day of 12 hours, including a 10-hour regular shift and up to two hours of overtime. However, under the now abandoned plans – which were reportedly suggested by the IT industry itself – IT employees in Karnataka would have been asked to exceed the working hour limit by working up to 70 hours per week.

Meanwhile, employment rights and worker wellbeing campaigners have urged the government to take action on the country’s long hours culture, after an International Labour Organization (ILO) report found India now has some of the longest working hours globally, with the average Indian working 46.7 hours per week.

According to the ILO, 51 per cent of India’s workforce regularly works more than 49 hours weekly, second only to Bhutan, where 61 per cent of its workforce exceed the 49-hour threshold, reports Business Standard news website.

In an opinion piece for the NewsClick website, Rongeet Poddar, a lawyer and doctoral candidate at the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata, said: “Company incentives are structured in such a way that working for long stints without a break has come to be valued, to the extent of compromising health or cutting down on quality family time.

“It coaxes employees towards pursuing relentless work, triggering burnout and poor lifestyle choices in the process. The fulfilment of aspirations for upward mobility are also seemingly contingent upon such perseverance. Work-from-home models embraced at the height of the pandemic have also exacerbated concerns about the blurring of work-life boundaries with work-related stress gradually infiltrating the domain of home.”

He added: “Driven by the anxiety that shorter working hours will translate to less opportunities for wealth generation, the prevailing work culture in India favours extractivism at the cost of worker welfare while corporate entities also seek to evade any obligation to pay for overtime work.”

Meanwhile, reflecting on the negative health impacts of long hours, Dr Swami recommends that workers in every type of role should work not more than eight to nine hours per day. They should get at least 30 minutes lunch break and one or two 15-minute breaks during their shift to avoid exhaustion and fatigue, he says.

Indian law caps the maximum working hours of adults at nine hours each day and 48 hours each week.

But, is anyone listening?