IT employees warn of protest over 14 working hours per day proposal

BENGALURU: Employees of information technology (IT) companies have expressed anger over a proposal to extend working time to 14 hours per day and have warned of protest if it is implemented. The Karnataka State IT/ITes Employees Union (KITU) has convened a meeting on Wednesday to discuss the issue.

The IT sector employees held a meeting with the Labour Department officials and have expressed their opposition to the proposal. They pointed out that they are already working for 10 hours a day and noted that extending working hours any further would add to mental and physical stress.

They noted that it is a ploy to get more work done in less time an expressed apprehension that one-third of the workforce may lose jobs if IT firms decide to have only two shifts. On Wednesday, after the meeting, the union members plan to meet Labour Minister Santosh Lad.

“Such a proposal has not been mooted anywere in the world. We are already working for 8-9 hours a day and we know the problems we are facing. There are also case studies that 55 per cent of IT employees suffer from depression and mental health issues. Over 50 per cent suffer from neck and back pain, vitamin D deficiency, among other issues. About 74 per cent of IT employees give up their personal lives for work. A WH-ILO report says people who work for more thatn 55 hours a week face a 35 per increased chance of dying from a stroke. The consequences of increasing work hours won’t be simple”, said Suhas Adiga, general secretary of of KITU.

“Increasing work time to 14 hours will become very difficult for us because mental pressure is very high. We will have to forget families and our personal lives. We studied hard to lead a better life, not to ruin our lives by working”, said an IT employee.

“We already work 9-10 hours and we are already facing health issues are can’t take out family time. If work hours are extended, we won’t be able to think innovatively and productivity will drop. Our families will be in disarray and we won’t even get any rest, given Bengaluru’s traffic”, said another IT firm employee.

Yet another employee said, “We are already working 8-10 hours and we lose another two hours in traffic. If work hours are extended, we won’t have any family or personal time and we will develop more health complications.

If the government goes ahead with the plan to extend working hours by amending the Karnataka Shops and Commercial Establishment Act, they have planned to stage protest by not attending work for eight days.

The union leader also pointed out that IT employees may start moving out of Bengaluru to offices of IT firms which have branches in other cities like Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Gurugram, etc. Longer working hours in Bengaluru will also be injustice to IT staff as their counterparts in other cities will be working only for nine hours a day, it pointed out.